Whether infrared heaters heat the medium thru which it passes ?

Question

We are heating silicon insulated wires for inline curing by use of infra red heaters.We wish to know whether the infrared will heat the conductor more or heat the cable uniformly i.e whether conductor abosrbs more infra red as compared to the silicon insulating material

Answer 1

Heat will be absorbed by the silicon insulator then heat will be transferred to the conductor.There should be a temperature difference between insulator and conductor for heat to flow. The temperature of the insulator should of course be higher than the conductor. The conductor in turn will distribute the heat evenly through it. The silicon insulator is not transparent to infra red, which is in effect heat.

Answer 2

It would seem to me that if the conductor was tinned and bright, it would reflect any IR passing through the silicone jacket back to the jacket. So most of the radiant IR heating would be to the jacket and conductive heating from the jacket would heat the conductor.