Steel plate-shovels hot forming with induction preheating system
What is induction pre-heating?
Induction preheating is a process where materials or workpieces are heated by induction prior to further processing. The reasons for pre-heating vary. In the cable and wire industry, cable cores are pre-heated before insulation extrusion. Steels strips are pre-heated prior to pickling and zinc coating. Induction pre-heating also softens metals before bending, and prepares tubes and pipes for welding. Mobile pre-heating solutions facilitate onsite repairs of bearing assemblies.
The induction preheating process is an efficient means of preheating steel plate-shovels for hot forming. This involves bending or shaping a metal billet after being heated to a temperature at which there is less resistance to forming.
Induction Heating Objective:
A steel shovel manufacturer is looking for an induction heating solution to replace a gas furnace and achieve temperature uniformity, repeatability, and fast heat cycles.
Induction Heating Equipment:
High Frequency Induction Heater DW-HF-45KW is the recommended induction heating equipment for this induction preheating application. With this induction heating generator, the customer heats the steel shovel molds sustainably and achieves faster heat cycles, especially for the bigger samples.
Induction Heating Process:
This application aims to preheat 4 steel plate sheets to 1742 F/950 C before posting them in a press to form them as shovels. The goal is for the shovel to reach the desired temperature in less than 5 seconds.
Benefits:
Implementing induction heating has significant advantages:
- Greater thermal efficiency, resulting in substantial decrease in energy consumption.
- Shorter heating times
- Improved uniformity
- Improved working conditions
