Heater Construction and Maintenance Hanse Environmental Inc. By Peter Hanse 08/14/2006 Heater Construction and Maintenance Learning to Work Efficiently and Accurately

Introduction What do you know about Heaters? What about heater Life Components Types Wiring What about heater Life What effects it? How do you extend it?

Agenda Areas Covered: Heater Construction Heater Components Coil Vs Solid Heater Components Ceramics Fusible Links Coils Causes of Heater Failure Extending Heater Life

Overview Open Nichrome Solid Heaters

Vocabulary Ceramics - Non conductive solid material used as pass-through TGGT Wire - High temperature wire Nichrome Wire - Used as Resistive Heater coils Heater Links - Interconnect devices between heater coils Fusible Links - Interconnect devices between heater coils with temperature current fuse

Heater Construction Two Main Types Solid Rod Construction Advantages High heater life Extended temperature range with no sage Disadvantages Longer response time Higher Cost Open Nichrome Wire High response time Inexpensive to repair Sage with air flow drops Ceramics can crack

Heater Construction Solid Rod Style Open Nicrome

Heater Components Nichrome Wire TGGT Wire Ceramics Ring Terminal

Causes of Heater Failure Failure Modes Over Heated caused by lack of air flow or exceeding maximum chamber temperature Heater will sage Heater may dead short or wire will snap Dead Shorted caused by insulator failure Connection wire failure Ceramic insulator failure

Extending Heater Life Maintains required Replace Failed Components Visual inspection, Look for sagging, cracked insulators, and heater link fusible or other wise Safeties Check, Set over limit lower then run chamber past it to check its working order Replace Failed Components Replace any sagging heater wire, creaked insulators and remove any decree from heaters Prevent Failures Do not allow conductive tapes in chamber as they may suck into air plenum and dead short heaters. Do not open doors or stop airflow well in hot cycle

Summary Heaters are a vital system to any chamber and as such should be checked and maintained regularly to prevent down time.

Where to Get More Information Hanse Environmental Inc. Http://www.HanseEnv.com Watlow Http://www.Watlow.com Mor Electric Heating http://www.heatersplus.com