Electric heat tracing or surface heating is a system employed to sustain or increase the temperature of vessels and pipes. Heat tracing takes the shape of an electrical heating component run in bodily contact alongside the length of a tube.

1. Trace Heating – From the Invention to Latest Use
Electric heat tracing or surface heating is a system employed to sustain or increase
the temperature of vessels and pipes. Heat tracing takes the shape of an electrical
heating component run in bodily contact alongside the length of a tube. Then the
tube must be capped with thermal insulation to maintain heat losses from the tube.
Heat produced by the component then keeps hold of the temperature of the tube.
Heat tracing may be employed to safeguard pipes from cold, to retain a steady flow
of temperature in warm water systems, or to keep hold of process temperatures for
piping that must move substances that solidify at standard temperature. Electric
heat tracing cables are a substitute to steam heat tracing where steam isn’t
accessible or not needed.
Development:

2. Electric heat tracing started in the 1930s but primarily no devoted gears were
accessible. Mineral insulated cables were operated at high electric densities to
generate temperature, and control appliance was modified from other applications.
Mineral-insulated resistance heating cables were launched in the 1950s, and similar
kind heating cables were promoted in 1971.
Control system for heat tracing systems developed from tube filled thermostats and
contractors in the 70s to networked automatic control in the 90s, in larger systems
that need centralized control & monitoring.
Uses:
The Most Typical Pipe Heat Tracing Uses Include:
Freeze protection
Temperature protection
Ramp & stair snow or ice protection
Gulley & roof snow or ice protection
Underfloor heating
Window de-misting
Door or frame interface ice-protection
Pond freeze protection
Anti-condensation
Anti-cavitation purpose
Soil warming
Temperature Maintenance:
Industrial uses for heat tracing
engineering range from oil
refineries, chemical industry,
food factories, nuclear power
plants, etc. for instance, wax is a
substance which begins to
harden below 70 degree Celsius
which’s generally far beyond
the temperature of the
neighboring air. Thus the
pipeline should be supplied with
an outside source of temperature

3. to prevent the pipe and the substance within it from freezing down. Trace heating
can be accomplished also with steam, but this need a resource of steam and
possibly unsuitable to set up and run.
In labs, researchers working in the subject of material science employ heat tracing
to heat up a sample isotropically. They might employ trace heating in combination
with a variac to handle the heat power supplied. This is a productive way of
steadily heating an item to gauge thermodynamic properties like thermal
expansion.
Contact Information
Marubeni America Corporation
Silicon Valley Branch
3945 Freedom Circle, Suite 1000
Santa Clara, CA 95054 USA
Tel: 408-330-0650 #337
Fax: 408-330-0655
E-mail: info@marubeniheattracing.com
Website: www.marubeniheattracing.com