Calorimetric techniques have become essential tools for the characterization of materials such as ceramics, polymers, metals, drugs, foodstuffs as a function of their thermal properties. The knowledge of these thermal properties (melting temperature, crystallization, glass transition, denaturation or decomposition temperature) plays a role of great importance in the selection of the material and its manufacturing conditions. Despite the importance of thermal characterization there are no simple and accessible alternatives to commercial instruments, whose main limitations are their high costs and the fragility of their constitutive parts during operation. In this work we present the design and construction of a portable, robust and low cost differential thermal analysis instrument which allows for the simultaneous analysis of three samples and it is suitable when corrosive substances are intended to be thermally characterized. This device represents an alternative to commercial devices, with applications in research and development of materials in various types of industries and apt for academic training. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.