Collet Question

Jun 26, 2007 22 Replies

You might be surprised how low the frequency needs to be for melting even relatively small crucible loads. My 100kW furnace runs at frequencies ranging from 2.2 kHz to 3.25 kHz for crucibles of about

3 - 12 kgs load in iron. My low power experimental unit that I made last year ran at 20kHz for a 500 gram load. The resonant frequency is of course very dependant on the charge in the crucible. Remember that standard graphite crucibles conduct electricity so will heat up when empty and waste energy. You should use an alumina one.

AWEM

Ah yes, small stuff then :-).

Of course, things become less critical if all you want to do is warm up to hardening and tempering temperatures and you could even arrange for water quench down through the centre of the coil, which I think is how the pro gear works.

The really interesting property is the utilisation of skin effect, which means you can selectively harden and temper outer surfaces only, but operating frequency needs to be much higher than a few Khz to benefit from this...

Chris

melting

about

benefit

Skin effect at 3kHz limits current to the outer 1.2mm or so of a conductor iirc

AWEM

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