Thermocouples are the planet’s most widely used temperature sensors due to their enormous temperature capabilities, reliability, and low cost. Thermocouples are used in home appliances, industrial processes, electric power generation, furnace monitoring, control, food and beverage processing, vehicle sensors, aviation engines, rockets, satellites, and spacecraft.

Thermocouples and RTDs contribute to improved final products by assisting in the optimisation of temperature management during the production process. Thermocouples are commonly employed to provide temperature measurements when high temperatures, compact size, quick responsiveness, significant vibration, or shock are present.

Food and beverage industry

The food and beverage industries use thermocouples for various purposes, including pasteurisation, refrigeration, fermentation, brewing, and bottling. When utilising a thermocouple temperature sensor, you don’t have to worry since it provides exact temperature readings for frying and cooking, ensuring your food is prepared correctly.

Thermocouples are often used in restaurant equipment such as grills, toasters, fryers, warmers, and ovens. In addition, thermocouples in the form of temperature-sensing probes are used in cooking equipment in large-scale food processing operations.

Thermocouples are also utilised in breweries since optimal fermentation and microbial contamination prevention require exact temperatures.

Metallurgy

The furnace conditions to which the thermocouple will be subjected aid in determining the best thermocouple for the application. 

Some of the requirements to consider while choosing a thermocouple are:

  • The thermocouple wires’ temperature capacity.
  • The temperature tolerance of the sheath or protective covering (metal or ceramic).
  • The environment in which it will be employed (air, reducing, oxidising, inert).
  • The mounting arrangement

Because of the extraordinarily high temperatures involved, determining an accurate temperature measurement for molten metals such as steel, zinc, and aluminium may be difficult. Types B, S, and R platinum thermocouples and Type K and N base metal thermocouples are the most often used temperature sensors for molten metals. The temperature range of your metal-related application would determine the best kind.

Plastic Manufacturing

Precision temperature control is required for manufacturing plastic items. Thermocouples are commonly used to monitor temperature during plastic production in various applications. They are used in diecasting moulds and injection to detect the melting or surface temperature.

In plastic processing, thermocouples are classified into two types. The thermocouple may be used to determine the transmission of plastic heat function based on their cross-section. The thermocouple must identify the applied force dissimilarity.

Temperature sensors may be everywhere, from injection moulding machines and extruders to thermoforming machines and pellet dryers.

Thermocouples can also be used to create items in the plastics industry. As a result, the second type of thermocouple used in the plastics sector comprises product design and engineering. The thermocouple must be used in product engineering to calculate temperature variations in materials, especially over the product’s shelf life.

Engineers can choose a thermocouple appropriate for the materials they want to employ in their products. They may also use the thermocouple to evaluate the design’s performance. This allows them to make modifications before beginning the manufacturing process.

Pharmaceutical Manufacturing

Fermentation, heating, granulation, mixing, filtering, chemical extraction, tabletting, compression, coating, and drying are all physical processes used in pharmaceutical manufacture. Many of these processes require the application or removal of heat, which thermocouples will monitor and transmit back to the process controllers.

RTDs will be utilised in place of thermocouples when temperature measurement is crucial, and high precision is required. As is always the case, the placement, structure, and configuration of these thermocouples will be determined by the specific application.

There are several varieties of thermocouples that have numerous uses in diverse sectors. Thus, whether you work in engineering services, steel fabrication, food and beverage, or plastics manufacturing, General Instruments thermocouples are likely to be frequently utilised to measure and monitor the temperature.

Are you ready to discover turnkey thermocouples suited for your application? Contact the General Instruments Consortium Team right now!