Pyrometer Protection Tubes (1e751eb6-b59a-46af-8f7a-ba4ae247a538)

IT is intended to discuss in this paper the protection appliances used for high-temperature pyrometer installations involving the use of platinum couples and describe some of the characteristics of a new carborundum protection tube. Of all the components that go to make a complete pyrometer installation, the one given the least attention and the one about which there is the least exact information is the outer protection tube. This condition is unfortunate as much, and in some cases even the success of the equipment as a whole, depends on the proper type of protection. In the majority of cases, the installation is allowed to operate without attention until some part of the apparatus breaks clown. The outer tube is the component that usually fails and, more often than not, the failure causes breakage of the porcelain protection and ruin of the couple. This condition should be recognized and studied as it has a very important bearing upon the upkeep cost of pyrometer equipment. The cost of the outer protection tube is small compared with the cost of the platinum couple and procelain protection and it would well repay users of this type of equipment to replace their outer protection tubes at certain definite periods, which experience shows is necessary to prevent destruction of the platinum. Speaking generally, platinum thermocouple equipment is used for measuring temperatures over 2000° F. (1094° C.), and is used extensively for the control of brick and pipe kilns, glass pot furnaces, glass tank furnaces, heat-treating furnaces, open-hearth furnaces, and forge furnaces. A satisfactory protection tube must be sufficiently refractory not to soften at the maximum temperature within the furnace. It must be resistant to cracking clue to temperature changes, should be as nearly gas-tight as possible, and should be made of a material with a high thermal conductivity and great resistance toward erosion by the furnace atmosphere.