As with most electric heaters and heating elements, silicone rubber heaters have benefits and limitations. Here is what you need to know when considering a silicone rubber heater for your application.

Benefits

• Highly customizable: Silicone rubber heaters can be made to customer specifications. They can be designed in many shapes and sizes with holes and cutouts to accommodate irregular shapes. Tempco offers a variety of lead exit locations with wide selection of electrical terminations. Available mounting methods include clamping options, mechanical fasteners and permanent options such as Pressure Sensitive Adhesive (PSA) and vulcanizing.
• Vulcanization to Parts: Silicone rubber heaters can be vulcanized to hard surfaces such as bare or anodized aluminum, stainless steel and marble. Factory vulcanizing the heaters can simplify the installation process and provide excellent heat transfer. Parts for this process can be made in house at Tempco or provided to us for this process.
• High Performance in Adverse Conditions: Tempco's silicone rubber heaters can operate efficiently under many adverse conditions such as outdoor environments and ambient temperatures, exposure to contaminants and moisture, compression set or vacuums. Depending on your application, the texture of the heater material may be important. The standard material, rough silicone, is a more durable material. Optional smooth silicone is more flexible and stain resistant and is sometimes recommended for applications requiring permanent mounting solutions.
• Formable Design: Standard silicone rubber heaters are made flat. However, Tempco can form them to a diameter or to a unique shape to better conform to your application.
  Built-in Temperature Control: These types of heaters can be made with various temperature sensor and control devices. Thermostats, thermal fuses, thermocouples, thermistors, and RTD’s can be manufactured directly into the heater.
• Third Party Certifications: Depending on heater specifications, silicone rubber heaters may be eligible for agency approvals such as UL, CSA, CE, and/or UKCA certification to comply with safety and performance requirements.

Limitations

• Low Watt Density Applications Only: Silicone rubber heaters function best in applications where the watt density is between 0.5 Watts per square inch and 5 Watts per square inch. High watt densities are not recommended and because they may shorten the life expectancy of the heater. For applications requiring higher watt densities, products like micaband heaters or mica insulated strip heaters may be a better option.
• Water Resistant, not Waterproof: While this type of heater can withstand humid or moist environments, it is not completely water proof and should never be submerged or exposed directly to liquids and contaminates. Tempco’s tubular heating elements that are used in a several of our process immersion heaters may be a better option where immersion in liquid is occurring.