Thermocouples can measure temperatures over wide ranges, fairly inexpensively. They are very rugged, but they are somewhat less accurate vs. RTDs and thermistors.
Temperature Sensors & Transmitters
Temperature sensors are manufactured by United Electric Controls (UE) in our facility in Watertown, Massachusetts. We are a major manufacturer of industrial temperature sensors, thermocouples, resistance temperature sensors (RTD’s), thermistors, and other types of sensor assemblies. ISO 9001-certified and a leading practitioner of Lean Manufacturing methods, we focus on building high-quality, high-reliability temperature sensor products for the industrial market. Our expertise covers a wide variety of applications — from lab equipment to road-making equipment, from the blast furnace to the blast chiller, and everything in between.

Resistance Temperature Detectors (RTD’s) are stable and have a fairly wide temperature range, but are not as rugged and inexpensive as thermocouples.
Thermistors tend to be more accurate than RTD’s and thermocouples, but they have a much more limited temperature range because of their marked non-linearity.
The newest type of temperature sensor on the market is the integrated circuit (IC) temperature transducer. IC sensors can be designed to produce either voltage or current output and are extremely linear.