Electric Heating Arrangement with Thermally Conductive Gap Layer
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional electric heating arrangements in automotive applications often generate hot spots and are perceivable to users due to their design, which limits their effectiveness and comfort.
Innovation Solution
An electric heating arrangement featuring a planar substrate with a thermally conductive layer between two electrically conductive heating track sections, providing even heat dissipation and minimizing perceivability, using materials like PET or TPU substrates and conductive materials like Cu, Ni, or Ag, with a design that includes insulating materials and wavelike shapes for enhanced flexibility and uniformity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If conventional heating wires are used, then heating function is provided, but hot spots and cold areas are generated and the heating arrangement is perceptible to users
Solution Approach 1:
A thermally conductive layer is introduced as an intermediary between the heating track sections and the substrate. This layer acts as a heat distributor that receives heat from the heating tracks and evenly distributes it across the substrate surface, preventing hot spots and cold areas while maintaining heating efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The heating arrangement uses discrete heating track sections rather than continuous wires, with each section having optimized local thermal properties. The thermally conductive layer is applied selectively in regions between heating sections to ensure even heat distribution without overheating any single location.
2Ease of operation
If conventional heating wires are used, then heating function is provided, but the heating arrangement is perceptible to users
Solution Approach 1:
The heating arrangement uses thin-film heating track sections deposited on a flexible substrate, creating a flat, flexible structure that can be conformally integrated into trim covers and other components. This thin-film design eliminates the bulk and rigidity of conventional wires, making the heating arrangement imperceptible to users during normal use.
Solution Approach 2:
The heating tracks are transitioned from three-dimensional wire structures to two-dimensional planar patterns on a thin substrate. This dimensional reduction allows the heating elements to be flush-mounted within trim covers, eliminating protrusions and perceptible features while maintaining heating functionality.
3Ease of manufacture
If heating track sections are separated by gaps, then manufacturing is simplified, but heat distribution becomes uneven
Solution Approach 1:
The thermally conductive layer serves as a mediator that bridges the thermal gap between discrete heating track sections. It conducts heat laterally from heated regions to cooler regions, ensuring uniform temperature distribution across the substrate while allowing the heating tracks themselves to remain discontinuous for manufacturing simplicity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution prevents hot spots and cold areas, ensuring even heating and reduced visibility, enhancing user comfort and operational efficiency in automotive and other applications.
Implementation Method 1
The thermally conductive material on the substrate between the heating tracks may provide a function similar to a thermal bridge. The thermally conductive layer facilitates a heat transfer originating from the heating tracks and/or the heated substrate by providing a path of merely small resistance for said heat transfer
Implementation Method 2
an electrically conductive heating track being connectable to a current source so that in operation a heating current flows through said electrically conductive heating track
Data Source
AI summary
An electric heating arrangement having a planar substrate and an electrically conductive heating track arranged on a surface of the substrate. The heating track includes at least a first heating track section and a second heating track section separated from each other by a gap and extending at a distance along each other on the substrate. The electric heating arrangement further includes a layer of thermally conductive material arranged on the surface of the substrate in the gap between the first heating track section and the second heating track section. A width of the layer of thermally conductive material is smaller than a width of the gap between the first heating track section and second heating track section. The layer of thermally conductive material is arranged so as to be separated from the first heating track section and the second heating track section.