Abstract: A portable branding device which uses a high current/low voltage power source such as a twelve volt tractor battery, for heat branding of livestock. The device includes a hollow body having first and second ends and a handle portion. A plurality of brand elements are detachable mounted to the second end and spaced from the second end. The branding device has an insulating panel. A plurality of legs is connected to the insulating panel for supporting the brand element. A series of terminals extend through the insulating panel and the brand element is attached to the terminals. Electrical connecting devices connect the brand element in spaced relation to the second end of the main body and a high current relay switching means, such as a solenoid switch is mounted within the main body for transmitting electricity to the brand element. A low current finger actuated switch is connected to the handle for actuating the high current relay switching means.

Abstract: A heated transfer line for heating a small glass capillary tube is disclosed. The transfer line is small and removable yet highly efficient, capable of uniformly heating a glass capillary tube over a 5-inch length to more than 400.degree. C. with less than 30 watts of power. The power is applied to an electrically conductive heater tube, which encircles the glass capillary, via first and second current conductors attached to respective ends of the heater tube. The first and second current conductors are arranged in proximity to the heater tube and back along the heater tube to a common point without touching each other. Electrical insulation is disposed between the heater tube and the first and second current conductors to electrically isolate the heater tube from the current conductors. A cover of thermal insulation is disposed over the heater tube and the current conductors and is used to thermally isolate the heater tube. An outer tube is disposed around the thermal insulation as a cover.

Abstract: A hand-held hair dryer includes an elongated tubular barrel containing an electric heating element and extending from a hollow volute portion provided with a rotatable impeller producing a flow of air through the barrel. A tubular handle is secured to the volute portion by an elongated rectangular cross-section base portion extending generally transversely to the longitudinal axis of the barrel and having parallel opposed base-sides provided with mirror image C-shaped indentations. A conventional portable radio receiver provided with a speaker and controls is stably seated and cradled within the opposed indentations of the base-sides with the speaker and controls positioned in registry with windows formed in the base-sides to enable the user of the dryer to relieve the tedium of hair drying by listening to music or other entertainment from the housed radio receiver.

Abstract: A through-flow electric water heater has a cannister through which water to be heated flows and in which are disposed a first heating means comprising a plurality of electric heating elements and second heating means comprising at least one electric heating element. A control unit comprising a microprocessor receives a first input signal from a flow sensor and a temperature sensor which sense, respectively, the flow rate and temperature of the water flowing into the cannister and switches the plurality of heating elements of the first heating means on and off in different combination to achieve different heating levels and adjusts the level of heat dissipated by burst firing the at least one heating element of the second heating means to achieve a desired total heating level.

Abstract: A combination hair-dryer and garment ironing apparatus includes a housing having an air inlet and a pair of air outlets. A blower and electric heater in the housing create a flow of heated air through the housing. A permanent, non-removable iron assembly is provided on the housing and includes a sole plate disposed in the path of the heated air flow through the housing. The sole plate forms a portion of a wall of the housing and has an exposed generally flat ironing surface. A heated air diverter member within the housing is selectively movable between a first dryer position in which substantially all of the heated air flowing through the housing is diverted from contact with the sole plate and is exhausted through one of the outlets and a second iron position in which a substantial portion of the heated air flow is diverted into contact with at least a portion of the sole plate for impingement heating of the sole plate to an ironing temperature and is exhausted from the other air outlet.

Abstract: A sintered ceramic electric heater suitably applicable to a glow plug of a diesel engine has a heater element formed of an electrically conductive sintered ceramic integrally sintered with a support member made of an electrically insulating sintered ceramic material. The heater element is formed as a sintered body of a mixture of MoSi.sub.2 powder having an average diameter not greater than 2 .mu.m and 35 to 75 mol % of Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 powder. The average particle diameter of the Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 powder is at least twice as large as that of the MoSi.sub.2 powder so that electrically interconnecting MoSi.sub.2 particles surround scattered Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 particles whereby the resistance of the heater element becomes equal to that of MoSi.sub.2 and the temperature coefficient of the heater element is increased.

Abstract: An electric coffee percolator is provided with a fresh water container located above a water heating chamber sized to receive and retain about 30-60% of the volumetric amount of fresh water required for a complete coffee infusion. The heating chamber is separated by a common wall from the water container and receives fresh water therefrom through a non-return value located in the common wall. A ventilating pipe in the water container is slidably amounted in the common wall to project a selected distance into the heating chamber so that the water level in the heating chamber can be adjusted. A check valve in the ventilating tube prevents expulsion of water from the heating chamber into the water container. The bottom wall of the heating chamber is provided with an electric heating element surrounding a well from which a riser pipe through which the hot water is expelled extends upwardly to a water outlet chamber having a cross-sectional area which increase in size from its inlet end to its outlet end.

Abstract: A forced air drying device for supplying filtered warm air for drying small areas, such as, for example, in dentistry or orthodontics, for drying of the teeth or gums prior to work thereon, includes a hand held forced air unit, such as a hair dryer, provided with a motor driven fan directing a stream of air over an electric heating element and through an outlet opening toward the area to be dried. A detachable nozzle has a first end mounted over the outlet opening and a second end with a reduced cross-sectional area for directing a concentrated stream of heated air to the area to be dried. The nozzle is provided with exhaust vents between the first and second ends thereof to prevent overheating of the motor due to a build-up of pressure resulting from the reduced cross-sectional area of the nozzle second end. An air deflector is provided adjacent each exhaust vent for directing escaping air away from the second and end of the nozzle.

Abstract: A sintered ceramic heater, particularly a heater for a glow plug of a diesel engine, includes a sintered ceramic heater, which generates heat upon receiving an electric current, supported by an electrically insulating sintered ceramic body. The heater element includes a U-shaped cross-section outer portion integrally sintered with and covering a central portion. Each portion is formed of a sintered ceramic body of a mixture of electrically conductive ceramic powder having an average diameter of not more than 2 .mu.m and selected from the group consisting of MoSi.sub.2, WSi.sub.2, TiB.sub.2 and TiC, and 35-75 mol % of electrically insulating ceramic powder, e.g., Si.sub.3 N.sub.4. The central and outer portions have the same composition.

Abstract: A vehicle seat heater includes a main body adapted to be mounted on at least one of a seat cushion part or seat back part of a vehicle seat and provided with a pair of electric warming heaters. A thermally insulated temperature control unit located remotely from the heater main body is provided for stopping energization of the heating elements when the temperature of the seat heater main body exceeds a predetermined level. The control unit includes a pair of auxiliary electric heaters each respectively coupled to a different one of the warming heaters for simultaneous energization therewith and a pair of thermostatic switches coupled in series, with each thermostatic switch being in heat exchange relationship with a different one of the auxiliary heaters for stopping the flow of electricity to the auxiliary heater and warming heater coupled thereto. The thermostat switches and auxiliary heaters are disposed within casing or housing and connected to the respective warming heaters by lead wires.

Abstract: An electrical heating device for a mirror includes a pair of electrically conductive heating lining plates providing for heat distribution on a mirror, and electrical conductors connected to the plates for connecting the plates to a source of power. An insulating layer is disposed between the plates, the insulating layer having openings, and PTC resistor platelettes disposed in the openings and in electrical contact with the pair of plates. One of the plates has a larger area than the insulating layer such that an outer peripheral edge portion of the one plate is spaced outwardly of the outer peripheral edge of the insulating layer, the other of the pair of plates not being larger in area than the insulating layer. The larger of the plates is adapted to be adhered to the backside of a mirror glass for defogging and demisting the mirror.

Abstract: A liquid heating system, for example a central heating system, including a heat store in the form of a stack of bricks heated to a relatively high temperature by electric heating elements embedded in the bricks and energized by off-peak electricity is thermally connected to a vessel containing the liquid to be heated by a controllable heat pipe. The heat pipe includes an evaporator zone in thermal contact with the heat store and a condenser zone in thermal contact with the vessel, which could be a water tank. The zones are joined by at least one duct to form a hermetically sealed unit containing a small quantity of a volatile liquid which, in use, is a totally evaporated in the evaporator zone so that the rate of heat transfer to the condenser zone from the evaporator zone is determined by the return flow rate of condensed volatile liquid to the evaporator zone.

Abstract: A self-regulating electric heater includes a plurality of ceramic PTC resistors having flat contact surfaces on their opposite sides disposed between a pair of flat electrode plates with the contact surfaces in electrical and thermal contact with the plates. A support frame of electrically insulative material is formed with receiving portions respectively for the PTC resistors and the electrode plates to positions and hold the resistors and plates in assembled relationship for insertion as a single assembly into a closed-end cavity in a metallic radiator with the electrode plates in good heat transfer contact with the inner wall surface of the cavity. The frame is provided with spring seats receiving springs which coact with the radiator to bias the support frame into the cavity to insure stable intimate thermal contact between the electrode plates and inner cavity wall. The PTC resistors may be provided with chamfered edges along the peripheries of the flat contact surfaces thereof.

Abstract: An electrically heated tool for heating a pipe connector sleeve in order to melt solder therein or applied thereto to secure the sleeve to a pipe has a pair of arms (1) hingedly connected to one another between their ends by a pin (2) in the manner of pliers. An electric heating unit (3) having an elongated shaft portion (9) enclosing an electric resistance heating element is detachably secured to and projects from one and the same end of each arm. The free end of each shaft portion (9) is detachably slidably inserted into the tubular shank of a metallic head part (4) having a semi-circular recess (4a) of a radius substantially equal to the radius of the pipe or sleeve to be heated. The arms are movable between an open position in which the recesses are spaced apart and a position in which the recesses are closed together around a pipe connector sleeve so as to apply heat thereto.

Abstract: The temperature of a liquid bath in the tank of a clinical analyzer is precisely regulated to a known reaction temperature, for example, 37.0 degrees C., notwithstanding the transport of cuvettes through the tank by a conveyor for photometric analysis, by providing an electric heater assembly externally of the tank in a circulation loop through which the both liquid is circulated from a tank liquid outlet to a tank liquid inlet. The temperature of the liquid is measured by a first temperature sensor located downstream of the heater assembly but upstream of the tank inlet and a second temperature sensor located in the tank remote from the tank inlet. The deviation of the measured liquid inlet temperature from a preset liquid inlet temperature and the deviation of the measured tank temperature from the desired constant tank temperature are used to obtain a heating element drive signal for controlling the energization of the heater assembly to maintain the bath temperature constant.

Abstract: An apparatus for electrically heating conductive bulk materials by resistance Joule effect heating includes end and side walls defining an oven chamber having an inlet and an outlet. A plurality of pairs of generally planar electrode plates are angularly mounted with respect to the opposed end walls of the chamber and are electrically disconnected from one another. The electrode plates mounted to each end wall are disposed at the same angle and are arranged such that the upper edge of each electrode plate is at a different distance from the end wall than the lower edge of the plate, so that the planes of the plurality of electrode plates mounted to each end wall are substantially parallel and vertically displaced from each other. The electrical supply for each pair of electrodes plates is electrically isolated from that of each other pair. The amount of energy supplied to each pair of electrode plates is adjustable.

Abstract: The knob of a handpiece for use in a push-pull type electric lighter is provided with an increased diameter portion positioned in closer proximity to the ignition end than the handle portion of the knob. At least one O-ring or like seal is mounted around the periphery of the increased diameter portion of the knob. The outer end of the socket which protrudes through an aperture in a panel, and the portion of the handpiece extending out from the socket when fitted into the socket are encased (except for the handle portion of the knob) in a hollow open-ended tubular housing mounted on the face of the panel. The O-ring of the handpiece is adapted to engage the interior wall of the tubular housing and form a water-tight, slidable seal therewith yet permit the handpiece to be pushed into and be pulled from the socket by means of the handle portion of the knob. The portions of the socket extending to the rear of the panel may be, and preferably are, encased by another housing.

Abstract: A thermally-sensitive electrical control is mounted to the head of an electric immersion heater of an electric kettle or like container. The control has an outer periphery of less radial extent than the head so as to be passable, during assembly, through an opening in the wall of the associated container such that the head may be positioned in the opening with the control mounted thereto by insertion of the control through the opening from inside the container. The control includes an electric switch and a snap-action, overheat sensing bimetallic actuator disposed on the side of a body portion of the control which faces the head when the control is mounted thereto and a snap-action steam responsive bimetallic actuator mounted to the opposite side of the body portion. The switch is operated by the bimetallic actuators through an over-center mechanism disposed on the opposite side of the body portion and connected to the switch by a U-shaped link slidbly mounted in the body portion.

Abstract: An improved electric resistance heater assembly for soldering tools, glue guns, hair dryers, heat pencils, paint removers, etc., includes, as the core of the assembly, an open-ended tube of a ceramic material having good electrical insulation properties with good thermal conductivity, low heat capacity and a high softening temperature. A conduit extends lengthwise through the wall of the tube from end to end thereof and first and second spring-tempered split metallic compression bands of smaller diameter than the tube are placed at each end of the tube and retained thereon by compressive stress. A plurality of turns of resistance wire are wound about the outer periphery of the tube between the bands with each end of the wire welded to a respective one of the bands. An first electric lead is welded to the first band. A second electric lead is welded to the second band and extends lengthwise through the conduit and exits the conduit near the first band.

Abstract: A flexible electric heating assembly for immersion heating of highly corrosive liquids, such as electroplating solutions, includes an iron-nickel-chronium resistance element disposed within a thin-walled stainless steel tube and electrically insulated therefrom by a magnesium oxide ceramic. The tube is enclosed in a tubular casing in direct contact with the tube and formed of resilient electrical insulating material having a low surface coefficient of friction and a high resistance to heat and attacks by corrosive liquids or vapors, e.g., polytetrafluroetylene. The ends of the tube terminate withn a non-corrosive junction box located outside the liquid to be heated, and in which box the connections between the power supply and heating element terminals are made.