Common Electrical Insulation Materials

From this Image you may now have guessed what is this post about and about what we will be discussing further. Yes it is Ceramics which is widely used electrical insulation materials. But they aren't alone. There are other materials as well often termed as modern ceramics which offer a great deal of customization according to need.

Ceramics have been known to human kind from ancient civilization, mainly for use as utensils. But now in the modern world they are mostly being used in electrical and electronic industries, Pharmaceuticals, Furnace Bricks and Lining, Glass, Cement, pottery, Sanitary wares. From now we Confine our self with the use of ceramics in regards to Industrial Heating in general and with electrical Heater in particular.

To Start with, We might ask ourself  the question: why only ceramics is use in electrical heater?
To answer this lets start in the reverse direction i.e by asking  when will a substance conduct an electrical current?. Any substance carry current under an applied voltage, the force which causes electron to flow, only when it has some free electrons. The more the free electron, more is the substance conductive. Thus we see metals to be good conductors of electrical current, because they have more free electron in their valence orbit. On the other hand, ceramics are hard tight ionic or covalent bonded substance that leave little room for free electrons to flow freely, thus making them insulators.

With Regards to electrical Heating, there a various ceramic materials being used with MgO, the widely used material. MgO is Oxide of Magnesium and offers a huge advantage as regards to use in electrical heaters and Tubular heating Elements. While there are various commercial grade of MgO is Available, the commonly used Grade is Electro fused Grade, which is obtained by melting MgO to High temperature allowing re crystallization to occur which greatly improve its property to be used in manufacturing Electrical Heating Elements.       

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