PTC Heaters

Positive temperature co-efficient - PTC heating elements are small ceramic stones with self temperature limiting characteristics. PTC stones have fast heating response times and plateau once the pre-defined reference temperature is reached. The shape of these stones can be be designed to be square, rectangular, round, ring or doughnut style. Above the reference temperature, the semiconducting and ferro-electrical properties of the ceramic are utilized to produce a rise in resistance of several orders of magnitude, and hence produce it's self limiting properties.

This resistance rise can be experienced over a temperature range of a few degrees Celsius. This PTC attribute results in a heating element that self-regulates at a pre-set temperature and automatically varies its wattage in order to maintain that pre-set temperature. Hence, a greater degree of thermal dissipation (cooling) will result in higher power.

The materials used are doped polycrystalline ceramics based on barium titanate. Once the ceramic body has been formed through processes including blending, milling, drying and sintering, metallized contacts are applied to the surface to facilitate electrical connection.