thermocouples are helpful and handy tools in the mechanical engineers toolkit.  engineers can buy them or make them. they can be simple or or have some level of intelligence built into them.  they are generally widely used.  in this editorial, we want to cover their uses and some ways for engineers to make their own.

rober moffat, a coolingzone contributor, has created some notes on how to use thermocouples.   points he covers include:

• the materials to make a thermocouple
• their basic design
• how to establish a reference temperature for the thermocouples
• differences in measurement
• and much more in his excellent technical note

you can read his note here by clicking to this article here on coolingzone: "notes on using thermocouples"   now that we've covered some of the basics on thermocouples, let's cover how to make them.  we'll look at two approaches: simple and "smart", multichannel thermouples.

in our first approach, coolingzone sponsor, ats, demonstrates that with just thermocouple wire and a spot welder, you can create simple thermocouples.  this is a great approach for lab work where budget and time require expediency.  just click the youtube screen capture below to be brought to the video on ats's blog to learn how to do this.

in our second approach, analog devices has released an engineering design note on how to create a more intelligent thermo couple that has increased accuracy and is multichannel.  their design note highlights:

• how an intelligent design may help or completely remove the background noise
• corrects nonlinearity
• provides accurate reference junction compensation (commonly referred to as cold junction compensation)

the note is essentially a reference design to create a an intelligent and highly accurate multichannel thermocouple.   you can access the note here at coolingzone by clicking this link:  analog devices reference design to create an intelligent, multichannel, thermocouple.