Induction heating is a precise, repeatable, non-contact method for heating electrically-conductive materials like brass, aluminum, copper or steel or semiconducting materials like silicon carbide.
If you want to learn more, please visit our website Hitfar.
Get our brochure to learn how induction can help to...
Solving Your Process Heating Problems
An induction heating system includes a special power supply which converts line power to a high frequency alternating current. This energy is delivered over a cable assembly to a workhead - or tank circuit - which creates an electromagnetic field within the attached coil. A work piece is placed in the coil, inducing a current, friction and heat in it.
Induction heating is used very effectively in many processes like brazing, soldering and shrink fitting, from something as small as a hypodermic needle to a large wheel on a military tank. Many companies in the automotive industry, medical device industry and aeronautics make efficient use of induction heating in their processes.
More about how it works:
If your work piece material is magnetic, such as carbon steel, it will be heated easily by induction’s two heating methods, eddy current and hysteretic heating. Hysteretic heating is very efficient up to the Curie temperature (for steel 600°C (°F)) when the magnetic permeability reduces to 1 and the eddy current is left to do the heating.
The relationship of the current flow in the work piece and the distance between the work piece and the induction coil is key; the closer the coil, the more current in the work piece.
But the distance between the coil and the work piece must first be optimized for the heating required and for practical work piece handling. Many factors in the induction heating system can be adjusted to match to the coil and optimize the coupling efficiency.
Heat losses and uneven, inconsistent application of heat result in increased scrap and diminished product quality, driving up per-unit costs and consuming profits. Best manufacturing economies are seen when the application of energy is controlled.
To bring a batch oven up to temperature and to hold the entire chamber at the required temperature for the process time demands much more energy than is required to process the parts. Flame-driven processes are inherently inefficient, losing heat to the surroundings. Electrical resistance heating can also result in the wasteful heating of surrounding materials. Applying only the energy needed to process your parts is ideal.
Induction selectively focuses energy only on the area of the part that you want to heat. Each part in a process enjoys the same efficient application of energy. Since the energy is transferred directly from the coil to a part, there is no intervening media like flame or air to skew the process.
The precision and repeatability of induction heating help to reduce process scrap rate and to improve throughput. The selective application of heat to the targeted area of a part enables very tight control of the heating process, also cutting the heating time and limiting energy requirements.
Read: Induction Heating is a Green Technology
Delivering the highest quality parts for the least expense in the least time is accomplished with an efficient process, in which the input elements of materials and energy are tightly and precisely controlled. Induction heating’s targeted application of heat to the part or an area of the part, as well as repeatability, provides the most uniform results for the least cost. Repeatability and throughput are two things that can be greatly improved with induction compared to resistance or flame heating.
If you want to learn more, please visit our website industrial induction heating machine.
Induction heating delivers savings primarily from significant reductions in process scrap rates, improved throughput and from the thrifty use of energy. There is no need for process ramp-up; heat is applied and stopped instantly. In comparison, batch heating in an oven requires an investment of time and energy that serves only the process, not the product. Throughput and efficiency are increased by induction heating with the careful application of energy (heat) in amounts no more than required by the product.
Any heating process carries a risk of operator contact with the heated materials. A technology like induction heating that limits the extent of operator-contacted surfaces does reduce the overall risk. If heating can be limited to only the part and further limited to a zone of the part, safety is improved even more.
In this video I show you how to cryogenically case harden your low carbon steel parts with the induction heater. What you end up with is a material that has a ductile inner core with a hard outer shell. Parts that require impact resistance as well as abrasion resistance are great candidates for case hardening. Low carbon steel does not harden well on its own. When heating the part up and submerging it in a carbon compound, carbon gets impregnated into the surface of the material. This results in a hard outer surface.
Gears, Firing pins, Engine Camshafts, Lock Shackles, Security Fasteners, and Self Drilling Screws are all commonly case hardened. The method of case hardening used in the video is also known as carburizing with a cryogenic treatment. Liquid nitrogen is usually used but I used a isopropyl alcohol dry ice bath. Liquid nitrogen would provide even more benefits by converting even more retained austenite to martensite. Also, if you don't mind the darkness of the part after the hardening process, it's best not to polish it for even more rust protection. The method used in the video can be repeated multiple times until the desired hardness is achieved.
Induction is particularly good at case hardening. This is because of the skin effect discussed in the next step. The same high frequency skin depth that is seen in the working coil is also seen in the part being heated. The higher the frequency, the more the current is flowing on the outside of the material. For steel in this case, the current is only flowing about 6 thousandths of an inch deep. This is perfect for case hardening.
This process should only be used with low carbon steel so I'll show you a way to determine what type of steel you have.
In this video, I'll show you an easy way to determine the carbon content of your steel parts by observing the spark profiles. You can use this technique to find which of your parts would benefit from the case hardening method used in my last video. This is not the most accurate way of determining the composition of the steel, but many welders use this technique when welding unknown materials and is a good test for most non-critical jobs. This technique is known as spark testing.
In this video, I make a pancake coil attachment and boil water in about 10 seconds. It works by pulsing the DC at a high frequency(about 160kHz). This creates a constantly changing magnetic field that induces eddy currents in the cast iron skillet. Induction heating is more efficient than many other methods because there is less wasted heat. For example, induction cooktops are more efficient than electric and gas stoves.
The use of my wire choice is quite important here. I used what is known as Litz wire. Litz wire consists of many individually insulated wires. It is the preferred wire for use in high frequency application due to the skin effect.
The skin effect is the tendency of current to flow on the outside of a conductor at high frequencies. The higher the frequency, the shallower the skin depth will be. Using Litz wire will result in much more efficient working coils for your system. Not only does it transfer the energy more efficiently, it also generates less heat of its own. If you have 10amps flowing through 260 strand Litz wire, that's only 38mA of current in each wire. 10amps through a single conductor will generate substantial heat depending on the size.
If you do not want to use Litz wire, the next best thing is copper tubing. It has more surface area for the current to flow so it is more efficient than an equivalently sized solid core wire.
This induction heater works by pulsing the DC at a high frequency(about 160kHz). This creates a constantly changing magnetic field that induces eddy currents in conductive materials near the coil. Ferromagnetic materials will also heat up due to hysteresis. This is the heat produced from rapidly changing magnetic fields in the material. Induction heating is more efficient than many other methods because there is less wasted heat. For example, induction cooktops are more efficient than electric and gas stoves. I'll be making more attachments and demonstrating more practical uses for inductive heat.
It's a common misconception that induction heaters don't work for aluminum and other non-ferrous metals. This is not true. This induction heater will heat up aluminum and copper just fine, but not as fast as ferrous metals. This is mainly due to their lower resistivity. The higher the resistivity of the conductive material, the more it generates heat when current is passed through it. The higher resistivity of most ferrous metals coupled with the heating due to hysteresis makes them ideal for induction heating, but they are not the only metals affected by induction.
The three main components of the machine are the power supply, the ZVS driver, and the working coil. The ZVS driver,(Zero Voltage Switching) was invented by Vladmiro Mazilli. It uses resonant zero voltage switching (also know as ZVS) to pulse the power supply very rapidly. This means the MOSFET's are designed to switch (on or off) when the voltage across them becomes zero. Since the MOSFET's switch when there is no voltage across them, they generate very little heat. The main source of heat is caused by the MOSFET's internal resistance and the capacitors constantly charging and discharging. The circuit is fairly simple consists of just two MOSFETs, 6 capacitors, and a few resistors and diodes. You can build the circuit yourself, but it is cheaper to buy a premade board.
Want more information on 5 kg tilting platinum melting furnace? Feel free to contact us.