November 2022 Volume 4

EQUIPMENT & TECHNOLOGY

#3 High Speed Curing of Coatings The issue: Protective coatings can take time to dry or must bemelted on to provide an adequate coating bonded to the substrate. Coating Rebar, Angles, bars and much more was done using industrial gas fired ovens moving material through these ovens at speeds up to 300 feet per minute. The solution: Custom built induction machines were used along with engineered coils to provide heat to the parts prior to coating them. For powder coated parts these bars pass through the powder booth shortly after the induction heating. This adds enough heat to melt the powder and adhere to the parts consistently and evenly and since the heat is so fast, its only on the outer surface causing a rapid cooling after the coating adheres. This greatly reduces the production line length. The same can be done for painted on products, force curing the paint shortening the overall line length and removing a source of heat and CO2 within assembly plants.

Induction Bolt Heating. Photo courtesy of ESC Induction.

Heating of a generators retaining ring. Photo courtesy of ESC Induction.

#5 Disassembly of Rusted Nuts and Bolts The issue: In many industrial places bolted flanges are common.

These flanges are outside and exposed to the weather and may become corroded or rusted to the point where they cannot be removed by simple torquing methods.

#4Thermal Expansion The issue: Large heavy shrunk on parts of a turbine or generator ro tor need to be removed to repair or replace the part or components underneath. In the past, electrical resistance heating or flame rings were used to heat and thermally expand large components for re moval. Electric resistance has limitations in its total heat input and flame rings can severely affect the metal or burn adjacent compo nents and combustion byproducts are poisonous to humans.

The solution: Induction coils can be wrapped around these rusted and frozen nuts. Then, when the heat is applied, two things happen.The rapid expansion helps to break the bond formed by the iron oxide and the second is the further degradation of the rust into finer particles. These smaller particles no longer lock the nut to the threads allowing for the mechanical turning and removal of the nuts.

The solution: Custom designed portable induction heating equipment and flexible coils are used to apply the magnetic fields and heat in the appropriate places to thermally expand these com ponents for removal. This is not limited to the power generation industry. Applications can be found in Steel Mills, Paper Mills and Sugar Plantations to name just a few.

Note: These are just a fewofmany industrial applications for portable or stationary induction heating machines. New applications are found every day. Article Written By: Jeff Weinacker / President Mobile Induction Solutions @ThermESC Intl. For Help with Field Heating most any application Jeff is always happy to share his knowledge, give him a call at 973-970-9500. https://Thermointernational.com

Destack of turbine rotor. Photo courtesy of ESC Induction.

FIA MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2022 15