Maker Pro
Maker Pro

Help constructing a heated box.

sgthanley

Feb 2, 2011
3
Joined
Feb 2, 2011
Messages
3
Afternoon!

I need to create a metal box with an adjustable temperature range for an experiment one of the researchers at work wants to run. It needs to hit at least 200 degrees. I planned on using strip heaters for the heat, but am having trouble figuring out how to control the temperature. Most of the strip heaters I have found online reach up to 900 degrees. The steel box I'm having our shop build for us can handle that and I'm sure at some point, one of the R&D guys here may want to reach that level some day, so I'd like advice on what to use that can cover a wide range.

Thanks in advance!

Vic
 

rob_croxford

Aug 3, 2010
262
Joined
Aug 3, 2010
Messages
262
Ok well i hope this isnt seen as advertising but i am in the business of designing and building Proportional thyristor controllers for resistive heater banks. Would simply need the wattage of the heater (from arround 3KW-160KW). You would of course have to design a feedback loop. For instance if the controller takes a variable DC input of 0-10VDC that variable input would come from a thermostat. However you could use a potentiometer (10K) to control the amount of power sent to the heater. Hope this helps!
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
Moderator
Jan 21, 2010
25,510
Joined
Jan 21, 2010
Messages
25,510
I recently bought one of these and I've been very impressed.

If the metal box could be something like a toaster oven then you may even be able to buy (almost) everything off the shelf.

The controller requires external power, a SSR and some sort of housing. It interfaces with a PC to provide a user interface and to give you pretty graphs of the temperature.
 
Top