Can ceramic infrared heaters be used to heat metals?
If you apply infrared radiation to a polished metal surface, almost all of the incident infrared radiation will be reflected from the metal surface. In this condition the metal will never come up to the temperature required. The only way to effectively heat metals using infrared radiation is to increase the emissivity of the metal surface. Painting the surface of the metal will increase its surface emissivity value to 90%. Now the paint will absorb 90% of the incident infrared radiation and will transfer this heat to the metal via conduction.
