Melting with Induction Heating

Melting metals with induction heating is usually accomplished by heating the metal in a crucible made from a non-conductive refractory material. The charge of metal within the crucible is melted down to liquid form.

This process is commonly used to produce high quality steels and nonferrous alloys for casting operations. The liquified metal is poured into a cavity having the desired shape. The metal solidifies with a minimum of shrinkage, after which the mold is removed to reveal a finished, machinable product

Induction heating provides:

• reliable
• repeatable
• non-contact
• energy-efficient
• flameless

heat in a minimal amount of time. Very small areas are heated within precise production tolerances without disturbing individual metallurgical characteristics. Parts are brazed with induction under a controlled atmosphere without flux or any additional cleaning steps.

Both ferrous and non-ferrous alloys can be melted in induction furnaces. The flexibility and cleanliness of induction melting cannot be duplicated by conventional steel mill and foundry methods.

Typical induction furnaces for melting range from 1 to 250kW, depending on the metal and application requirements.

This photo shows a lip axis pouring unit in operation.In this case, a precious metal is being drawn off into a smaller crucible so that it can be decanted into ingot moulds.

Right, the metal is being poured into the moulds.  The medium frequency induction heater can be seen behind the "pour master".

This is a twin station precious metal melting system.  The induction heater is at the rear of the picture.The hand operated lip axis pouring unit on the left uses a clay graphite crucible for gold melting and the one on the right is designed for melting platinum and uses a Zirconia crucible.

Continuous Casting

Metals and precious metals can be continuously cast in a variety of forms.This shows a silver bar and the stock grain that is used to cast the bar.The bar was produced on a machine that we designed and built for use in the precious metals industry.

These photos show a typical continuous casting machine.  The crucible is in the thermally insulated box that is immediately in front of the man, to the right of this is the control unit and the induction heater can be seen on the extreme right hand side. 

Centrifugal Casting

Centrifugal casting machines are used in the manufacture of jewelry, dental and industrial products.The induction heating power unit is built into the base of the equipment.As many of these machines are for use in small laboratories, the equipment has been designed to split into two parts so that the machine can easily pass through a small doorway.Typical metals processed with this equipment are gold, silver, platinum, cobalt and their alloys.

This photograph shows a small workhead, crucible and tweezers that are typically used in metallurgical laboratories for preparing metal samples for spectral analysis.Heating energy for these small melting units is normally supplied from our 1 or 2kW power supplies.  This type of equipment is also used in schools, technical colleges and universities to economically demonstrate the principles of induction metal melting.