Making an electric heater element.

[pjl83]

Hi Guys, I'm new here. I'm looking for a little advice.

I have been playing around with electronics/electrics all of my life and I am constantly working on some crazy project. A while ago I had one of those Ureka! moments and I currently developing a new idea....

As part of this project I need to create a heater element - Appologies for the bad drawing, I've just mocked it up quickly to try and make this post more understandable.

I was thinking of using Resistance Wire and encasing it in some kind of ceramic, plaster or plastic etc. I have no experience of using resistance wire so this is where my question comes from. Is there a way of calculating what temperature I can expect once I know the total length, voltage and ohms/metre of the wire. I will be looking at achieving around 90 degrees C. The total length will be around 700mm (possibly longer if it's coiled?). The voltage will be either 24v, 110v or 230v (as you can see I'm not sure of this yet as I don't know much about resistance wire) Maybe there's a better way of doing this?????

**broken link removed**

Any help or opinions you guys/gals can provide would be gratefully received as I really am stuck at this vital part of my exciting project

Thanks in advance
Paul

 

[Reloadron]

Hi Paul and welcome to the forums!

I would suggest **broken link removed**

Designing heating elements is interesting and can be complex. Getting friendly with nichrome wire is a good place to start. Like looking at a toaster with a blank stare.

The heater element is half the design as once you have a handle on that you need to look at the bigger picture as how the heat will move to the load. What is the goal?

Ron

 

[canadaelk]

Go check-out infrared heaters. They come in many voltages, wattages and physical configurations. As you do not tell us if you would like to make a toaster or jetliner wing de-icer it is hard to give good advice! E

 

[pjl83]

Hi, Thanks for the replies.

I have to be careful how far I describe it as the industry I work in is very secretive and we are all bound by contracts. Its basically to heat a gloopy liquid (imagine the consistancy of a hick soup). During our manufacturing process we need to get the temperature to around 85 degrees c in small containers. The way we achieve this at present is full of floors. I was hoping to use the element pictured to "stir" the liquid and therefore heat it.

I hope this makes sense.

 

[Reloadron]

OK, that being the case rather than make I would look at buy. You want a small "Cartridge Heater" element. That assumes you stay with the stirrer element design. Maybe low voltage maybe 25 watt set up to run below rated voltage. Watlow is a key player in elements.

Ron

 

[pjl83]

Hi, thanks for the name, I've had a look through the site but couldn't quite see what I was looking for. The
shape of the element in the sketch above would act as a godd stirrer as wellas a heater. How would an
"off the shelf" catridge elemnet work? The reason I was think of resistance wire is I could keep the diametre of the stirrer down to about 2-3mm, thus giving me a good area of heat and a good stirring shape too.

This is why I originally wanted to make a part myself. If this is successful in trials then it may become part of a machine that will go into production.

Any ideas on experimenting with the wire????

Thanks
Paul

 

[canadaelk]

A single cup immersion coil heater could do it to. They are available in most department stores. E

 

[Reloadron]

Laying at home I have several cartridge heaters that are about 1/2 inch in diameter and maybe 3 inches long. You don't mention the container (cup) size? Besides Watlow there is also Omega Engineering and others who make them in just about any size you can immagine.

Ron