Table of Contents
What is Nichrome made up of?
Nichrome (also known as NiCr, nickel-chromium or chromium-nickel) is a family of alloys of nickel, chromium, and often iron (and possibly other elements) commonly used as resistance wire, heating elements in things like toasters and space heaters, in some dental restorations (fillings) and in a few other applications.
How do you make Nichrome alloys?
A well-known alloy combines 80\% Nickel and 20\% Chromium. This alloy is known as Nichrome 80/20. There are however other alloy compositions which combine nickel, chromium and iron in different other ratios.
What kind of wire is Nichrome?
Nichrome, a non-magnetic 80/20 alloy of nickel and chromium, is the most common resistance wire for heating purposes because it has a high resistivity and resistance to oxidation at high temperatures. When used as a heating element, resistance wire is usually wound into coils.
Why is Nichrome made?
Note: A nichrome wire is used as a heating element because of its high melting point and high resistivity (low conductivity) also. Having a high melting does not allow the nichrome wire to melt easily when a large amount of heat is produced. Hence, nichrome has high resistivity and low conductivity.
Why Nichrome wire is used in electric iron?
It has a high melting point such that it can sustain high temperatures. Nichrome is an ideal material for heating elements for an electric iron also because the oxide layer formed helps to protect the inner material from oxidizing which doesn’t let internal wires burn.
Can we use copper wire instead of Nichrome?
Copper cannot be used as a meter bridge wire because it has low resistance and high-temperature coefficient of resistivity.
Why do we use nichrome wire?
The major reason why nichrome wire is used in various electrical appliances is because of its high heating property as compared to other good conductors ( metal wires ). Basically here nichrome wire is a heating element or a material that allows the electricity to pass through it and offers certain resistance that produces heat.
What does a nichrome wire do?
Nichrome wire is used for its ability to withstand the high temperatures that occur when clay work is fired in a kiln. Nichrome wire can be used as an alternative to platinum wire for flame testing by colouring the non-luminous part of a flame to detect cations such as sodium, potassium, copper, calcium, etc.
Why does nichrome wire have a high resistance?
We believe that increasing the temperature of the nichrome wire will cause the measured resistance of the wire to also increase. This is because nichrome is composed of metals, and the resistivity of metals generally increases with temperature (Bortner).
Why is nichrome wire used in an iron?
Nichrome wire should be used as the heating element in an electric iron. The reasons are mentioned below: High resistivity thus ensuring the wires to heat up faster. High specific heat which provide enough heat to the element.