Surface temperature equalisation through automated laser vaporisation of thick film electrical heating elements

Ingham, Joshua and Cheneler, David (2019) Surface temperature equalisation through automated laser vaporisation of thick film electrical heating elements. Masters thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

The increasing proportion of energy used by electric heating devices creates an ever-growing demand for more efficient heating technology. This research project investigated the CO2 laser ablation of partially oxidised Ni-Fe-Cr-NiO flame sprayed electrical heating elements in order to develop an automated system to optimise the surface temperature profile of thin film electrical heating elements. The optimisation technique used was the targeted local resistance change across the surface of a heating element’s film so that the element temperature profile produced through the joule heating of the conductor is uniform and evenly distributed. Various surface treatment processing methods were developed that were used for the automated treatment of the element. These processing methods were compared and analysed through the standard deviation and kurtosis of the element’s surface temperature distribution, the greatest improvement of all the processing methods showed a 71% reduction in standard deviation of the surface temperature distribution of the heating element.