A Method to Reduce Electrode Erosion in a Magnetically Driven Rotating Arc

One or a few current carrying cables are located along the axis outside the concentric arc electrodes. These cables produce a tangential magnetic field in the interelectrode gap, which has different directions at different azimuthal angles. Interaction of this field with the radial arc current causes the arc column to oscillate and slowly drift in axial direction, thus spreading the thermal and erosion load of the electrodes.