A well-known engineering company that specializes in space exploration contacted Tempco regarding a specific application - heat to regulate the fueling of their spacecraft. They needed “Trim Heaters” which are process heaters used to purify one of the fuel components during the fueling process. Designing an optimal solution took a combined effort from both companies and included correspondence with Tempco Sales, Engineering and Production departments.

Tempco had several parameters to keep in mind when developing this product, including:

• Housing size
• Overall length
• Easy access to heater elements

The final product included four different duct heaters all consisting of tubular heating elements with housings. The housings incorporated a flange for installation purposes and were kept to two different compact sizes. Tempco used seam-welded stainless steel for the housing material. The terminal housing had an enclosure rating of NEMA 4X: Moisture and Corrosion Resistant.

The units were manufactured with tubular heater insert packs of varying watt densities so that adjustment and fine-tuning could be performed in the field. The Incoloy® 840 elements were designed in a custom formation. The process heating elements were designed in a 3-phase power configuration. Each unit also has a specialty Resistance Temperature Detector (RTD) – high-limit, mineral-insulated temperature sensor.