What Are Terminal Heads?

Terminal Heads also know as rtd and thermocouple heads are a type of cold end termination which are common on industrial-type temperature sensors. A temperature sensor will be encased in a ceramic or metal sheath which will be terminated at the cold end with a terminal head. Inside the head terminal blocks or temperature transmitters are placed to carry the sensor signal to instrumentation.

These are protected from the external environment as terminal heads often provide good ingress protection (IP) and temperature protection. Most commonly terminal heads are made from aluminium but can be stainless steel, cast iron or plastic depending on the application. There are many standardised designs of head, the most common being KNE, ALA and BUZ.