Application story: UltraFlex demonstrates the use of induction heating for efficient shrink-fitting of steel parts

A recent UltraFlex demonstration for a customer looking to increase induction heating capacity showed the efficient use of induction heaters for shrink-fitting of steel parts. Being a leading manufacturer of digitally-controlled induction heating solutions, UltraFlex Power Technologies is frequently doing demo setups evaluating new induction heating customer scenarios, for both new and existing clients.

The customer requesting this demo was an automotive manufacturer producing magnetic steel gear wheels and already using UltraFlex induction heaters in other manufacturing processes. He was looking to get a second air-cooled induction system, along with a custom coil, in order to achieve faster heating cycles for shrink-fitting the steel wheels and thus increase productivity.

The target parameters in this customer scenario were a heating temperature of around 110°C, a max heat cycle time of 100 seconds and a whole duty cycle between heating cycles of 500 seconds or less. Uniform heating of the steel parts was required.

For this heating process, UltraFlex engineers recommended the use of an UltraFlex induction heater from the UltraHeat S/AIR series, along with a custom pancake litz induction coil. UltraHeat S/AIR are light, completely air-cooled induction units. They are perfect for low temperature applications of up to 500°F/ 260°C and come loaded with multiple programs, temperature control and diagnostics, automatic frequency scanning and many more features. To confirm the temperature achieved, a pyrometer as well as tempilaq were used.

At 1.1 kW of power supplied by the air-cooled induction unit and heating temperature of around 150°C, the heating time of 100 seconds was successfully achieved. It was estimated that, by reducing the distance between the heating coil and the steel part, from 5 mm to 3 mm, the heating cycle could be even shorter.

The UltraFlex engineering team confirmed that induction heating could be successfully used for this customer application. The process could also get easily transferred on the production line, increasing the customer productivity rates and ensuring high energy efficiency. Finally, this would be a completely safe process due to the lack of smoke, flame and noxious emissions.

Find out more at:
https://ultraflexpower.com/

Contact us at:
+1.631.467.6814
uptnews@ultraflexpower.com

10 Colt Court
Ronkonkoma 11779, NY, USA

About UltraFlex Power Technologies:
UltraFlex Power Technologies (ultraflexpower.com) offers the most advanced and innovative digitally controlled induction heating equipment in the industry. Its compact modular and flexible systems are used for a wide variety of induction heating, casting and melting applications.

This release was published on openPR.