[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: heating cable sources
>Our resident APD wire expert (who also will chime in if he wants)
>thinks Dupla probably special orders the stuff. A minimum run would
>involve many hundreds of feet with the bottom line having 4 digits.
That would be me :-) Yes, I do think Dupla has their cable specially made.
It is a heavy-walled silicone-insulated wire similar to UL Style #3239
(high voltage silicone wire), but with a resistive element inside that
looks like nichrome and some nylon/spectra (not sure which) fibers
presumably to prevent stretching from breaking the conductor. I haven't
been able to find it, and my distributor who was looking for it is going
out of business (stock tip: sell Anicom while you can ;-) My rep is moving
to a new company though so the search continues...
If there was interest I would consider a special run from one of the custom
wire manufacturers, but the minimum order is about 50 *thousand* feet.
That's a *lot* of tanks. One could probably outfit even Dupla for a while
with that much.
For now I have been recommending Teflon-insulated (PTFE) wire since it will
not absorb water and will not deteriorate if immersed over a long period of
time. It also handles very high temperatures (200+ ºC) OK which is a
definite plus in this application. It unfortunately has thin insulated in
most cases, so you have to be careful with it. Specifying 1000v wire will
get a bit thicker insulation, but not much. You can get it in small
quantities from Mendelson Electronics in Dayton OH (http://www.meci.com) in
26, 24, and 18 awg. Dan's source is http://www.worldwidewire.com but has a
$100 minimum (am I right here Dan?).
Power supplies are easy to build with a transformer and some fuses. Lots of
DIY info is available on the Krib if you are looking to construct your own
cables.
-Bill