Mineral Insulated

Advantages:

• Maintains Temperatures up to 1000 degrees F
• Constant output controls easily
• Built in cold length at every connection
• Long Life

Disadvantages:

• Can not be cut in the field
• Series Heater Wire
• Made to order
• Not very flexible — "difficult to install"
• Higher Cost

Mineral Insulated Heater Cable is manufactured with heater wire / wires embedded in Magnesium Oxide insulation. Magnesium Oxide is a very good heat conductor and is also a good electrical insulator, which can take very high temperatures before this relationship breaks down. Therefore, the limit for Mineral Insulated heater cable is the temperature of the heater wire, 1000 to 1100 degrees F.

MI cable is fairly rigid and can be difficult to install on pipe with many bends, valves and tees. Each cable comes with a factory made 7-foot cold lead and is specifically designed for each application.

Mineral Insulated heat cable is designed with only 1 or 2 heater wires, because these wires are continuous, any failure along the entire length of cable will completely shut down the cable — no heat output. However, MI cable is extremely durable and these failures are rare.

This cable is most ideally suited for high temperature applications — soap, tar, asphalt, and others where the temperature limits of Constant Wattage cable or Self-Regulating cable are too low.

Visit our Math Page to: Calculate Heat Requirements for Maintaining Pipe Temp
www.thermalinc.com/math/pipetrace.htm