Thermocouples

« Back to Glossary Index

Ther­mo­cou­ples are sen­sors for mea­sur­ing tem­per­a­tures, con­sist­ing of two wires of dif­fer­ent met­als, which are joined at one end to form a ther­mo­cou­ple. The junc­tion forms the mea­sur­ing point. If it heats up, a low volt­age in the range of a few 10 µV per 1 °C tem­per­a­ture dif­fer­ence can be mea­sured. The mea­sured volt­age is ap­prox­i­mate­ly pro­por­tion­al to the tem­per­a­ture of the mea­sur­ing point. Along­side re­sis­tance ther­mome­ters, ther­mo­cou­ples are the sec­ond ma­jor group of sen­sors used in in­dus­tri­al tem­per­a­ture mea­sure­ment tech­nol­o­gy. Ther­mo­cou­ples are pri­mar­i­ly used for or at tem­per­a­tures of up to about 1,700 °C.

« Zurück zum Glossar Index