What is the optimum distance from the ceramic heater source to the load?
The source should be as close as practically possible to the load. However, the source should be far enough away from the load so that the infrared radiation pattern from each emitter (in a panel) will overlap each other. Some materials are very heat sensitive and if the radiant patterns of the heat source do not overlap at the load, “striping” can occur. The distance from the source to the load is dependent on the spacing between emitters. FTE emitters that are spaced 1″ apart would require a distance to the load of 8″ to achieve even heating of the load. What are the radiant emission patterns of ceramic emitters? Answer: The question often arises about the different shapes of ceramic heaters. Salamander ceramic heaters are manufactured with three basic emitter faces: convex as in the ESE, concave as in the FTE, HTE, and LTE, and flat as in the FFE, HFE and HSE. These different shapes create three different emission patterns. Radiant energy is emitted from all objects at different lev
