Rugged Industrial Assemblies

Temperature sensors for process control or energy management can require the use of heavier duty assemblies that include thermowells, electrical connection heads and extensions between them to go through insulation around the process that is being measured. Thermowells are used to protect the temperature sensors from high pressures, chemicals, gases or to allow the replacement of the sensor without disturbing the process it is installed in. Electrical connection heads are available in many types of materials Aluminum, Cast iron, Plastics, Delrin and Stainless Steel. The different materials allow them to be used in a wide variety of environments and the type of construction allows them to be used in even the most hazardous locations. The sensors can be mounted inside these assemblies in two ways, with a fixed length or spring loaded. The spring loaded design pushes the tip of the sensor firmly against the bottom of the thermowell increasing the accuracy and reducing the thermal response time of the measurement. The tip of the sensor in contact with the bottom can have a copper insert placed in it to further increase the thermal transfer to the sensor. In applications that do not require the use of a thermowell usually have a male process thread that the assembly is mounted with and can have a connection head connected or just extension leadwires for the termination.

The type of temperature sensors that can be used inside these mounting systems can be Resistance Temperature Detectors (RTD's), Thermistors and Thermocouples. This variety of sensor types gives the ability to measure temperature with very high accuracy to lower accuracy and allows for a wide range of sensor costs.