Experiment and analysis of levitation-melting method of induction furnace

This paper presents basic data on the effect of a high-frequency induction coil in the levitation-melting method. The buoyant force is measured with a digital balance under the constant 30 kW output, and the effect of the coil's position on the buoyancy is investigated experimentally. In addition, the flux distribution in the actual coil which has asymmetric shape, is calculated with the three-dimensional boundary element method. The rotating motion of a levitating metal caused by an asymmetric flux distribution is discussed. In the paper we show that controlling the movement of ingot may be a solution to the problem of uniform heating in this system.