Silicone Rubber Heaters

Silicone heaters and Kapton heaters are preferred surface heating elements for laboratory equipment and medical technology due to their easy handling and variety of shapes. Like Kapton polyimide heating foils, silicone heaters are resistant to continuous temperatures of up to 200 °C, with self-adhesive foil up to 180 °C. When designing silicone heaters and Kapton foil heaters, the designer has almost unlimited degrees of freedom. This applies to the minimum and maximum dimensions, which are set within wide limits, as well as to contours and recesses, holes and feed-throughs of any kind. The good shape flexibility of silicone heating mats and foils as well as Kapton polyimide heaters also enables the heating of cylindrical, conical or rounded surfaces. The resistance of polyimides to fungi, bacteria, ozone, weather, ageing and most chemicals, acids and solvents is very good, making polyimide (Kapton) heaters an ideal solution for many critical applications.

We can offer flexible heating elements manufactured from three different insulation materials: silicone, polyimide (Kapton) or polyester. Each of these materials possess different properties which make them suitable for diverse applications. Silicone heaters can also be produced in very large sizes, whereas polyimide is significantly thinner and polyester unbeatable in price when it comes to high quantities. All three of them are bespoke products made according to your needs, so within the bounds of what is technically feasible you as the customer can determine almost every feature of your heater. This can include; voltage, wattage, dimensions, shape, sensors, leads, plus much more. Due to their low thermal mass flexible polymer insulated heaters distinguish themselves by a very short response time and excellent controllability.

In general, a Kapton film heater is always more expensive than a silicone heater or polyester heater. Where chemical resistance or the weight of the flexible heating element plays an important role, however, Kapton heaters are the ideal solution. The resistance of Kapton Polyimide to fungi, bacteria, ozone, weather, ageing and most chemicals, acids and solvents is very good, so that heating elements made of Polyimide (Kapton) are an ideal solution for many critical applications. Kapton foil heaters are also silicone-free and are characterised by an even heat distribution. The dielectric strength of a Polyimide film is very high and so the flexible Kapton (Polyimide) heater can be very thin. Due to the small thickness, the heat transfer to the component is improved and higher surface loads are possible. Typical applications for Kapton film heaters are: Laboratory technology, aircraft electronics, printers, diagnostic instruments, vacuum chambers, medical equipment and many more.

Preformed silicone heaters are useful for diamters as small as 12 mm and up to 100 mm. Rounded silicone heaters are not possible with self-adhesive foil. Spiral Wrap Pre-Formed Silicone Rubber Heaters are suitable for tubes and flexible pipes and hoses with Ø 6,35 mm (1/4"). Spiral formed flex heaters can be used up to Ø 12 mm (the length of the stretchable silicone spiral wrap heater is reduced accordingly). The thickness of our spiral-wrapped silicone strip heaters is 2,2 mm. Also our gas and pump line heaters, most frequently used in the semi-conductor process, are shaped and pre-formed according to the object geometry to be heated. They are designed to regulate temperatures in order to prevent condensation in the line. Current applications here are Semi Conductors, Vacuum Chambers, Wafer Chucks, Valves, Exhaust & Pump Systems.