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Temperature Sensing & Control · Digital & PID Controllers

Digital and PID Temperature Controllers

Covering temperatures to 400 °C, rated for 24-220 V, built to IEC 60730 / IEC 60751 / IEC 60584. The capability table below states what the part is bounded by.

Digital and PID Temperature Controllers are covering temperatures to 400 °C, rated for 24-220 V. It does not limit its own temperature: a thermostat, a thermal cutoff or a control loop with an independent over-temperature channel belongs in the design.

Continuous temperature
to 400 °C
Supply voltage
24-220 V
Maximum one-piece size
Component
Built and tested to
IEC 60730 / IEC 60751 / IEC 60584

These are the process limits for this construction, not the rating of a finished part. The ratings of your heater come from the drawing it is built to, and the watt density it can carry depends on what it is bonded to.

Outline & Specification Builder

Set the outline, the size, the voltage and the power you have in mind. The drawing redraws to match, and the panel works out the heated area, the watt density and the current — then checks that watt density against what this construction survives in free air and bonded to a heat sink. Those two limits are different by several times, and it is the difference that decides whether a heater lasts.

Fills in the form below; attach your outline drawing or DXF there.

Request a Quotation for Digital and PID Temperature Controllers

The form below follows the current technical drawing configuration. Change the drawing values above and the request details update automatically.

Request a Quotation

The part

If you have an outline drawing or a DXF, say so in the notes and we will reply with an address to send it to — a drawing turns an estimate into a quotation.

Business Information

Dimensions & Specifications (IEC 60730 / IEC 60751 / IEC 60584)

Every row below is a starting point for the customizer above — pick any size and the drawing will redraw to that row.

ParameterSpecificationLimit / note
Control modesOn/off, PID with autotune, ramp/soak programmesOn/off is adequate for a lagged mass and hopeless for a thin plate
InputPT100, PT1000, NTC, thermocouple type K/J/T/EConfigurable at the front panel
Control accuracyu00b10.1% of span, u00b11 digitOf the instrument u2014 the loop is only as good as the sensor placement
OutputRelay 3 A, SSR drive 12 V DC, 4-20 mASSR drive for anything cycling faster than once a minute
AlarmsHigh, low, deviation, sensor breakSensor break must fail the heater off, and this should be verified rather than assumed
Supply100-240 V AC or 24 V DC
Panel size48x48, 72x72, 96x96 mm DIN
StandardIEC 60730 / IEC 61010Controller safety and functional standards

Digital and PID Temperature Controllers are temperature sensing & control, produced to a dimensioned drawing or a DXF. The table below is a statement of what this factory can build rather than a list of what is on a shelf; the sections after it cover the two things that decide whether a heater survives its duty — how much power per square centimetre it carries, and what stops it.

What Are Digital and PID Temperature Controllers?

Digital and PID Temperature Controllers are temperature sensing & control. They are specified by rating together with the outline drawing, the wattage or the temperature to be held, and what the heater is bonded to — that last one decides the permissible watt density and is the question a quotation cannot skip. The construction is built and tested to IEC 60730 / IEC 60751 / IEC 60584.

Construction & Insulation System

These are the components that make a heated product safe and accurate, and they are not interchangeable with each other. A bimetal thermostat or a one-shot thermal cutoff protects; a thermistor, RTD or thermocouple measures; a controller closes the loop. Using one component for two of those jobs leaves the product with no protection in exactly the case protection exists for — the loop failing on.

Typical Applications

The protection and the measurement that every heated product needs: a thermostat or thermal cutoff in series with the element, a thermistor, RTD or thermocouple reading the surface that matters, and a controller closing the loop around them.

Inside the plant

Manufactured in our own plant

This heater is laid out, wound or etched, laminated, cut, tested and imaged in-house. The stages below are where its resistance tolerance, its temperature uniformity and its insulation integrity are actually decided.

  1. Engineer laying out a heater circuit over a customer outline
    01

    Circuit design & layout

    The customer outline comes in as a drawing or a DXF, and the element is laid out inside it: conductor gauge from the voltage, path length from the resistance, pitch from the watt density wanted at each part of the surface. Where the load needs more heat at the edges than in the middle, that is decided here, in the geometry, not later with more power.

    Calculated resistance and watt density checked against the construction limits before any tooling is cut.

  2. Etched foil circuits and wound nichrome elements ready for lamination
    02

    Element preparation

    Wire-wound elements are wound on a glass carrier at the calculated pitch; etched-foil circuits are photo-imaged and etched from Inconel or copper foil to a trace width held within 0.05 mm. That tolerance is what makes the resistance repeatable from lot to lot, which is what makes the temperature repeatable.

    Trace width and element resistance measured before lamination — a circuit out of tolerance is scrapped here, not after it is sealed inside the part.

  3. Heated press closing on a silicone heater lay-up
    03

    Lamination & vulcanising

    The element and its sensor are laid between the insulation and pressed under heat: silicone is vulcanised, polyimide and PET are laminated with a high temperature adhesive, epoxy plates are potted under vacuum so no voids are left anywhere in the heat path. A void is not a cosmetic defect — it is a place the heat cannot leave from, and it becomes the hot spot that ends the part.

    Press temperature, pressure and dwell recorded per lot; potted plates checked for voids.

  4. Die cut heater blanks with leads and connectors fitted
    04

    Die cutting & leads

    The outline is die cut with radiused corners — a die does not cut an inside corner, and a sharp corner in a film is where a tear starts. Leads are crimped or soldered and strain relieved at the exit, and connectors are fitted to the harness drawing so the assembly line never has to solder.

    Outline to ±0.5 mm on film, ±1.5 mm on silicone; lead pull-out tested per lot.

Video: Digital and PID Temperature Controllers

How to Wire and Configure a PID Temperature Controller - Cerakote Oven

Third-party video, selected automatically for this topic. It is not produced by Heating Film and is not a specification source — use the tables on this page for dimensional data.

Frequently Asked Questions

How hot can Digital and PID Temperature Controllers run?

400 °C continuously. That limit belongs to the insulation system — Aramid Paper (Nomex type) — not to the element, which would tolerate a good deal more. It is a hard ceiling: above it the insulation degrades, and no derating scheme buys headroom. Past 400 °C the construction has to change rather than be pushed.

How are Digital and PID Temperature Controllers fitted?

They are clamped, bonded or potted against the surface whose temperature it has to read — a sensor mounted in the air near a heater reads the air, and the loop then controls the wrong thing.

What voltages are Digital and PID Temperature Controllers available in?

24 V DC, 110-120 V AC and 220-240 V AC. The element is wound for the voltage ordered — it is not a switchable range, and running a heater at a voltage other than the one it was wound for changes its power by the square of the ratio.

How do I get a quotation?

Set the outline, size, voltage and power in the builder on this page and send that configuration through, or attach a drawing. The quotation needs six things: the outline, the supply voltage, the power or the temperature you need to hold, what the heater is bonded to, the ambient it works in, and the quantity. With those, a quotation comes back within one business day.