Digital Heating Mantles
Heating mantels provide safe and uniform heating across the entire area of a flask, or beaker. Metal housed stirring/heating mantels are essential for benchtop short path distillation, as well as many other processes. Find out more about Ai’s UL, CSA, CE certified heating mantels.
What is a heating mantel?
Heating mantels can take several forms, but they all consist of a resistance wire that is stitched into a glass, alumina ceramic fiber, or asbestos cloth, and shaped to the contours of a specific beaker, or flask. Because the sample material is being heated indirectly, by the interwoven heating elements, heating is much more uniform and safer than when direct heat is applied by means of a hot plate or Bunsen burner.
Heating mantels can come in a flexible fabric design, a rigid design, or a metal-housed design, and in simple heating only configurations, or in configurations where stirring motors and controls are incorporated. Metal housed heating/stirring mantels are ideal for applications where heat and stirring are both required. Underneath the heated mantel there is a motor that rotates a strong magnet, when a magnetic stirrer is placed into the flask or beaker above, it will begin to pull and spin at the same rate as the magnet underneath the mantel. This spin is essential for certain reactions, mixing applications, as well as fractional distillation.
Use caution when operating
Heating mantels can reach temperatures above 400C, if used incorrectly they have the heating power to melt flasks and glassware. Unless a heating mantel has a built-in controller, do not plug it directly into an outlet- some form of PID controller is needed between the outlet and mantel, without a controller the mantel will heat to its maximum. Also, it is key to make sure the thermocouple is connected and reading the right temperature. If the thermal probe is not reading the correct temperature the mantel could continue to heat and melt glassware or damage sample material.
Choosing the right mantel
With so many makes, and models, selecting the right mantle can be a challenging process. That is why we are here to help. Across International offers a complete line of digital heating mantels, with integrated controls, in sizes ranging from 2L to 20L. For more information on high quality, UL, CSA, CE certified digital heating mantels click here