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30 kVA Induction Heater
30 kVA Induction Heater
Table of Contents
http://www.instructables.com/id/30-kVA-Induction-Heater/
Intro: 30 kVA Induction Heater
Induction heaters are used to heat conductive materials in a non-contact process. Commercially, they are used for heat treating, brazing, soldering, etc., as well as to
melt and forge iron, steel, and aluminum.
This Instructable will walk you through the construction of a high-power (30kVA) heater, suitable for melting aluminum and steel. Note that to take full advantage of this
design, you will need a 220V outlet, at least a 50A single-phase one and preferably a 50A or 60A 3-phase outlet.
WARNINGS
This project uses mains voltage. While well-behaved, 110/220 mains can seriously injure, maim, and/or kill you if used improperly.
The voltage across the tank capacitor can potentially ring up to hundreds of volts. Don't let the 20:1 step-down ratio fool you!
When scoping the circuit, beware of ground loops.
The work piece, naturally, can get very hot. DO NOT TOUCH! Less obviously, do not rapidly quench the work piece with water, as this can lead to dangerous
sputtering.
This project uses power electronics. Under fault conditions, semiconductor devices used in this project may rapidly heat, vent, and/or release rapidly moving
shrapnel. Shield appropriately.
Image Notes
1. Stack of four cores
5. Coupling transformer
6. Tank capacitor
http://www.instructables.com/id/30-kVA-Induction-Heater/
Image Notes
1. Solder to the ends of the work-coil tubing
2. Toroid clamp
2 IGBT half-bridge modules. I used Powerex CM400DU-12F 400A 600V Dual IGBTs; anything of similar power handling and switching speed should work. These
can be purchased as cheap surplus from Ebay.
4 MOSFETs or IGBTs for the gate drive. I used HGTG30N60B3D's, which are way overkill for the application. They need to be able to dissipate about 30W
without burning up.
2 gate drive IC's, of at least 9A peak current capability. I use the UCC37322 from TI.
2 ferrite toroids. These are your gate drive transformers, and should be able to pass a reasonably clean square wave at 50 kHz. Magnetics, Inc. and TSC Ferrite
International are good manufacturers, or you can salvage them from old CRTs or switching power supplies. The powered iron cores from ATX supplies rarely
work.
Large ferrite toroids for the toroidial coupling transfromer.
1 TL494 PWM IC.
1 at least 20 uF, at least 20V film or ceramic capacitor.
Assorted resistors, capacitors, and potentiometers for the driver.
10' of 1/4" soft copper refrigeration tubing.
A water block capable of accommodating the two IGBTs. A large heatsink may also work, but I haven't tried.
2 aluminum or copper bars, ~3/4"x8"
2 1/4" compression unions
A 4-position rotary contactor, good for several tens of amps.
A screw-terminal electrolytic capacitor of reasonable quality. I recommend at least a few hundred uF for 3-phase operation.
A high-quality, low inductance snubber capacitor for the bridge. Ebay has cute brick-mount 20 uF blocks for $5.
One or more high-quality polypropylene capacitors for the tank capacitor. More on this part later.
An analog current meter good for several tens of amps.
A 3-phase bridge rectifier (or single-phase if you are willing to settle for single-phase operation only).
A suitable project case and associated hardware (3-phase breaker, cord, plug, etc).
A water pump capable of a couple GPM
Tubing appropriate for hooking up the water-cooling.
A Variac for testing.
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Image Notes
1. Input rectifier
2. Logic/Gate drive
3. Inverter
4. Input capacitor
5. Coupling transformer
6. Tank capacitor
The tank capacitor : is very very important. It handles tremendous amounts of reactive power at very high frequencies. It is absolutely essential that this part be selected
appropriately. It must be a high-quality polypropylene or mica capacitor. I use giant snubber capacitors made by Eurofarad; alternatively, a series/parallel array of
smaller capacitors (such as the Tesla coiler's beloved CDE942 series) should work. The ultimate capacitor, of course, is a water or conduction-cooled unit made by
Celem, but such caps will run you about $150 for a 2 uF unit. You want enough capacitance to resonate with your work coil at no more than 70 kHz.
http://www.instructables.com/id/30-kVA-Induction-Heater/
Step 3: Principle of Operation
Induction heaters function by surrounding the work piece with a coil carrying a high-frequency (kHz to low MHz) alternating current. This induces eddy currents in the
work piece, which acts as a shorted 1-turn transformer secondary. The currents can be tremendous, on the order of several thousands of amps. This causes high I^2R
losses in the work piece, heating it.
Schematic Description
Note: Ignore the transistor model numbers; I just used what Eagle had built in.
IC1 is a TL494 acting as an oscillator with adjustable dead time and frequency. The output is fed into the input of two UCC37322 9A gate drive ICs, which "beef up" the
signal into something capable of driving high-capacitance transistor gates. The output signal is passed through C5 to insure only the AC component reaches GDT1, a
gate drive transformer. This transformer provides the electrical isolation necessary to drive Q1 through Q4, which form a full-bridge. This intermediate bridge is necessary
to provide the high average power necessary to drive Q5 through Q8, a full-bridge of large IGBT modules.
This bridge forms the main inverter. The output of this inverter is stepped down through a 20:1 torodial transformer TR_MATCH, which provides impedance matching as
well as isolation for L_WORK, the work coil inductor. The capacitor C_TANK forms a resonant LC circuit with L_WORK; when driven at resonance, this circuit displays
zero reactive impedance to the inverter, allowing for higher powers and minimizing switching losses in the inverter.
Image Notes
1. Schematic
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Step 5: The Inverter
The inverter should be very well-cooled, either with a large heatsink or a waterblock. I used a waterblock for compactness and robustness; but a big (think 12"x12"x3"
with several hundred CFM of forced-air cooling) should work too. The pump should be relatively large to handle the pressure drop through the work coil (mine was rated
for 2GPM).
The main filtering capacitors should be placed close to the bridge itself, preferably bolted across the busbars. You should also use a snubber capacitor (the black box in
the picture) placed directly across the transistors to reduce voltage spikes caused by excitation of the parasitic inductances in the inverter layout.
Using half-bridge or six-pack modules is the easiest way to buld the inverter; a bridge of single transistors will require access to a machine shop to do right.
Image Notes
1. Snubber
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Step 6: Work Coil/Tank Circuit
The coupling transformer should be toroidal. Wind ~20t around some large ferrite cores (I was using a stack of 4 ~4"x1" cores).
The tank capacitor will get warm. It should have significant terminal area to conduct both heat and thousands of amps. If you are using a MMC of small capacitors, solder
them individually to large copper plates. If you are using a Celem or a giant snubber, bolt large copper plates to the terminals. Then in either case, solder the terminals to
the copper tubing that forms the rest of the tank circuit.
Attach the work coil to the tank circuit using compression fittings; this allows you to change work coils to accommodate different loads.
Make the work coil out of at least 1/4" copper tubing. Thicker tubing is less lossy, but harder to handle; trade-off between the two as you see fit. When winding the work
coil, it helps to fill it with sand to prevent the tubing from collapsing. As a rule of thumb, the resistance of 1' diameter copper tubing at 65 KHz is 0.8 m?/m; that is, to
compute the resistance of your secondary, multiply 0.8 m? by its length and divide by its diameter in inches.
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Image Notes
1. alligator-clipped lashup
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