Thick Film Heaters on Stainless Steel

Large Flat Panel Heaters

Watlow's large flat panel heaters were developed to address our customer's growing processing requirements. Our large panel thick film on stainless steel construction provides uniform heating to 550°C (102°F). Using thick film technology, overall weight of the assembly is greatly reduced and the single piece heater construction gives us the ability to manufacture a very thin profile heater. Temperature uniformity and accuracy come from our ability to precisely pattern and distribute the wattage of a thick film heater circuit and to maintain flatness requirements across a very large surface area. Thick film technology also gives the designers the ability to zone heater circuits and reduce potential hot and cold spots resulting from boundary conditions. The ability to apply precise heater circuits on a larger stainless steel surface makes thick film heaters the ideal choice for large processing tools.

• CVD pre-heat station
• PVD chamber heating
• Bake-out station
• Post-heat station

• Cell assembly stations
• Solar panels
• Color filters

Cylindrical Heaters

Watlow's innovative thick film heating technology provides the injection molding industry with a patented (U.S. patent number 5,973,296) high performance, low profile hot runner nozzle heater. The direct surface contact of the thick film material to the cylindrical stainless steel sleeve creates optimal heat transfer while the non-porous glass film prevents moisture absorption, which results in dielectric failure in cable heaters.

Unlike coiled cable heaters, the design of Watlow's thick film nozzle heater allows the thermocouple to be immersed directly into the hot runner nozzle. This provides a distinct advantage over the design of commonly used coiled cable heaters which have internal thermocouples; therefore, the actual nozzle temperature is measured, not the heater temperature.