Hello all,

I've been tasked with documenting/replacing an ancient piece of hardware that was used for a few decades in my employer's factory.

The equipment is a simple U-shaped heating element/bracket duo that from what I can tell is purely resistive.
The bracket itself is some type of highly corroded steel which provided a low thermal impedance path from the heating element to our thermoplastic extruder's crosshead. The heating element itself seems to be encased in a ceramic-type material or epoxy. There are only (2) terminals across the element. The power rating is 700W.

I have (2) questions:

1. Does anybody know of a reliable manufacturer for thermoplastic extruder hardware/heating elements? If you have any experience or tips on how to locate manufacturers, I would also appreciate the advice.

2. The terminals on one of these elements is corroded to the point where I can't obtain a good resistance measurement with my DMM. Should I use some type of chemical rust penetrator? What's your M.O. for getting better contact?

I appreciate any advice you have to offer.
Thanks in advance!

 

Watlow is one of many suppliers. Overly corroded terminals will end the useful life of an element. Dressing with a file to ensure good contact is about all you can do. Loose or poor connections that generate high heat is your culprit, requiring a pm program to combat.

 

Watlow! When we needed custom heating elements we went to Watlow. Additionally, when we did order custom parts we also ordered a few extra so we were covered in the future. The below clave heater elements are an example.



Each half element is 6 KW and there are 72 full circles(144 elements total) top to bottom. All of the elements were custom made by Watlow. Each individual element is 240 volts and they are pairs in series for 480 volts per band. There are plenty of other manufacturers but I liked going with Watlow. Watlow also manufacturers for other distributors under other names.

Ron