Why we use Casting Heaters?

Introduction

    Casting Heaters have Tubular Heating Elements inside, which is cast in suitable form in aluminum or brass, With Aluminum with the most used case.  The Reason for choosing Aluminum, is that Aluminum is a good conductor of Heat. Because of its heat Conducting property, a uniform temperature can be expected through out the heater material and hence results in a quality good product. Also, Thermal Inertia of Aluminum is very high as compared to other metals. Hence during power cuts, the molten metal inside the barrel remains in its molten form and will not choke the line, which is frequent when used with other heaters.

Product Life Cycle

Casting Heater Life Cycle starts with initialization of requirement for such Heaters. The Ideal situation, where these heater would be employed, would be in a process where uniform temperature is required at all section. Other Situation would be, where High Thermal Inertial would be required, so that startup time would be minimized. As in both of the above cases, Aluminum Casting heater would be the strong contender.

After the requirement for such heater is confirmed, a proper thorough study of Design constrain and power requirement is made, so as to make a nearly perfect heater.(In this world nothing is perfect so I used the term nearly perfect). One of the remarkable feature of Aluminum Casting Heater is that, No exact and strict Power rating is required while designing such heater, Thanks to the fact that aluminum has a very high thermal inertia. Because of this, There is never a sudden Temperature Rise(or Drop for Sure) for whatever the power rating. Thus while designing Such heaters, the power rating is generally kept high as compared to other heaters. 

Till Now, The power Rating and designing concept is finalized. Now comes the Design or Modeling stage. For each Aluminum Casting Heater, Every Heater concept and requirement is different. So a different model is made for each of such a heater. A remarkable concept in designing aluminum casting heater is the heating element profile. These heating element are formed in such a way, so as to match with the contour of the heater itself. For a custom made aluminum casting heater with low production requirement, the casting is done in a mold formed of sand. The sand casted heater usually contain more defects than die casted heater and usually requires more machining. For such reason, a relatively high degree of machining allowance is incorporated in the pattern for the sand mold formation. 

After the casting is done, the heater is machined to its final part and is subsequently tested and shipped to the client. Now this is not an end in itself. The life of the heater we have been describing for so long is very long, But as it is said that everything has its life. The Heater while serving, Gradually drops its power rating as time passes, and eventually a time comes the heater have served its purpose and fails. Now the time is to replace it with a new one.