Backer Marathon’s Starflex® band heaters are designed for demanding plastics applications where precise, uniform heat is critical—such as injection molding barrels and other cylindrical heating surfaces. Our Starflex band heaters are designed for use in barrel heating of extrusion and injection molding machinery, blown film dies and other cylindrical surfaces. Their configuration can be full for 360° coverage or any degree of partial warp.
Translation: Starflex Band Heaters minimize downtime twice—through superior efficiency in operation and a 40% faster ship time when replacements are needed!
Starflex’s flexible, efficient construction is already designed to deliver uniform heat and long service life; pairing those benefits with a shortened lead time increases the value of the solution for plastics processors who can’t afford extended downtime.
Shorter lead times on critical components like barrel heaters don’t just feel better—they compound into real money, risk reduction, and competitive advantage for plastic processors. Backer Marathon’s Starflex heaters now ship in as little as six weeks, which directly translates into fewer line stoppages, tighter inventory, and faster response to customer demand.
Most processors focus on piece price when evaluating process heaters. But in high‑volume operations, time is often the bigger lever.
In other words, when lead time is long, everything around it gets slower, riskier, and more expensive. When lead time shrinks, your organization can move faster without adding chaos.
In plastics processing, long lead times on heaters are often written off as “just the way it is.” But every extra week you wait ripples through your operation.
Beyond obvious things like rush shipping or overtime, long or “normal” lead times create several less-visible costs for plastic processors.
Excess safety stock and dead capital
These factors rarely show up as a single line item in your P&L, but they aggregate into real cost: overtime to catch up, expedited freight, lost margin on rush jobs, and diminished customer confidence when schedules slip.
Starflex band heaters are Backer Marathon’s original aluminum‑body band and remain an industry standard for rugged, reliable barrel heating. Each heater is manufactured by hydraulically pressing a high‑temperature heating element into a precision‑grooved aluminum channel, then clamping that assembly to the barrel with low‑expansion stainless-steel straps for tight, uniform contact. The aluminum body’s low mass and high thermal conductivity support fast heat‑up and responsive cool‑down, while maintaining excellent temperature uniformity around the circumference of the barrel.
Starflex band heaters are rated up to 650°F (343°C), with recommended watt densities up to 40 W/in² and diameters up to 10 feet, making them suitable for a wide range of plastics barrels, dies, and tooling geometries. Cooling‑only and heat‑and‑cool configurations are also available, allowing processors to tightly control barrel and die temperatures in demanding applications.
In injection molding, Starflex heaters are used on barrels where precise, consistent temperature control directly impacts melt quality, viscosity, and shot repeatability. Their tight contact and uniform heat distribution help reduce hot and cold spots that can otherwise cause short shots, dimensional variation, or elevated shear, especially on engineered resins. Because Starflex bands can be opened fully for installation, they’re easier to swap during mold changeovers or maintenance—reducing the time presses sit idle while heaters are replaced.
For extrusion, Starflex heaters are used on extruder barrels, and in some cases, on blown film and profile dies, where they maintain the stable temperature profile required for consistent melt, wall thickness, and output. The combination of rapid response and uniform heating helps keep extruder zones within tight tolerances, supporting higher line speeds and fewer quality deviations. Options for water‑cooled or heat‑and‑cool bands give processors more tools to manage temperature in high‑throughput lines.
In both injection molding and extrusion, the durability of the Starflex construction delivers long service life comparable to cast‑in heaters, but at a fraction of the cost and with easier installation. That reliability is what makes Starflex a go‑to heater for plastics processors who can’t afford frequent changeouts or unplanned barrel downtime.
All of these performance characteristics matter more when they’re paired with a lead time that matches the speed of your operation. By moving Starflex band heaters from a typical 10‑week lead time down to as little as 6 weeks, Backer Marathon is aligning heater availability with the realities of plastics and extrusion scheduling.
For plastics processors and extruders, long heater lead times used to be an unavoidable constraint. With Starflex band heaters now available in as little as six weeks, Backer Marathon turns lead time into a competitive lever—helping you protect uptime, respond faster to customers, and make better use of every hour your lines are running.
Backer Marathon is the industry leader in production speed, and reliable, quality heaters for plastics and packaging, serving OEMs with durable, customized solutions for unique heating needs since 1996. We design, manufacture, and stock industrial-grade heating elements and temperature sensors. Engineers have live, on-demand access via phone to our trained technical experts who have been pioneers in this sector for decades.
How can Backer Marathon’s experts help you today? Nosotros hablamos español. Contact us today or oemsales@backermarathon.com to discuss your next project.