News from the IOB

Measurement at Kanthal as part of the CONDRA research project

On 17 July 2024, our col­le­ague Juli­us Wil­ker accom­pa­nied his col­le­ague Fabi­an Scheck to a tem­pe­ra­tu­re and pres­su­re mea­su­re­ment. This mea­su­re­ment was car­ri­ed out as part of Fabi­an Scheck’s CONDRA rese­arch pro­ject and took place at Kan­thal in Mör­fel­den-Wall­dorf, near Frankfurt. 

Juli­us Wil­ker, who recent­ly star­ted his own rese­arch pro­ject Ena­bEL at the IOB, took the oppor­tu­ni­ty to gain prac­ti­cal expe­ri­ence in the field of elec­tric hea­ting and to get to know other pro­ject col­le­agues. The aim of the trip was for him to visit the pro­duc­tion of elec­tric hea­ting ele­ments and to obtain sam­ple mate­ri­als for the Ena­bEL project.

The par­ti­ci­pan­ts met at the IOB ear­ly in the mor­ning and then set off tog­e­ther on the three-hour jour­ney to Frank­furt. After arri­ving and being wel­co­med by Kanthal’s Tech­no­lo­gy and Inno­va­ti­on Mana­ger, Dr. Mar­kus Mann, the col­le­agues were given a tour of Kanthal’s test labo­ra­to­ry. The neces­sa­ry sen­sors were then set up.

After a joint lunch, the col­le­agues began the mea­su­re­ments. The sen­sors were con­nec­ted to the com­pu­ter so that the mea­su­re­ments could be fol­lo­wed in real time. Kanthal’s flow hea­ter was used to heat the air elec­tri­cal­ly. The tem­pe­ra­tu­re was increased in small steps to avo­id pos­si­ble delays cau­sed by the hea­ting ele­ments bur­ning out. Once the tar­get tem­pe­ra­tu­re was rea­ched, the stored mea­su­re­ment data was checked.

The tem­pe­ra­tu­re and pres­su­re of the hot air flow could be mea­su­red pre­cis­e­ly. Over­all, pres­su­re los­ses were detec­ted, but on the other hand, very good heat trans­fer was obser­ved at the hea­ting elements.

We would like to thank Kan­thal for the excel­lent coope­ra­ti­on and look for­ward to fur­ther uti­li­sing the results in this and other pro­jects, such as EnabEL.