Heating element

A heating element converts electricity into heat through the process of resistive or Joule heating. Electric current passing through the element encounters resistance, resulting in heating of the element. Unlike the Peltier effect, this process is independent of the direction of current flow.

Resistive heaters can be made of conducting PTC rubber materials where the resistivity increases exponentially with increasing temperature. Such a heater will produce high power when it is cold, and rapidly heat up itself to a constant temperature. Due to the exponentially increasing resistivity, the heater can never heat itself to warmer than this temperature. Above this temperature the rubber acts as an electrical insulator. The temperature can be chosen during the production of the rubber. Typical temperatures are between 0 and 80 °C (32 and 176 °F).

It is a point wise self-regulating heater and self-limiting heater. Self-regulating means that every point of the heater independently keeps a constant temperature without the need of regulating electronics. Self-limiting means that the heater can never exceed a certain temperature in any point and requires no overheat protection.

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