Anderson-Bolds has been selling electric Heating Elements since 1934.

Electric Heating elements are a very simple yet extremely effective way to heat in the industrial work place as well as commercially and in the home.

Electric heating elements can be applied in just about every facet of industrial heating and commercial heating, from surface heating, to tank heating, air heating, drying, heat treating, freeze protection, cooking, air conditioning and frost prevention.

The heating element itself is very simple, made of three main parts, a resistance wire, insulator and metallic sheath. The element then functions under Ohms Law with the relationships of Resistance (ohms), current (amperes), watts and volts. Which one of these can be the constant?

To make an element the three main parts mentioned above are brought together, the sheath material is usually in a tube form (except for plastic cable and strip heaters) and hung in a vertical fashion up to 30 or 40 feet and the resistance wire is then also hung through the center of the tube with spacers at each end (a plug on the bottom end) and stretched taught to keep it centered in the sheath tube. The insulator material is then entered into the tube gently, the material is usually magnesium oxide or MGO. [MGO has the two properties necessary to be very good at its job, to insulate the metal sheath from the electrically charged resistance wire AND be a very good heat transfer medium. MGO does this job very well, unless it gets wet.] The MGO is in a fine sand like consistency when poured and shaken into the tube. [The manufacturing plant has to be fairly tall to make the long elements.] The resistance wire is not straight but in a curl formation running up through the center of the sheath tube. The light shaking of the operation allows the MGO to get in between the curls of the wire to fill all the gaps. No air gaps can be present with the element.

After sufficient time on the vibrators or shakers the filled tubes are capped off and removed and taken to the rollers or presses. The elements are now pressed and squeezed to the desired diameter. There are two other results to this operation, the element is lengthened as it is squeezed and the MGO gets compressed into a solid and fills all remaining spaces within the element and resistance wire spaces.

The Heating element is now ready to be formed into the correct shape, be it straight, hairpin, "M" shaped or any other shape desired for the application. After the element is shaped it is repressed to consolidate any of the MGO that has separated and then terminations are added to the ends of the element.

Heating elements can have sheath materials of Iron, copper, stainless steel, incoloy, inconel, monel or any material needed for temperature ratings or corrosion resistance. The common material are copper for water heating, iron for oil heating, and stainless or incoloy for higher temperatures or corrosion.

Lets return to Ohm's law which is W=I²R or V=IR or I=W/V
are the common formula's used with heating with resistance heating elements. With W = watts, I = amps, v= volts and R=ohms.

When making a heating element, the resistance is the constant in the actual element. The wire diameter and length is chosen to meet the wattage requirement when a specific voltage is present on the element. However different wattages and amperes can be easily achieved with different applied voltages; this can be good and bad. In short, if the voltage is doubled the wattage is quadrupled and conversely if the voltage is halved, the wattage drops to 1/4 of what is was. Example; an element rated at 1000 watts on 240 volts will be 250 watts when 120 volts is applied or will be 4000 watts if 480 volts is applied. The resistance wire is the fixed constant in a heating element and is the key to manufacturing consistent product.

The ease of which electric heating elements can be used to heat product makes them an excellent choice in all manners of heat, from manufacturing, to water heating, floor heating, pipe heating, coffee makers, heat treating and plastic injection molding.

Of course in a heating system, we need to control the temperature, sense the temperature and apply the voltage required, this items make up a heating system. Another blog will describe this system.

Some of our manufactures of heating elements and heaters include, Watlow, Danfoss, Q'Mark, Chromalox, Brisk Heat and Process Heating.

216-360-9800

Cleveland, Ohio USA