A Series-Resonant Inverter for Levitation Melting Application

The inductive levitation melting is a metal melting method that is suitable for melting metals with high purity requirement. This method helps to avoid the effects of chemical reaction and/or contamination from crucible material at the melting temperature of the workpiece. The method is frequently used in modern metallurgy to study for the physical and chemical behavior. This paper proposes a development of a prototype of an inductive levitation melting that can be used in a laboratory for the study and experiment of inductive levitation melting. The inductive levitation melting system consists of a series-resonant inverter with an output rating of 2.5 kW. The output current of 200 A_peak is obtained from the series-resonant inverter and supplied to the levitation coil at the frequency of 46 kHz. The created prototype can levitate and melt an aluminium workpiece that weighs 14.5 grams from room temperature within 5 minutes.