Headquartered in Gardena, California, C-Temp International was formed in 1981 primarily as a thermocouple manufacturer to serve the HVAC, industrial, food service, process control, and military equipment markets with accurate, reliable and affordable thermocouple solutions.  Over the years, we have been improving our thermocouple manufacturing processes to provide high quality, world class products. Today, C-Temp International is dedicated to evolving to advance our manufacturing standards and capabilities for the benefit of our end users and major OEMs. We’ve delivered thousands of thermocouples and thermocouple assemblies as industry standard configurations and unique custom designed units.

We also have manufacturing expertise for thermocouple accessory products - temperature sensors and temperature control products. Many of our temperature measurement products are engineered into equipment at the world's leading instrumentation, process control and semiconductor companies. C-Temp International’s thermocouple manufacturer’s proficiency includes advanced ultra-high temperature materials applications and metallurgical processes. Our capability extends to a full range of state-of-the-art products including flexible interconnect needs. We deliver customized elements, probes, wire assemblies with specialty terminations to suit any particular industrial needs one may have. Not only do we manufacturer thermocouples, but we offer a full range of design services to provide you with the benefit our knowledge and experience.

C-Temp International’s forte is custom thermocouples and custom thermocouple assemblies. We love to manufacture (i.e., build to print or build to spec) for companies who have the ability to design thermocouples in-house and are only in need of an experienced thermocouple manufacturer to build it. By utilizing our production capabilities, you benefit by using our skilled assembly technicians and established suppliers to build your thermocouple assembly. All of our years of manufacturing experience and exceedingly developed quality controls go into the assembly of your product. Our production team will adhere to high quality manufacturing standards and comply to our strict assembly guidelines.

After your custom thermowell is assembled, all of our thermocouples and thermocouple assemblies are tested for adequate insulation resistance. All cable is certified and checked for ANSI limits of error conformance by standard lot sampling in our quality control laboratory, which is certified traceable to the NIST. Finished assembly certified traceable calibration is available at time of order.

Our team will do it right, on-time and on budget.

Thermocouples are low-impedance temperature sensors that work by producing electro-motive forces (milliVolt) and these EMF's are correlated to a temperature based on a curve specified for that particular and unique to each thermocouple calibration. The EMF produced occurs due to temperature gradients along the wires and not only at the junction. This phenomenon can be explained in three scientific theories called the Seebeck effect, the Peltier effect, and the Thompson effect.

Three laws of thermoelectric circuits explain the thermocouple behavior:

1) The Law of Intermediate Metals.

According to the Thermocouple Law of Intermediate Metals, inserting any type of wire into a thermocouple circuit has no effect on the output as long as both ends of that wire are the same temperature, or isothermal.

2) The Law of Homogeneous Metals.

This law states that a thermocouple circuit that is made with a homogeneous wire cannot generate an EMF, even if it is at different temperatures and thicknesses throughout. In other words, a thermocouple must be made from at least two different materials in order to generate a voltage.

3) The Law of Intermediate Temperatures.

If two dissimilar homogeneous metals produce a thermal EMF of X; it will remain at that number if a third material is introduced into the circuit, if both ends of that third material are at the same temperature.

The millivolt signal produced by the thermocouple is a very, very, very low level signal. Thus, transmitting this signal over a long distance may be difficult if any extraneous "noise" is introduced into the system. This noise may cause errors in the EMF signal. Twisted and shielded thermocouple extension wire should be used in areas with excessive "noise" to help eliminate the problem.

The lead wire that extends from the thermocouple must match the calibration (same metal alloys) of the thermocouple. This lead wire continues to transmit the signal from the thermocouple to the instrument, and as long as it is one homogeneous metal, it will not produce an EMF along that length even if it does experience temperature gradients.

The milliVolt output of a thermocouple depends on the magnitude of the temperature difference between the measuring junction and the reference junction. The reference junction (or cold jonction) is the end to which the thermocouple is connected. While the hot measuring junction is stable at a given temperature, the output of the point at which the reference junction is made must be compensated for in the instrumentation. This is accomplished through "cold junction Compensation." The temperature of the cold junction is measured and calculated into the overall EMF signal to obtain the accurate hot junction temperature, or the temperature of the process.

Selection of the optimum type of thermocouple and components for a thermal system is necessarily based on a number of variables or factors of the application. The temperature range, accuracy required, resistance to atmospheric conditions, and pressure are typical thermocouple variables for any given application.

The preceding technical information and application hints are intended to serve only as a guide for thermocouple selection.

The process environment determines the type of thermocouple used. Temperature, atmosphere, protection, response, accuracies and service life should be considered. Determine your application temperature range and select the thermocouple type, for example: J, K, E, T or N. There are a number of sheath alloys that will withstand the atmospheres and possible corrosives and temperatures.