Better Heaters for Innovative Analytical Equipment Designs

Advanced ceramic heaters offer many benefits when it comes to the design and marketing of analytical equipment.

Analytical equipment, such as gas-chromatograph mass spectrometers (GC-MSs), are used to determine the presence of trace chemicals in various research, industrial and clinical settings. This equipment requires the ionization of the sample and inert gas, which in turn requires a heating element that can reach a precise temperature quickly.

To allow for better, more innovative designs, Watlow developed ULTRAMIC, an advanced, high-performance ceramic heater. The design of ULTRAMIC advanced ceramic heaters assures optimal performance in thermal applications where rapid thermal cycling and more precise control is required to ensure optimal effectiveness of the equipment and related processes.

The drive to reduce the overall footprint of analytical equipment puts pressure on each component to become smaller and more efficient. ULTRAMIC heaters are significantly smaller than traditional ion source heaters. Therefore, they can be implemented into smaller spaces and can directly contact the voltage source without neutralizing the ion particles required in the spectrometry process.