Tungsten Wire vs. Carbon Fiber: Infrared Heating Element Comparison

Recently, customers have been asking about the differences between tungsten wire and carbon fiber in infrared heating tubes. Today, let’s explore the distinctions between these two types of infrared heating tubes.

Both tungsten wire and carbon fiber infrared heating tubes share several similarities:

• Both utilize quartz tubes to create a vacuum or inert gas environment.
• Upon electrical activation, both emit infrared radiation to heat objects.
• They can be manufactured into various shapes according to specifications.
• Both can feature outer coatings such as ruby quartz tubes, semi-plated white quartz tubes, or gold-plated quartz tubes.

Tungsten Wire Infrared Heating Tubes Tungsten wire is used as the heating element in tungsten wire infrared heating tubes. Tungsten is primarily used in incandescent and halogen lamps as a filament. In the manufacturing process, tungsten filaments for bulbs require the addition of small amounts of potassium, silicon, and aluminum oxides. Tungsten has a resistivity of 5.3 × 10^-8 ohm meters, high melting point, high resistivity, good strength, low vapor pressure, and is considered the best material for making lamp filaments among metals. When current passes through tungsten wire and heats it to a certain temperature, the resistance value of tungsten wire increases to a certain value (the resistance value of the general metal wire increases with temperature).

Carbon Fiber Infrared Heating Tubes Carbon fiber is used as the heating element in carbon fiber infrared heating tubes. When Edison invented the incandescent lamp, he also tried to use carbon fiber as the filament, but because the manufacturing level was too backward at that time, he chose tungsten wire. Carbon fiber is a non-metallic material with excellent physical and chemical properties. Carbon fiber is mainly composed of carbon elements, and its carbon content varies depending on the type, generally more than 90%. Carbon fiber has the characteristics of general carbon materials, such as high temperature resistance, friction resistance, conductivity, thermal conductivity, and corrosion resistance. Unlike general carbon materials, carbon fiber has significant anisotropy, flexibility, and can be processed into various fabrics. It exhibits high strength along the fiber axis direction, is lighter in weight, and therefore has high specific strength.

Tungsten Wire Infrared Heating Tubes Tungsten wire infrared heating tubes have an instantaneous surge current. The heating wire is tungsten metal, and the relationship between the metal’s resistance coefficient and temperature is relatively large. Therefore, the cold-state resistance of tungsten wire infrared heating tubes differs significantly from the resistance during operation. Due to the relatively small resistance of the heating wire at startup, the instantaneous current passing through the circuit is relatively large, generally 1.5 times the rated current. However, data from university laboratories show that the peak instantaneous current can be around 10 times the rated current. Therefore, when using tungsten wire infrared heating tubes, the rated current value of the electrical components in the circuit needs to be appropriately higher than the calculated value.

Carbon Fiber Infrared Heating Tubes Carbon fiber infrared heating tubes use carbon fiber as the heating element. The resistance coefficient of carbon fiber has less correlation with temperature. Data from university laboratories show that the cold-state resistance of carbon fiber is about 45% higher than the resistance during normal operation. Simply put, the power of carbon fiber heating tubes is less than the rated power at startup, and the heating tube reaches the rated power after about 5 seconds. Therefore, electrical components in circuits using carbon fiber infrared heating tubes do not need to reserve rated current values, which can reduce some equipment costs.

Discover the distinctions between tungsten wire and carbon fiber in infrared heating tubes. For quality quartz tube solutions, visit our web stranica and contact us at contact@globalquartztube.com.