Heatron|Silicone-Rubber Flexible Heater Technology from Heatron

Flexible Heaters constructed from silicone rubber serve as an excellent heat source for many applications.  These heaters can take various shapes, are thin and easily formed to meet various shapes.  The silicone rubber is an excellent dielectric material and protects the internal element from physical and environmental damage. 

Silicone rubber heaters can be constructed using a resistance wire or foil as the element.  Foil is chemically etched to create the element pattern.  This chemical etching allows designers the flexibility to distribute wattage and create heat patterns within a single heater.

Silicone rubber heaters can be provided with integrated temperature sensors, thermostats, and a variety of mounting or attachment options.  Consult Heatron and collaborate with our engineers to create the right heater solution for your application.

Etched Foil:

• Etched foil provides options for variable watt density and heat patterns.
• Etching circuits is an efficient method for manufacturing in high quantities.
• Foil thickness ranges from .0005" to .004" depending on your required resistance. 
• Different material types can be used depending on the heater resistance, and because the etched circuit element is flat foil, the element itself can cover up to 80% of the heater area.
• Etched designs are excellent for applications requiring watt densities greater than 5 watts/in².
• Excellent choice for heaters that require multi-zoned wattages or heaters that have many holes and/or cutouts.
• Offers excellent circuit repeatability.
• Initial one time artwork and die cutting charges may apply.
• May not be suitable for some high resistance heaters.

 Wire Wound: 

• Wire wound silicone heaters start with one to five strands of machine-wound resistance wire
  • The element is wound around dedicated tooling and transferred to a layer of silicone rubber.
  • A final layer of silicone rubber is then placed over the element to complete this heater.
  • Our technicians work with various material combinations specifically chosen based on your desired resistance and flexibility requirements
• Provides excellent repeatability for short run orders.
• Better choice for flexing applications.
• Adapts to contoured surfaces with relative ease.
• Advantages in high resistance applications and heater sizes not lending themselves to the etching process.
• Prototypes can be delivered quickly at minimal cost.

 Sensors and Control Options: 

• Flexible heaters can be easily configured with Thermistors, RTDs, Thermocouples, or Automatically Resetting Thermostats.
• Sensing options can be incorporated into the heater design

 Attachment Methods: 

• Heaters can be supplied with Pressure Sensitive Adhesive for attachment at customer location
• Heaters can be vulcanized to many metal and plastic parts.  This method provides intimate contact and superior heat transfer form the heater to the part being heated.
• Snaps, Boot Hooks, and Grommets can be incorporated into the design for easy attachment to almost part configuration
• Heaters can be formed to various shapes to aid attachment

Medical & Life Sciences
Dialysis, CPAP, Blood Diagnostics, DNA Analysis, Blood Warming, Fluid Warming, Temperature Therapy, Surgical Irrigation, Sterilization, Instrument Warming, MRI Equipment.

Telecommunications
Antennas, Enclosures, Microwave Repeaters, Back-Up Battery Systems.

Transportation
Instrumentation, Battery and Oil Heating, Over the Road Truck and Railcar Freeze Protection, Personal Comfort Heating in Auto and Motorcycles.

Security
Camera Enclosures, Explosives Detection, Chemical Detection.

Food Service
Warming Cabinets, Prep Stations, Heated Display Shelves.

Energy
Fuel Cells, Power Meters, Transmission Switches

Semiconductor
Flexible Silicone Rubber heaters are used in many steps of wafer fabrication.  Please see the sections of our website dedicated to this important market.

Industrial
Packaging Lines, Motor Heaters, Electronic Enclosures, Freeze Protection, Plastic Fabrication

Voltage
HEATFLEX heaters can be custom designed to operate from 2 to 600 volts. They are resistive and function with AC, DC or dual voltage sources. With dual voltage, you get the same heater for 110 and 220 volt equipment. HEATFLEX incorporates two circuits:  1) wired in series for the high voltage and 2) in parallel for the low voltage. These three lead wire heaters commonly use different colored wires depending on customer preference. Three phase wye or three delta can be specified for high amperage heaters.

Wattage
Distributed Wattage offers a custom configured watt density through our design and engineering process, providing added efficiency and control.  Our engineers can design different sections of the flexible heaters with different watt densities in order to compensate for edge loss on the outside perimeter of a part to supply more wattage to a given section of the part.

HEATFLEX heaters can also be designed as dual wattage heaters with independent zones. This allows the delivery of more heat for the initial heat-up of the part, but less heat to maintain the part at a given temperature.

Thermostats
HEATFLEX offers a variety of bi-metallic thermostats to perform various control or safety functions. Our thermostats are limited to 240 volts and 15 amps, and are designed to provide maximum efficiency for your application. 

HEATFLEX heaters provide extreme sensory control, even including partial temperature capacity.  This not only serves to limit the temperature of the heating element itself and is great back-up temperature controller, but it is ideal for freeze prevention and condensation build-up in outdoor electronic enclosures.  Additionally, thermostats can be mounted with the sensory side exposed to the ambient air inside the enclosure.

Sensors
HEATFLEX can be supplied with a variety of sensors to send a signal back to a temperature control dashboard. Options for thermocouples include:  1) standard 24-gauge Type J, and 2) Type K.  Our design team can assist you with custom mounting options to achieve optimal results.  Additionally, most thermistor or RTD sensors can be incorporated into the HEATFLEX assembly process.

Connecting Leads

• Standard leads:
  • 200°C, 300 volt, Teflon® (TFE) insulated
  • 19-strand silver plated copper conductor
  • 18-gauge Silicone rubber insulated leads (recommended best choice for a moisture resistant connection)
• Rubber cords / cord sets (cord with a 3-6ft molded plug attached):
  • HPN (lamp or zip cord)
  • SJO
• Additional / Custom Heatron Solutions:
  • HPN or SJO where a third conductor is used as a ground that can be left unattached at the heater or connected to the metal surface. Alternately, it can be attached to an internal ground plane built into the Silicone heater.
  • Sleeve the leads in Silicone coated fiberglass, heat shrink or stainless steel overbraid creating the advantage of a clean bundle, additional moisture protection or added strain relief.

Note:  most types of lead wires can be incorporated into HEATFLEX Silicone rubber heaters.

Formed Silicone Heaters
HEATFLEX can be vulcanized to conform to the contours of different shaped parts, providing our heaters the exceptional ability to fit over columns or pipes. Heatron's proprietary methods allow Silicone rubber heaters to follow compound curves.

Thermal Insulation
HEATFLEX can also be supplied with a variety of insulation types on one side. Normally this insulation is one eighth to one half inch Silicone rubber sponge of a medium density. For applications where the heater and sponge combination will be under pressure, Heatron has access to engineered sponges that resist compression setting.

Agency Approvals

UL, CSA, TUV, CE available for most configurations of Heatflex Silicone Rubber Heaters