JPH08306473A - Heater and its manufacture - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To prevent the increase in manufacturing cost by efficiently transmitting heat generated by heating elements to a heating object while keeping excellent flexibility and insulating performance, reducing a quantity of necessary covering resin, and eliminating uselessness of arranging the heating elements more than necessary. CONSTITUTION: In a heater 1, an internal structure 5 composed of heating elements 2, a pair of electrodes 3 and 3 and a pair of copper tapes 4 and 4 is covered with an insulating case 6 and an insulating tape 7. The insulating case 6 is made of resin, and fitting parts 6a... composed of recesses having the size and a depth to which the heating elements 2 can be fitted, exist by the number of the heating elements 2 or by the number not less than that, and positions of the recesses are put in the same position with the heating elements 2. The insulating case 6 is beforehand molded by a separate process before it is combined with the internal structure 5.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a heater used for heating a retaining portion of a water pipe or the like in a cold region where the retaining portion is heated in order to prevent damage due to freezing of the water. It is about.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a feeder linear belt heater such as a television has been used in a cold region for the purpose of preventing the freezing of water in a water pipe during a severe winter. This band-shaped heater has a band-shaped structure in which an internal structure made of a metal resistance wire such as a nichrome wire is covered with vinyl chloride resin, which is an electrical insulator.

The band-shaped heater is, for example, spirally wound or pressure-bonded along the length direction of the water pipe so as to cover the exposed portion of the water pipe on the ground in a house in a cold region. in use. The band-shaped heater is set to consume a predetermined power, for example, 6 W per 1 m of the water pipe, in order to prevent freezing.

Further, a sensor for controlling ON / OFF of the band heater according to the detected temperature, such as a platinum sensor, is installed in the coldest place of the house, usually on the north side of the house, in a position close to the exposed portion of the water pipe. ing.

Such a band-shaped heater is composed of one circuit. Therefore, a constant current always flows through the metal resistance wire, and a constant power is always consumed. Therefore, when the strip-shaped heater is used so as to cover a long water pipe, all the portions in contact with the strip-shaped heater are uniformly heated regardless of the temperature of each portion of the water pipe.
That is, the above band-shaped heater cannot intensively heat only a specific portion of the water pipe where the temperature is low, and similarly heats a portion that does not need to be heated. As a result, the strip heater consumes more power than necessary.

US Pat. No. 4,072,848 discloses a heater in which an internal structure including a heating element is insulation-coated with a resin. In the above publication, a cable-shaped main body made of an insulating material such as a thermoplastic resin is used. In the main body, as a internal structure, each chip-shaped heating element that generates heat when energized and a pair of each electric wire made of copper for supplying power to each heating element are enclosed.

Each of the above heating elements is made of barium titanate ceramics and has a positive temperature coefficient (PTC) (Positive Temper).
and a pair of electrodes for ohmic contact are formed on both end surfaces of the main body in the width direction. A plurality of the heating elements are arranged between the electric wires at predetermined intervals along the length direction. Each of the electrodes and each of the electric wires that come into contact with each other along the end face have joints electrically connected by solder along the end face.

Such a heater is used, for example, by bringing the main body into contact with a staying site where water stays, such as a water pipe.
The main body is close to each of the heating elements that generate heat,
The staying portion is in contact with the main body portion.

When the temperature of the heating element falls below 5 ° C., for example,
The heating element is energized to the extent necessary to generate heat. As a result, each heating element generates heat according to the temperature, whereby the staying portion is heated by each heating element through the main body.
Therefore, in a low temperature environment where the temperature of the water in the retention area is lower than 0 ° C., damage to the retention area due to freezing of water can be prevented.

In the production of a heater in which an internal structure including a heating element is insulation-coated with a resin as described above, extrusion or heat pressing is used for resin coating. In order to coat the above heater with resin by using extrusion or hot press, it is necessary that the resin for insulation coating be in a fluid or viscous state. Under such conditions, if the coating thickness is reduced, the probability that pinholes or imperfect coating portions exist will increase.

In order to prevent the formation of the above-mentioned pinholes or incomplete portions of the coating and maintain the insulating property to enhance the safety,
The coating should have a certain thickness.
In fact, it is difficult to ensure safety when the thickness is less than several hundred μm, and a thickness of 1 mm or more is required.

For example, in the case of extrusion coating, the internal structure made into an electric wire passes through the central portion of the resin extrusion die.
As a result, the resin is coated in the circumferential direction of the cross section of the internal structure. The coating thickness is determined by the gap between the die and the internal structure elements. Therefore, the thickness of the coating is increased by increasing the gap to maintain the insulating property and enhance the safety. If this gap is extremely narrowed, the probability that there is a pinhole or an incompletely coated portion as described above increases.

[0013]

However, when the thickness of the coating is increased as described above, the heat generated by the heating element cannot be efficiently transferred to the object to be heated (water pipe, etc.). There is.

Further, in order to increase the thickness of the coating resin, a large amount of coating resin is required, which causes a problem of increasing manufacturing cost.

[0015]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a heater according to claim 1 is provided with a plurality of heating elements each having a flat bottom surface, and each heating element is contacted with an electrode. Each heating element is electrically connected in parallel by bringing a pair of electric supply members into contact with each other, and an internal structure that energizes the electric supply member to heat the heating element and heats the object to be heated; In a heater having an insulating member for insulating between a structure and an object to be heated, the electrodes and the electricity supply member are flat plates, and one surface of each electrode is in contact with the bottom surface of each heating element. One surface of the electricity supply member is in contact with the surface of each electrode opposite to the surface in contact with each heating element, and the insulating member is recessed in the same direction from the flat plate portion. Insulating material so that it has a plurality of storage parts An insulating case that is molded and stores one of the heating elements other than the bottom of all the internal heating elements in each storage section, and the internal structural elements when the heating elements are stored in the storage section. Of these, an insulating tape made of an insulating material is provided, which covers the exposed portion of the flat plate portion on the surface opposite to the surface on which the storage portion is provided.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a heater manufacturing method, wherein a plurality of heating elements having a flat bottom surface are provided, each heating element is brought into contact with an electrode, and each electrode is brought into contact with a pair of electric supply members. The heating elements are electrically connected in parallel with each other, and an electric supply member is energized to heat the heating element to insulate the internal structure for heating the object to be heated and the internal structure from the object to be heated. A method of manufacturing a heater having an insulating member, wherein one surface of each plate-shaped electrode is brought into contact with the bottom surface of each heating element, and the surface of each electrode is opposite to the surface contacting each heating element. Each of the housings of the insulating case made of an insulative material, having one surface of the flat plate-shaped electric supply member abutted against the surface of the Part of the internal structure of all heating elements,
The parts other than the bottom are housed one by one, and the part of the internal structure exposed on the side opposite to the side where the housing is provided is covered with an insulating tape made of an insulating material. It is characterized by that.

[0017]

With the structure of the heater according to claim 1 and the method for manufacturing the heater according to claim 2, the flat electrode and the electric supply member are brought into contact with the bottom surface of the heating element. Then, all the heating elements other than the bottom surface are accommodated in the accommodating portion, and the bottom surface of the heating element, the electrode, and the electric supply member are covered with the flat plate portion and the insulating tape.

Therefore, when the insulating case is molded, it is not necessary to perform extrusion molding, heat pressing, or the like using an insulating material in a fluid or viscous state. The sheet can be easily formed by a method such as rolling and die cutting with a hot roll having a gear modeled in the shape of a storage portion. On the other hand, by covering the surface of the internal structure that comes into contact with the object to be heated with the insulating tape having an insulating property as described above, it is possible to easily insulate the internal structure from the object to be heated. it can. Therefore, without increasing the thickness of the insulating case or the insulating tape,
It is possible to prevent the occurrence of pinholes, incomplete coatings, and the like.

Therefore, the insulating property can be maintained without increasing the thickness of the coating. As a result, it is possible to efficiently transfer the heat generated by the heating element to the object to be heated (water pipe or the like) while maintaining good flexibility and insulating properties.

Further, since it is not necessary to increase the thickness of the coating resin, a small amount of coating resin is required. Thereby,
It is possible to prevent an increase in manufacturing cost.

Further, unless the internal structure is covered with the insulating tape, the internal structure is housed in the insulating case so that it can be taken out from the insulating case. The insulating tape may be self-adhesive, adhered with an adhesive, or heat-fusible. Therefore, it can be easily bonded at the work site. Since the electric power supply member for energizing the electrodes may be adhered with an adhesive, it can be easily adhered at the work site.

Therefore, it is possible to determine how many recesses the heating elements are to be housed in, for example, at the stage of actually performing work for preventing freezing of water pipes, thus increasing the flexibility of the work. it can. As a result, waste of arranging the heating elements more than necessary can be eliminated, and an increase in manufacturing cost can be prevented.

Further, the arrangement for actually accommodating the heating element among the depressions can be freely determined at the work stage, so that the output when heating one object to be heated, that is, the degree of heating can be easily adjusted to a desired value. can do.

[0024]

【Example】

[Embodiment 1] An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
The explanation is based on the following. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the heater 1 according to the present embodiment is a band-shaped heater that is attached to a water pipe to prevent freezing of water in the pipe and has a rectangular cross section. The heater 1 contacts the water pipe in the longitudinal direction along the surface thereof and heats the water pipe by heat radiation.
Then, as will be described later, the insulating case 6 made of a thermoplastic resin such as a polycarbonate resin and the insulating tape 7 are adhered to each other to have a thickness of 5.1 mm and a width of 1 mm, for example.
It is formed as a long 6.6 mm cord.

In the heater 1, an internal structure 5 including a plurality of heating elements 2, ..., Electrodes 3 in each heating element 2, and a pair of copper tapes (electric supply members) 4, 4 is an insulating case 6 and an insulating tape. It has a structure covered by 7. The attachment to the water pipe is performed by bringing the insulating tape 7 into contact with the water pipe. The insulating case 6 and the insulating tape 7 form an insulating member.

The heating element 2 is composed of a PTC (Positive Temperature Coefficient) element made of a barium titanate semiconductor. Here, the PTC element is a thermistor element having a low electric resistance at a low temperature and a positive temperature characteristic in which the element resistance value sharply increases when the temperature rises above a specific temperature, that is, the Curie temperature.

Due to this characteristic, when a voltage is applied to the PTC element at a low temperature below the Curie temperature, a large current flows at first because the resistance value is small because of the low temperature, and as a result, the temperature suddenly rises. To rise. On the other hand, when the temperature exceeds the Curie temperature, the resistance value sharply increases, the flowing current value decreases and the calorific value decreases, so that the temperature does not rise above a certain temperature and the temperature is kept stable. .

As described above, the PTC element has a self-temperature control function of adjusting the amount of current and controlling the amount of heat generation. Further, the temperature rises quickly. Therefore, the above P
Since the temperature of the object to be heated can be maintained at a constant temperature by using the TC element as the heating element, it can be suitably used for applications such as freeze prevention.

However, the heating element in the heater of the present invention is not limited to the PTC element. That is, it suffices if the object to be heated can be sufficiently heated to prevent the water in the water pipe from freezing, and other dedicated members can be prepared to adjust the temperature.

As shown in FIG. 3, the heating element 2 has a rectangular parallelepiped shape having a length of 6 mm, a width of 8 mm, and a thickness of 1.6 mm. The shape of the heating element 2 is such that the insulating tape 7 covering the bottom surfaces 2a of all the heating elements 2 can be attached later.
The bottom surface 2a may be a flat surface and is not limited to a rectangular parallelepiped shape. For example, as the shape of the heating element 2, it is possible to use a disk-shaped one.

Then, when an external temperature of -20 ° C. is applied with an alternating current of 100 V which is a commercial voltage, the total power consumption of each heating element 2 is set to about 18 W per 1 m, for example.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the electrodes 3.3
Are arranged in pairs for each heating element 2. On one end face of the heating element 2 in the thickness direction, that is, on the bottom face 2a,
It is formed on the width direction of the heating element 2 (here, the length direction of the heating element 2) when combined with the copper tapes 4 to be described later, that is, on both end sides of the copper tapes 4 and 4 in the width direction. The pair of the two electrodes 3 and 3 should be present at least on the bottom surface 2a of the heating element 2 so that the current supplied from the copper tapes 4 and 4 can be supplied to the heating element 2. Not limited.

The electrodes 3 and 3 can be obtained, for example, by applying a silver paste (made by Degussa) for forming an ohmic contact electrode to the heating element 2 and then heating the heating element 2 at 560 ° C. for 5 minutes. However, the present invention is not limited to this, as long as it is flat and can be energized so that the heating element 2 can generate heat.

As shown in FIG. 4, the copper tapes 4
Is a pair of long metal cords having a flat shape and extending along the length direction of the heater 1 as electric supply members for supplying electricity to the electrodes 3 and 3 and the heating element 2. Then, it is adhered to each of the electrodes 3, 3 by soldering. As a result, a plurality of the heating elements 2 are connected between the copper tapes 4 and 4 at a predetermined interval (pitch) and electrically parallel to each other. A ladder-shaped internal structure 5 is formed.

As the above-mentioned electricity supply member, a single wire or an assembly wire having conductivity such as copper can be used, and in particular, a braided wire of copper wire or a copper tape is preferable because it can be easily bent. Therefore, in this embodiment, the copper tapes 4 are used as the electricity supply member.

The pitch of the heating elements 2 at this time corresponds to the interval between the fitting portions (storage portions) 6a of the insulating case 6 which is a carrier tape described later, and in the present embodiment, the fitting portions 6a. Is 8.0 mm. However, the heating elements 2 may be arranged at all positions in the interval of the fitting portions 6a, but as described later, one heating element 2 is fitted to some fitting portions 6a ... To correspond to the joint 6a,
The heating element 2 may be partially arranged. In the present embodiment, as one such example, the two fitting portions 6a are provided with one
They are fitted at a ratio of individual pieces. That is, the heating elements 2 are arranged at a pitch of 16.0 mm, which is twice the interval of the fitting portions 6a, that is, at an arrangement frequency.

As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, this internal structure 5 is covered with an insulating case 6. The insulating case 6 is made of, for example, a polycarbonate resin having an insulating property, and is composed of two parts, a flat plate part 6b and a plurality of fitting parts 6a.

The flat plate portion 6b is a long and thin rectangular flat plate, and the side of the internal structure 5 configured as described above that comes into contact with the object to be heated, that is, the bottom surface 2a of the heating element 2 ...
..., the electrodes 3.3, and the copper tapes 4.4 are all sized and shaped to cover them.

On the other hand, each fitting portion 6a is recessed in the same direction from the flat plate portion 6b, that is, in the direction of the surface of the flat plate portion 6b which does not contact the heated object when the heater 1 heats the heated object. It is a hollow portion having a size and a depth that allow the heating element 2 to be fitted therein. In this embodiment, the heating element 2
It has a rectangular parallelepiped shape and has a heating element 2
Is slightly larger than. The fitting portions 6a are provided on the flat plate portion 6b so as to be arranged in a line at a predetermined interval by the number of the heating elements 2 ... Or more. As described above, the pitch of the heating elements 2 corresponds to the interval between the fitting portions 6a ..., Therefore, the fitting portions 6a ... Can fit and store all the heating elements 2 ...

The insulating case 6 is molded by another process in advance before being combined with the internal structure 5. This step is not particularly limited, but for example, a flat plate-shaped insulating sheet is used as the fitting portion 6.
Rolled by a hot roll with a gear modeled in a
It can be easily molded into a desired shape, a sufficiently thin thickness, a sufficient strength and the like by a method such as die cutting.

The internal structure 5 is fitted into the fitting portions 6a from the side of the heating element 2 to which the copper tapes 4 and 4 are not adhered. In addition, in the present embodiment, as described above, the heating element 2 is not fitted into all the fitting portions 6a ...
The two fitting portions 6a are fitted to each other at a rate of one.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 6, in this embodiment, further, of the fitting portions 6a, ..., The fitting portions 6a .. Resin 8 is poured. In this way, when the fitting portion 6a to be fitted, that is, the recessed portion is larger than the heating element 2, it is possible to inject a fluid resin or the like into the recessed portion before applying the insulating tape 7 described later. . This further improves the thermal conductivity.

The copper tape 4 on the back surface of the fitting portions 6a.
The insulating tape 7 is further adhered to the flat plate portion 6b of the insulating case 6 from the 4 side to form the belt-shaped heater 1. The insulating tape 7 is a long rectangular tape conforming to the shape of the flat plate portion 6b, and is formed in advance so as to be sufficiently thin and have sufficient strength. By this insulating tape 7, the internal structure 5 exposed on the surface of the flat plate portion 6b that comes into contact with the object to be heated, that is, each heating element 2
Bottom surface 2a, electrodes 3.3, and copper tapes 4.4 are insulated from the object to be heated.

The insulating tape 7 is made of resin and has an adhesive property and an insulating property, and is made of, for example, a polycarbonate resin. It should be noted that adhesive tape like this may be used,
A tape that can be heat-sealed may be used. When a heat-fusible tape is used, it can be adhered by applying the tape to the flat plate portion 6b of the insulating case 6 and ironing the tape in the same manner as above. Further, when the insulating tape 7 itself does not have adhesiveness, it can be adhered using an adhesive.

Polycarbonate resin was used as the material for the insulating case 6 and the insulating tape 7, but this does not cause melting or deformation due to the heat generation temperature of the heating element 2, and heating by the heating element 2 and freezing point. The following materials may be used as long as they are resins, rubbers and the like that have little change in physical properties even if they are repeatedly cooled by the outside air temperature below the temperature.

For example, as the rubber material, natural rubber, butadiene rubber, ethylene-propylene rubber, chloroprene rubber, isoprene rubber, styrene-butadiene rubber, acrylic rubber, chlorosulfonated rubber, silicone rubber,
Examples thereof include fluorosilicone rubber and fluororesin rubber. In addition, polyolefin resin such as polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene, polypropylene, polyurethane resin,
Poly-4-methylpentene-1, silicone resin, fluorine resin, polyamide resin, polyphenylene oxide resin, polybutylene terephthalate, polyethylene terephthalate, polyimide resin and the like can also be used.

When the heater 1 is used to heat the water in the water pipe to prevent it from freezing, the water pipe as the object to be heated is brought into contact with the side on which the insulating tape 7 is attached. By this method, a flexible heater can be provided. Although the copper tapes 4 and 4 are attached not to the end faces in the width direction of the heating elements 2 but to the surface (bottom surface 2a ...) Contacting the object to be heated, the resin insulating case 6 and the insulating tape 7 generate heat. Since it is heated to almost the same temperature as the body 2, the object to be heated can be heated well.

As described above, the heater 1 includes the heating element 2
On the bottom surface 2a of the flat plate-shaped electrode 3.3 and the copper tape 4.
4 is abutted. All parts of the heating elements 2 other than the bottom surfaces 2a are housed in the fitting portions 6a, and the flat plate portion 6b and the insulating tape 7 are used to form the bottom surfaces 2a of the heating elements 2 ... and the electrodes 3 and 3. , And the copper tape 4.4 are coated.

When molding the insulating case 6, there is no need to perform extrusion molding or hot pressing using an insulating material in a fluid or viscous state. For example, as described above. For example, a flat insulating sheet may be rolled or die-cut by a hot roll having a gear shaped in the shape of the fitting portion 6a, and the like, whereby a desired sufficiently thin thickness can be obtained. It can be easily molded so as to have sufficient strength.

On the other hand, as described above, the insulating tape 7 is formed sufficiently thin in advance. By covering the surface of the internal structure 5 that contacts the object to be heated with the insulating tape 7 having the insulating property, the internal structure 5 and the object to be heated can be easily insulated.

Therefore, even if the thickness of the insulating case 6 or the insulating tape 7 is not increased, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of pinholes, incomplete coating portions, and the like.

Therefore, the insulating property can be maintained without increasing the thickness of the insulating case 6 and the insulating tape 7 which cover the heating element 2. Thereby, the heat generated in the heating element 2 can be efficiently transferred to the object to be heated while maintaining good flexibility and insulating properties.

Further, since it is not necessary to increase the thickness of the insulating case 6 and the insulating tape 7 which are coating resins, a small amount of coating resin is required. This can prevent an increase in manufacturing cost.

Further, unless the internal structure 5 is covered with the insulating tape 7, the internal structure 5 is housed in the insulating case 6 so that it can be taken out from the insulating case 6. As described above, the insulating tape 7 may have an adhesive property itself, may be adhered with an adhesive agent, or may have a heat fusion property. Therefore, it can be easily bonded at the work site. Since the copper tapes 4 and 4 that energize the electrodes may be bonded with an adhesive, they can be easily bonded at the work site.

Therefore, it becomes possible to decide how many recesses the heating elements 2 are to be housed at the stage of actually performing work such as prevention of freezing of the water pipe, thus increasing work flexibility. You can Further, by doing so, there is no waste of arranging the heating elements 2 ... More than necessary, so that it is possible to prevent an increase in manufacturing cost.

Further, the arrangement for actually accommodating the heating elements 2 ... Among the depressions can be freely determined at the work stage. For this reason,
Output when heating one object to be heated using one type of heating element 2 without performing complicated work such as preparing various heating elements having different temperature characteristics depending on the heating location That is, the degree of heating can be easily adjusted to a desired value.

Even if the fitting portion 6a is larger than the heating element 2, there is no problem in terms of covering strength and insulation. For this reason,
The fitting portion 6a of one size and shape can accommodate the heating elements 2 of various sizes and shapes. Therefore, it is not necessary to prepare many kinds of insulating cases 6 according to the size and shape of the heating element 2, so that the flexibility of the work is increased and the manufacturing cost can be prevented from increasing.

In the present embodiment, the heater of the present invention is applied to a water pipe, but the heater is not limited to the above, and a U-shaped pump, a water tank, a drain, a drain pipe. It can be preferably used in a situation where the object to be heated receives heat by partial contact with the heat radiation surface of the heater, such as being used by being brought into close contact with the outer surface of the water seal part.

[Second Embodiment] The following will describe another embodiment of the present invention with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8. For convenience of explanation, members having the same functions as those of the members shown in the drawings of the above-described embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted.

As shown in FIG. 8, the heater 1 of this embodiment
Is used for the horizontal pipe 20. In the case of such a horizontal pipe, since the temperature is lowered particularly in the lower part of the pipe during a severe cold period, only the lower part needs to be heated to prevent freezing.

As shown in FIG. 7, in the heater 1, the heating elements 2 are arranged every three fitting portions 6a, that is, at positions indicated by hatching in FIG. Then, as shown in FIG. 8, the heater 1 is installed by being spirally wound around the horizontal pipe 20.

In the heater 1 of this embodiment, when the insulating case 6 is spirally wound around the horizontal pipe 20 as described above, three fitting portions 6a are provided, that is, the fourth fitting portion. The intervals of the fitting portions 6a are determined so that the fitting portions 6a are arranged on the lower side of the horizontal pipe 20 for each of the joining portions 6a. Then, as described above, the fourth fitting portion 6
The heating element 2 is arranged for each a and is not arranged in the other fitting portions 6a. As a result, the heating elements 2 are arranged only on the lower side of the horizontal pipe 20 that needs to be heated,
The heating elements 2 ... Are not arranged in other portions that do not require heating.

In this way, the heating element 2 is arranged for each predetermined number of fitting portions 6a, and the heating element 2 is arranged from the beginning in the fitting portions 6a, ... Can be left unplaced. As a result, it is possible to eliminate waste on parts and work for placing the heating element 2 in a position where heating is not required, and thus it is possible to prevent an increase in manufacturing cost and improve work efficiency.

At this time, in the insulating case 6 in which the heating elements 2 are arranged, the fitting portions 6a, in which the heating elements 2 can be arranged, are provided in advance, and the interval between the fitting portions 6a is predetermined. Has been. Therefore, the operator who installs the heater 1 in the horizontal pipe 20 is correct if he knows how many fitting parts 6a should be placed at the time of arranging the heating element 2 in the insulating case 6. Can be placed in position. That is, it is not necessary to separately prepare a distance measuring instrument and measure the distance from one heating element 2 to the next heating element 2 again precisely. This improves workability.

Further, when the heater 1 is attached to another horizontal pipe (not shown) having a pipe diameter different from that of the horizontal pipe 20, the number of the fitting portions 6a is also set in the actual work site. You only have to count the number of times it comes to the bottom of the horizontal pipe, and you do not need to separately prepare a distance measuring instrument to measure the diameter. At that time, in order to cover the heating element 2 with the insulating member, as described above, the operator works by using an adhesive tape, an adhesive for adhering the tape, a heat-sealing tape, or the like. It is possible to use the insulating tape 7 that can be easily adhered / coated on site. That is, in an actual work site, it is checked how many fitting portions 6a the heating elements 2 are to be placed in accordance with various pipes to be worked, and the heating elements 2 ... The heater 1 can be prepared simply by arranging and attaching the insulating tape 7.

Therefore, for example, for various pipes having different intervals between the heating elements 2 ...
It is possible for an operator who installs the heater 1 to easily adjust and prepare the heater 1 in which the minimum number of heating elements 2 are arranged at appropriate positions. This improves workability and prevents an increase in manufacturing cost.

[Third Embodiment] The following description will explain still another embodiment of the present invention with reference to FIGS. 9 and 10. For convenience of explanation, members having the same functions as those of the members shown in the drawings of the above-described embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted.

As shown in FIG. 10, the heater 1 of the present embodiment.
Is used when there is a horizontal pipe 30, a horizontal pipe 31, and a pipe intermediate valve 32 between both pipes. As shown in the figure, the heater 1 of the present embodiment is installed along the lengthwise direction of the horizontal pipes 30 and 31 only on the lower side of each of the horizontal pipes 30 and 31 and the pipe intermediate valve 32. Has been done.

As described above, in the piping configuration having the piping intermediate valve 32, the portion of the piping intermediate valve 32 releases a large amount of heat. Therefore, in order to prevent the freezing of water in the pipe, the peripheral portion of the pipe intermediate valve 32 must be heated particularly.

As shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, the heater 1 has the heating elements 2 ... Arranged at the positions shown by hatching. That is, in the section a, which is the portion that abuts the horizontal pipe 30, every three fitting portions 6a ... Are arranged.
Similarly, in the section c, which is the portion in contact with the horizontal pipe 31, the fitting portions 6a are arranged every three pieces. On the other hand, in the section b, which is the portion that comes into contact with the pipe intermediate valve 32, all the fitting portions 6a are arranged. As described above, the heating elements 2 are mainly arranged with respect to the pipe intermediate valve 32 which is a portion to be particularly heated in the water pipe which is one object to be heated.

As described above, in the present embodiment, in one heater 1, the pitch of the heating elements 2, ..., That is, the arrangement frequency is made different depending on the section of the heater 1 in contact with one object to be heated. In the section b, all the fitting parts 6a ...
Although the heating element 2 is placed in the
It is not necessary to place the heating element 2 in a ..., The arrangement frequency of the heating elements 2 can be easily adjusted according to the required degree of heating.

As a result, even if the heating is performed by one heater, it is possible to intensively heat the portion such as the piping intermediate valve 32 that requires heating. On the other hand, it is possible to prevent heating in the portions of the horizontal pipe 30 and the horizontal pipe 31 that do not particularly require heating as compared with that. As described above, even when one heater requires different degrees of heating for different portions of the object to be heated, the heaters can be finely handled, and each portion can be heated to an appropriate degree.

Further, since heating is not required so much in the sections a and c, depending on the degree of heating,
The heating elements 2 are arranged sparsely. As a result, waste of parts and work can be eliminated, so that an increase in manufacturing cost can be prevented and work efficiency is improved.

[0074]

As described above, the heater according to claim 1 is provided with a plurality of heating elements each having a flat bottom surface, each heating element is brought into contact with an electrode, and each electrode is provided with a pair of electric supply members. The heating elements are electrically connected in parallel by abutting each other, and an internal structure that heats the heating object by energizing the electric supply member to heat the heating element, and the internal structure and the heating object. In a heater having an insulating member that insulates between the electrodes, the electrodes and the electric supply member are flat plates, one surface of each electrode is in contact with the bottom surface of each heating element, and each of the electrodes One surface of the electricity supply member is in contact with the surface opposite to the surface in contact with the heating element, and the insulating member is
A flat plate part and a plurality of storage parts that are recessed in the same direction from the flat plate part are formed in advance with an insulating material. When the heating element is stored in the storage part and the insulating case that stores each part of the above, the exposed inside surface of the flat plate part of the internal structure opposite to the surface where the storage part is provided. And an insulating tape made of an insulating material for covering the portion to be covered.

Therefore, it is possible to efficiently transfer the heat generated by the heating element to the object to be heated while maintaining good flexibility and insulation.

Further, there is an effect that it is possible to prevent an increase in manufacturing cost by reducing a required amount of coating resin.

Further, it is possible to eliminate the waste of arranging the heating elements more than necessary and prevent an increase in manufacturing cost.

Further, there is an effect that the output when heating one object to be heated, that is, the degree of heating can be easily adjusted to a desired value.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a heater manufacturing method, wherein a plurality of heating elements having a flat bottom surface are provided, each heating element is brought into contact with an electrode, and each electrode is brought into contact with a pair of electric supply members. The heating elements are electrically connected in parallel with each other, and an electric supply member is energized to heat the heating element to insulate the internal structure for heating the object to be heated and the internal structure from the object to be heated. A method of manufacturing a heater having an insulating member, wherein one surface of each plate-shaped electrode is brought into contact with the bottom surface of each heating element, and the surface of each electrode is opposite to the surface contacting each heating element. Each of the housings of the insulating case made of an insulative material, having one surface of the flat plate-shaped electric supply member abutted against the surface of the Part of the internal structure of all heating elements,
The parts other than the bottom are housed one by one, and the part of the internal structure exposed on the side opposite to the side where the housing is provided is covered with an insulating tape made of an insulating material. Is the way.

Therefore, there is an effect that the heat generated by the heating element can be efficiently transmitted to the object to be heated while maintaining good flexibility and insulation.

Further, there is an effect that it is possible to prevent the increase of the manufacturing cost by reducing the required amount of the coating resin.

Further, it is possible to eliminate the waste of arranging the heating elements more than necessary and prevent an increase in manufacturing cost.

Further, there is an effect that the output when heating one object to be heated, that is, the degree of heating can be easily adjusted to a desired value.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B are perspective views showing a schematic configuration of an entire heater according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2A and 2B show a schematic configuration of the entire heater of FIG. 1, in which FIG. 2A is a front view and FIG. 2B is a sectional view.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of a heating element included in the heater of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of an internal structure included in the heater of FIG.

5 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of an insulating case included in the heater of FIG. 1. FIG.

6 is a perspective view showing a manufacturing process of the heater of FIG. 1. FIG.

FIG. 7 is a plan view showing the overall schematic configuration of a heater according to another embodiment of the present invention.

8 is a plan view showing a state where the heater of FIG. 7 is attached to a water pipe.

FIG. 9 is a plan view showing the overall schematic configuration of a heater according to still another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a plan view showing a state where the heater of FIG. 9 is attached to a water pipe.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Heater 2 Heating Element 3 Electrode 4 Copper Tape (Electrical Supply Member) 5 Internal Structure 6 Insulation Case (Insulation Member) 6a Fitting Part (Storage Section) 6b Flat Plate Part 7 Insulation Tape (Insulation Member) 8 Silicon Resin

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of heating elements each having a flat bottom surface, each heating element being brought into contact with an electrode, and a pair of electric supply members being brought into contact with each electrode to electrically parallel the heating elements. A heater having an internal structure for heating an object to be heated by causing a heating element to generate heat by energizing an electric supply member, and an insulating member for insulating between the internal structure and the object to be heated, The electrode and the electricity supply member are flat plates, one surface of each electrode is in contact with the bottom surface of each heating element, and the surface of each electrode opposite to the surface in contact with each heating element is electrically connected. One surface of the supply member is in contact, and the insulating member is preliminarily molded of an insulating material so as to have a flat plate portion and a plurality of storage portions that are recessed in the same direction from the flat plate portion. The bottom of all the heating elements And the insulating case that stores the other parts one by one, and when the heating element is stored in the storage part, on the side of the internal structure that is opposite to the surface where the storage part is provided, of the flat plate part. A heater, comprising: an insulating tape made of an insulating material that covers the exposed portion. 2. A plurality of heating elements each having a flat bottom surface, each heating element being brought into contact with an electrode, and a pair of electric supply members being brought into contact with each electrode to electrically parallel the heating elements. Of a heater having an internal structure that is connected to an electric supply member to energize an electric supply member to heat a heating element to heat an object to be heated, and an insulating member that insulates between the internal structure and the object to be heated. In this method, one surface of each plate-shaped electrode is brought into contact with the bottom surface of each heating element, and a plate-shaped electricity supply is provided on the surface of each electrode opposite to the surface contacting each heating element. One of the surfaces of the member is brought into contact with each other, and a flat plate portion and a plurality of storage portions that are recessed in the same direction from the flat plate portion are provided in each storage portion of an insulating case made of an insulating material. All the heating elements other than the bottom are stored one by one, and A method for manufacturing a heater, characterized in that a portion of the flat plate portion exposed on a surface side opposite to a surface on which the housing portion is provided is covered with an insulating tape made of an insulating material.