Using Heater Cartridge at higher Voltage?

Hello, this is my first post, I hope I am in the right section.

I am designing a DIY soldering station and need a heater element, I have a 48V, 2.5A power supply, and a 20 ohm heater would be perfect for this.
A 30 watt 24V heater should have a resistance of 19.2 ohms, so I would like to use a heater cartridge, but I am concerned that 48V would kill a 24V heater. I do not know how the heater cartrages are internaly, could someone who knows more about this than me know if it would servive 48V, or link me to some infermation about the heater cartridge work at higher voltages?

Also would the heater cartrage designed for a 3D printer be able to survive 350 degrees C?

Edit: I will use a MOSFET to pwm control the wattage, I am not going to constantly have ~120W flowing through iron, only during heatup.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/25/2018 03:51PM by cooperhero.

Hello and welcome to the forum.

I would buy a 24 V power supply, they are really cheap. You can lower 48 V to 24 V, but this costs energy (transforming or wasting energy by a resistor). Personally I would buy a bit more expensive one, PSUs from Mean Well have a good reputation. There is a model for 24 V without fan, which is a silent solution (LRS-200-24).

For heater cartridge: most plastics melt at those temperatures. Be aware of the cables, they must survive 350 °C (cable for heating and the cable of the temparature sensor). For the cartrage itself a steel one is a secure solution.

Some 3D printers can print high temperature. Just search for PEEK and PEI printing like here:
[www.3d4makers.com]
This will give you further information for needed hardware.

Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/2018 04:36AM by JoergS5.

Thanks for the reply. Using the power supply is more important to me so I will keep looking for a suitable heater element.

At 48v it becomes a 120w heater, so it will heat up very quickly (similar to 12v heater cartridge on 24v, I did this for a long time with no issues), but not straight out kill it. There are recorded cases of chinese heater cartridges melting the aluminum blocks they're inserted into (which means they can get over 660ºC) and remaining visually intact after being left on for hours, so take that as an indication.

... I've used two enamel resistors, rated for 5 Watts, press-fitted into an aluminium block, to heat the block to more than 400 degC in a minute or such - should be something like 80 Watts effective heating power without visible damage to the resistors after many heating sequences ...

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Viktor
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I know it would make it less of a DIY project, but have you considered buying a replacement soldering iron (about £5 on eBay, for the common ones with 5-hole connectors) and just making the controller yourself? That way you would get not only the element but also the temperature sensor, handle, cable, and a shaft compatible with off-the-shelf soldering iron bits.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].