Reducing Leakage Current in Foil Heating Elements.

[Ronin2119]

I'm currently conducting IEC 60335-1 testing on a commercial appliance that utilized foil heating elements.
IEC requires that we conduct a leakage current test after humidity conditioning. I have noticed that the foil elements are absorbing enough of the moisture to cause the appliance to fail this testing. Any ideas on how to eliminate this issue

 

[itsmoked]

Got a link to the foil heating elements?

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[3DDave]

Ah - are these laminated foil heating elements? I see

https://jen-ter.com/products/foil-laminated-heating-elements

specifically lists moisture resistant elements as a special order.

I expect the maker of the heating element will have to be responsible for meeting the requirement.

Etched foil heaters will have a similar situation - the maker should have sufficient experience.

If the leakage is to the housing, then better insulators seem like the obvious choice - electric dryers manage to be safely made with a bare exposed nichrome heating element that is on ceramic insulators to prevent leakage.

 

[Ronin2119]

In fact, they are the Jen-Ter foil laminated elements. We've been using these for years but have since added an embedded PEPI to the design. I will reach out to my contact a jen-ter to aid with this issue. My project is currently on hold a UL...