Thursday, October 10, 2013

Basics About Type K Thermocouple

By Catalina Nielsen


Type K thermocouple is the most famous and most used in most environments and general applications. Like other kinds of thermocouples, it is composed of two metallic conductors in direct contact. The two metal conductors are chromel and alumel and they produce a certain amount of voltage upon heating. Amount of voltage generates depends on temperature difference between the junction and other components in the circuit.

These makes of thermocouples are easily available and very inexpensive due to the technique used in making them. Apart from being able to gauge temperature changes, they can also be utilized in converting temperature gradients into electrical energy. When used in systems, they are interchangeable in the case of malfunctioning. The benefit of thermocouples over other gadgets utilized to sense temperature changes is that they do not need any external excitation. They can internally power themselves.

Chromel is a combination of two substances, that is, nickel and chromium. The percentage of nickel is about ninety percent and that of chromium is ten. Alumel consists of ninety five percent nickel, two percent manganese, two percent, and one percent silicon. The high sensitivity of this model of thermocouple makes it more popular. The sensitivity is known to stand at the value of 41 microvolts per Celsius.

Chromel normally serves as the positive terminal while alumel is the negative. The difference between negativity and positivity is normally low. There is a wide variety of probes in the ranges between -200 to +1350 degree Celsius and -328 and +2462 degree Celsius. Because type K thermocouple was specified at a time when metallurgy was less advanced, characteristics vary a lot with samples.

The positive lead is magnetic and colored yellow while the negative lead is magnetic colored red. The operating temperature for the device is very wide and may be as high as over 1260 degrees Celsius. They function well in clean oxidizing and inert atmospheres. However, they are very susceptible to sulfur attack, hence therefore they should not be exposed to a sulfuric atmosphere.

Even though these gadgets work efficiently in clean oxidizing settings, they do very poorly in partial oxidizing settings. This has the meaning that they should never be used in vacuums and/or changing cycles of reducing and oxidizing environments. Their elegant resistance to corrosion is an advantage for these gadgets and makes them appropriate choice. It is in fact recommendable to utilize this make in all cases unless there is a better reason not to.

The major disadvantage with thermocouples in general is accuracy. Most of them cannot sense temperatures below one degree. They have a wide range of application in many different fields. Major fields of application include diodes, thermistors, thermopile radiation sensors, and resistance thermometers among others. Some of the industries of application include steel industry, health equipment, manufacturing, process plants, and power production.

Type K thermocouple keeps becoming more popular and being used in more applications that it formerly was not utilized. As such, their cost has also gone down, leaving them among the cheapest temperature sensors. One can buy them from any local retail or wholesale shop that stocks related products.




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