Heat Flux Products for Hypersonics

Medtherm Space Flight Qualified Heat Flux Transducers

Since 1970, Medtherm has been the industry standard for accurate, reliable thermal measurement in the world’s most demanding environments. As the leading manufacturer of heat flux transducers, infrared radiometers, fast-response thermocouples, and high-temperature thermocouples, Medtherm instruments have supported critical testing and validation efforts across aerospace flight and ground testing, full-scale fire testing, flammability qualification, and advanced materials research.

For university research teams investigating hypersonic aerothermodynamics, thermal protection systems (TPS), and high-enthalpy flow physics, Medtherm instrumentation offers a direct lineage to flight-validated measurement techniques. Medtherm space flight-qualified products – heat flux sensors, and radiometers have flown on, and supported testing for, major programs including Pershing, Space Shuttle, Titan II and IV, Atlas V, X-33, and today’s next-generation vehicles such as Starship and Falcon 9. This heritage provides academic researchers with confidence that laboratory and wind-tunnel data are directly relevant to real-world flight conditions. This extensive flight history reflects our commitment to measurement accuracy, survivability, and data integrity under extreme thermal and mechanical conditions.

Medtherm heat flux transducers and infrared radiometers represent the culmination of decades of design refinement and field validation. Proven in thousands of applications over more than forty years, our products have become a trusted solution for flight aerospace development, research, and testing. Medtherm heat flux product performance, reliability, and legacy continue to be the benchmark for critical thermal measurement applications.

20850 Heat Flux Transducers and Infrared Radiometers

Medtherm 20850 heat flux transducers and infrared radiometers are qualified for space and missile flight. These transducers are capable of operating in extreme shock, vibration, and thermal environments. The Type I MEDTHERM Schmidt-Boelter thermopile total heat flux transducer provides a linear EMF output directly proportional to the net absorbed heat flux to the sensing tip (typically cold wall flux), The Type II and VI MEDTHERM Schmidt-Boelter thermopile infrared radiometers provide a linear EMF output directly proportional to the incident radiation which is within the passband of the chosen window. The Type I, II, and VI full-scale output is 43±7 millivolts at the maximum design heat flux level. The Type III slug calorimeter provides a Type K thermocouple output with net absorbed heat flux determined from the slope of the thermocouple output versus time. Each unit is supplied with an individual calibration traceable to NIST.