Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Materials Today: Proceedings

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Effect of electrical resistance on ramp rate in cold end portion of SiC

heating elements
S.D. Kavitha a, Suneel Kumar N Kulkarni b, R. Suresh c, D.M. Shivanna d,⇑
a
R&D Centre, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, BTLIT, Bangalore, India
b
Cambridge Institute of Technology, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
c
MSR University of Applied Sciences, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
d
CMR Institute of Technology, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In the present work silicon carbide is used in electrical resistance heating elements because of its high
Received 20 June 2020 hardness, corrosion resistance, abrasion and high thermal conductivity. This material exhibits outstand-
Accepted 29 June 2020 ing properties at high temperatures up to 1550 °C, in oxidizing or 1250 °C reducing atmosphere condi-
Available online xxxx
tion; the creep and strength is very high when compared to other materials. Silicon carbide heating
element consists of a hot zone with a cold end. A range of sintered cold end portion of silicon carbide
Keywords: heating elements are prepared and analyzed. The results indicate that the push rate influenced the elec-
Cold zone
trical resistance of the cold end portion of heating element and saving of energy consumption with
Resistance
Silicon carbide
increase of production rate.
Sintering Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Heating elements Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Confer-
ence on Newer Trends and Innovation in Mechanical Engineering: Materials Science.

1. Introduction
Silicon carbide is crystallizes at room temperature and atmo-
spheric pressure into a diamond lattice. Normally silicon carbide
is polymorphic in nature and bonds essentially covalent, basic
structure is strong hybrid bonds and bonded together highly direc-
tional by composed of tetragonal units of silicon and carbon atoms.
The impurities of silicon carbide depends mainly upon temperature
and affects the stability of any polytype for its formation. The b-
silicon carbide is formed normally at 525 °C and is stable up to
2100 °C, then starts slowly transform to a-silicon carbide from
2100 °C to 2300 °C, process is rapid and completes at this tempera-
ture [1–4]. Further, recrystallized silicon carbide is a porous consti-
tutes 20% of the structure. The theoretical density of
recrystallizedsilicon carbide is approximately 2.9–3 g/cc and its
strength is about 90 MPa. The electrical resistance of silicon carbide
varies considerably when sintered in nitrogen atmosphere [5–10].
Silicon carbide possess unique combination of properties, such
as high wear resistance, high mechanical properties maintained
at high temperature, and its low electrical resistivity [11–13]. Gen-
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: shivanna.d@cmrit.ac.in (D.M. Shivanna).
erally, ceramic particles reveal the better thermal shock resistance,
high thermal conductivity, superior electrical and thermal conduc-
tivity [14–51]. Silicon carbide is widely used to produce as electri-
cal heating element, though it has prolongs electrical aging (i.e.
increase of electrical resistivity) and of the non-linear electrical
resistivity variation with running time and temperature. SiC heat-
ing elements have different sections in which the two end seg-
ments are called cold zone andcentral heat generation zone is
called the hot zone [52–54].
2. Experimentation
Preparing Ingredients and Blending: Silicon carbide with
block silicon carbide suitable purity of 98% or more. The granular-
ity is from 5 to 10% of coarse grains of 200 # to #300, 45 to 50% of
medium grains of coke 400 # to 500 #, and fine grains of 1200 # or
more account for 30 to 40%.The cellulosic material methylcellulose,
preferred conditions for methyl cellulose are methoxy content
27–30%, viscosity range 4500–5600 mPa. s (at 20 °C, 2%).Then mix-
ing ingredients in a sigma mixing machine for a period of 45 min to
1 h to form lumps by adding 15–20% of water. Fig. 1 represents the
flow chart for cold zone of silicon carbide heating elements. Fig. 2
shows the process of cold end portion of SiC heating elements

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.06.588
2214-7853/Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Newer Trends and Innovation in Mechanical Engineering:
Materials Science.

Please cite this article as: S. D. Kavitha, S. K. N. Kulkarni, R. Suresh et al., Effect of electrical resistance on ramp rate in cold end portion of SiC heating ele-
ments, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.06.588
2 S.D. Kavitha et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Table 1
Resistance of cold zone Diameter 25 mm, Length 500 mm, Pusher Rate30mm/min.

Sample Voltage (V) Current (A) Resistance (X)

1 30 83.23 0.0172
2 30 83.96 0.0141
3 30 84.3 0.0163
4 30 83.51 0.0154
5 30 82.86 0.0162
6 30 83.0 0.0143
7 30 83.71 0.0151
8 30 83.31 0.0144

Table 2
Resistance of Cold Zone Diameter 25 mm, Length 500 mm, Pusher Rate 35 mm/min.

Sample Voltage (V) Current (A) Resistance (X)

1 30 80 0.0162
2 30 79.36 0.0166
3 30 81.32 0.0163
4 30 78.65 0.0174
5 30 79.53 0.0163
6 30 80.22 0.0173
7 30 79.94 0.0178
8 30 80.54 0.0169

Table 3
Resistance of Cold Zone Diameter 25 mm, Length 500 mm, Pusher Rate 40 mm/min.

Sample Voltage (V) Current (A) Resistance (X)

1 30 75.12 0.0178
2 30 77.3 0.0175
3 30 78.43 0.0173
Fig. 1. Flow chart for cold zone of silicon carbide heating element. 4 30 75.53 0.0177
5 30 76.8 0.0171
6 30 75.93 0.0176
7 30 74.95 0.0181
8 30 77.15 0.0174

Table 4
Resistance of Cold Zone Diameter 25 mm, Length 500 mm, Pusher Rate 45 mm/min.

Sample Voltage (V) Current (A) Resistance (X)

1 30 53 0.0193
2 30 51 0.0198
3 30 49 0.0201
4 30 52 0.0213
5 30 49.11 0.0232
6 30 52.18 0.0239
7 30 48.1 0.0238
8 30 48.55 0.0227

Fig. 2. Showing process of cold end portion of SiC heating elements.

heating elements with the furnace preheating zone temperature

Extrusion: After mixing ingredients in a sigma mixing machine,
lumps is placed in extrusion machine then pressed into a required
shape (diameter and length) of cold zones and then dried in oven.
Weigh Block silicon carbide 250 # 4000 g, 350 # 7500 g, Coke 200
# 10,000 g, 400#7500 g, dry mixed for 15 min, 1500 g of methyl
cellulose of 2% After mixing with water by 10–15% and mixing
for 45 min, the blended lumps pressed at the pressure 45Mpa.
Diameter of 25 mm is extruded for the length of 500 to 1000 mm.
Drying: Extruded tube shape elements are dried at 20  40 °C
for 15 to 35 h at room temperature, then dried at 100  130 °C
for 3–4 h depending on the diameter of element.
Sintering: Continuous high-temperature carbon tube furnace
was used to fire the dried extruded cold zone of silicon carbide
350 °C-800 °C, High temperature zone temperature of 2350 °C
2450 °C, advancing variable pusher ramp speed, under the nitrogen
atmosphere.
Testing: After sintering the cold end of silicon carbide heating
elements are tested by maintaining voltage and recording current
output to measure the resistance of the elements. In this present
work Ø25mm cold ends of silicon carbide heating elements has
been produced by controlling the process parameters with con-
trolled atmosphere and attained allowable resistance tolerance
of ± 10% as tabulated below in Tables 1 to 4. The controlled voltage
supplied to the elements being tested, the current indicates based
on sintered bonding and elements porosity. Fig. 3 represents the
SiC heating element having cold ends portion.

Please cite this article as: S. D. Kavitha, S. K. N. Kulkarni, R. Suresh et al., Effect of electrical resistance on ramp rate in cold end portion of SiC heating ele-
ments, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.06.588
 S.D. Kavitha et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx 3

Fig. 3. SiC heating element having cold ends portion.

rate longer is the sintering time. Fig. 4 shows the plot of resistivity
Table 5 versus temperature for cold zone of heating element produced
Resistivity, Temperature at variable ramp speed for cold end siliconization.
from block silicon carbide with CPC cokeby passing through a con-
Temperature Pusher Ramp Speed tinuous graphite tube furnace at different pusher speeds.
in °C for Hot Zone The resistivity of the cold end material siliconised at various
45 mm/min 40 mm/min 35 mm/min 30 mm/min
Resistance in Ohm (X) for Cold End push rates ranging from 30 mm/min to 45 mm/min at a fixed fur-
30 0.00285 0.0023 0.00188 0.00145 nace temperature of 2150 °C. A minimum resistivity was obtained
200 0.00273 0.0021 0.00178 0.00135 for a push rate of 30 mm/min. Fig. 4 shows a plot of resistivity of
400 0.00251 0.0019 0.00163 0.00128 the cold end material versus temperature when siliconised at dif-
600 0.00235 0.0016 0.00145 0.00115 ferent push rates. The reduction in resistivity achieved by slowing
800 0.00215 0.0014 0.0013 0.0011
900 0.002 0.0013 0.00123 0.00145
the push rate from 35 mm/min to 30 mm/min is small compared
with that when the push rate is reduced from 40 mm/min to
35 mm/min. Although the push rate of 30 mm/min showed the
greatest reduction in resistivity, such a slow push rate may limit
production capacity. A compromise can thus be made between
3. Results and discussion
the duration at the reaction temperature and production require-
ments. With the particular furnace used, a push rate of 35 mm/
From the Tables1 to 4, the measured resistance for a overall
minute was considered optimum.
length of cold end of different samples tested are tabulated in
Table 5. And Table 5 is a value of resistance in Ohm per cm, of sin-
tered cold end of SiC heating elements by passing through a high 4. Conclusion
temperature continuous graphite tube furnace at different speeds
explained in results and discussion. The resistivity of the cold The following conclusions were drawn;
end material sintered at various push rates ranging from 30 mm/ The present work is aimed to provide a cold zone portion of sil-
min to 45 mm/min at a furnace temperature of 2100 °C to 2150 °C. icon carbide electric heating element and a production process,
In order to investigate the effects of cold zone recrystallization which has the advantages of low resistance value stability, good
time, a continuous graphite tube furnace was used. By varying the quality performance, shortening the production process cycle and
push rate through the furnace, the duration at the sintering time improving the yield of the silicon carbide electric heating element.
can be varied thereby controlling the push rate. The faster the The reduction in resistivity achieved by slowing the push rate of
pushrate, shorter the sintering time and similarly lesser the push 30 mm/min the highest reduction in resistivity limits the produc-

Fig. 4. Resistivity versus temperature at different ramp speeds for cold end.

Please cite this article as: S. D. Kavitha, S. K. N. Kulkarni, R. Suresh et al., Effect of electrical resistance on ramp rate in cold end portion of SiC heating ele-
ments, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.06.588
4 S.D. Kavitha et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
tion. The rate of production can thus be made the duration of sin-
tering temperature and bathing time. With the particular high
temperature continuous graphite tube furnace used, a push rate
of 35 mm/min was considered optimum. This saved the energy
consumption of furnace and improved the production rate by
reducing push rate to 300 mm/hr. This also saved energy due to
lower resistance of cold zone of heating element to generate high
temperature up to 1500 °C in the furnace.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
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