Heating tile

Heating tiles have electrical resistance wires on their under surfaces which are covered with a non-conducting sheet, adjacent tiles being physically and electrically connected to provide any chosen area for heating such as the bottom of a bird cage, kennel or for heating blankets.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
This invention relates to a heating tile. 
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION 
It is an object of the present invention to provide a tile having heating 
means which may be joined to tile heating means of other tiles with 
transfer of the heating means between tiles so that a heated surface of 
desired area may be provided. 
The invention is particularly suited for animal cages, kennels and the like 
enclosures but it will be appreciated that it may be used for human 
housing, offices and many other applications such as bed heaters, bathroom 
surfaces, heating of pipes and the like. 
THE INVENTION 
According to the invention tiles are provided which include heating means 
incorporated therein, the heating means being connectable to heating means 
of adjacent tiles. 
The heating means may be a flow of heated fluid such as oil or water but it 
is preferred that tile heating means comprises electrically heated 
elements embedded, printed, or otherwise incorporated into the tiles. The 
heating elements may be silk-screened on to the tiles. 
The tiles may be of any suitable size having regard to the application and 
may include interengaging formations for a physical connection as well as 
the electrical connection. 
In a preferred form of the invention each tile has resistance wires on 
their lower surfaces and these are connectable to the resistance wires of 
the adjacent tiles when the tiles are joined together. The physical 
connection elements may include electrical connections. 
In one form of the invention the lower surfaces having the resistance wires 
are covered with a sheet of electrically non-conductive material or 
another tile without resistance wires. 
Tiles of the order of 10 cm square are useful for bird cages or dog baskets 
or as electric blankets for humans, The uses of an assembly of the tiles 
of the invention are extensive.

In the drawings tiles 30 are provided in the form of a square and are 
constructed from two halves 10 and 16. Resistance wires or electrical 
elements 12 are either attached or embedded into the lower surface of the 
upper half 10, and extend to contact pads 17 which are located on one 
interengaging connection formation 18 as illustrated in FIG. 1. The two 
halves 10 and 16 are then either glued, or welded by ultrasonic means or 
solvents so as to seal the electrical element from moisture ingress. 
Reference to FIG. 3 shows how the interengaging connection formations slot 
into each other allowing the copper contact pads 17 to connect the 
circuits between tiles. 
In FIG. 4 the sectional view shows how the elements may be connected to a 
supply of low voltage current. Conduits 20 are provided which also have 
matching interengaging formations to the tiles and likewise also include 
contact pads 17, so that a very neat and convenient method of constituting 
a large heating surface may be provided. 
The conduits in this drawing are shown in part engagement and it will be 
readily appreciated that when completely engaged they will create a very 
firm and compact border to the heating pad. The joints between the tiles 
may, if required, be sealed by any suitable compound. 
In FIG. 5 the corner connector and conduit 22 is shown which allows an 
enclosed space to be heated. This feature of the invention is shown in 
FIG. 6 where a box is assembled using a number of tiles together with 
corner connections. This facility will provide ideal incubation chambers 
for laboratories where a great demand exists for controlled temperature 
cabinets. 
Referring to FIG. 7 a pipe 32 is shown covered by curved heating tiles 34. 
This application will facilitate the flow of viscous liquids along pipe 
lines in food processing or other industrial uses. 
The assembly of tiles is connected to a source of electricity depending on 
what source is available and, if necessary the source may be transformed. 
A variable resistance or equivalent may be provided to adjust the 
temperature of the tiles. 
The tiles of the invention may be flexible or deformable for greater 
versatility--for example for cladding pipes and other non-planar shapes.