heat tape
heat tape
I have an unique installation, I have 7 runs of 6 watt sheilded heat tape installed in 1" square stainless steel tubing on which a conveyor belt carrying ice cubes thru a drying blast tunnel, the installation is indoors under qualified maintaince supervision. I cannot find in the code anywhere covering this type of installation. It is not heating a pipe or vessel, and its not outdoor de-iceing. It is used to keep the conveyor belt from freezing to the skid supports, freezing to the skids could cause catastrophic damage to the plastic belt. The engineer is not calling for ground fault protection, but the manufacture of the heat tape is expressing a concern about this. Is heat tape failures that great that ground fault protection is always required? The heat tape is rated at 240 volts, but will be operated at 208 volts single phase.