ABSTRACT
The chapter describes potential heat sources for deployment of CHEM commercial products. There are several viable conventional methods for heating the CHEM applications. Basically, these methods can be grouped into three categories: resistive heating, inductive heating and radiative heating. The resistive heating had been chosen as the preferred heating method for the CHEM structure. Afterward, the resistive heaters were further investigated. A thermochromic material was proposed to act as an alert to inform the user to bend/compact/deploy/reconfigure the CHEM product. The chapter also describes alternative improved ways of heating. Heating in a classical way is slow in polymers due to their low thermal conductivity. Adding carbon black (CB) or CNTs improves the thermal conductivity, but also allows for the use of other heating methods like microwaves or direct electrical heating, possibly reducing the time needed to heat the material above its transformation temperature, thus improving the recovery speed.
