What is it? Where it can be used? How about its property? You will be surely aware of FeCrAl heating wire from the following statement.
With the characteristics of high resistance, low temperature coefficient of electric resistance, high operating temperature, good corrosion resistance under high temperature, as well as the lower price, it has been widely used in industrial electric furnace, household electrical appliance and far infrared ray device.
Those are alloys of chemical composition Fe + Cr + Fe with some additional elements and rare earth so as Yttrium, zirconium, Titan, Cerium, and Lanthanum which confer them:
• A good life time
• An excellent resistance to oxidation under heat
• A limitation of intergranular oxidation
Advantages of FeCrAl compared with NiCr:
• A higher resistivity (until 1.44 ohm mm²/m)
• A temperature of use higher in the air (1300°C against 1200 °C for Resistohm 80)
• A good resistance to sulphurous and carbonaceous atmospheres
• A higher charge rate
• A lower density which means: with an equal weight of material a more important number of elements (a cheaper unit price)
As a result, it has been widely applied to chemical industry, metallurgy mechanism, glass industry, ceramic industry, home appliance area and so on. Applications include heating elements and silica glass tubes.