The past few decades have seen the popularity of melting by induction grow in leaps and bounds. This trend is expected to remain consistent as more industry players continue to switch to the use of induction heating equipment. According to Marketwatch, by 2023, a majority of businesses in the extraction and purification of metals will have deployed induction melting. This is, however, no surprise as the purification of metals using induction packs a long-string of cost-saving benefits. Still not convinced about this method? Here are some reasons why you should get your steel melting induction furnace today.
Reasons Why You Should Switch to an Induction Forging Furnace
Even though there are plenty of ways to heat and melt metals like steel, using a metal melting furnace is a more suitable option due to the following reasons
Fast Start-Up Process
Gas-fired furnaces, infrared heaters, and other types of melting furnaces usually contain a vast amount of refractory materials. For the metal melting process to start and be effective, all these materials must first be heated properly. This slows down the startup process and consequently affects the production rate.
A More Controlled Production Process
Traditional heating methods often call for considerable human involvement in the production process. This is not only dangerous but also slows down the production process and the capacity. Induction furnaces, on the other hand, are more digitalized, which reduces the need for human contact. For instance, they feature a human-machine interface and programmable logic control.
The HMI allows you to control the furnace, illustrating every detail so you can know exactly what is happening inside the furnace while the PLC automatically controls the production process. This not only makes your work easier but also helps you identify any factors that might be slowing the process down, or what you can do to enhance production. Also, since a melting furnace requires less human contact, you require fewer employees, which in turn means reduced human labor costs. Lastly, it enables you to automate the production process, which is a much-welcomed change among most businesses.
Fast-Heating, Higher Yields
One of the primary reasons why induction is such a popular option is because the furnace has a high affinity to heat. Hence, the heat intensity is spread within the workspace much quicker than in traditional furnaces. This results in shorter melting cycles, which is cost-saving.
Also, due to factors such as grain coarsening, oxidation, decarburization, and a string of others, traditional furnaces often result in poor surface quality, hence poor resource utilization. A steel melting induction furnace, on the other hand, often offers better surface quality on the heated metal, which helps improve resource utilization. This, in turn, means less burning, and consequently, higher yields per pound.
It is More Sustainable
Metals like steel, gold, and copper have an incredibly high melting point. Steel alone, for instance, has a melting point of 1,379 degrees. Therefore, it requires abundant heat during melting, which in turn means more emissions and more harm to the environment.
The good news, however, is that you don’t have to worry about this when you deploy a steel melting induction furnace. Why? As mentioned, an induction furnace requires a relatively low amount of energy to start. It also deploys heat faster than traditional gas furnaces. This, in turn, speeds up the melting cycle and as a result, significantly lowers the emission of gases and pollutants released into the environment. Also, since this method results in less burning loss, the amount of waste residue is relatively lower.
Additionally, since a steel melting induction furnace boasts of a fast-start up and heating process, it can be turned off when not in use. This not only reduces your carbon footprint even more but is also cost-saving as the lower the amount of energy used, the lower your production costs.
Less Space Required, Ease of Maintenance
Unlike most traditional gas furnaces, and induction melting furnace is much smaller. Hence it takes up less space. This is an added benefit as less floor space means you could get multiple furnaces to meet your production capacity. Also, it doesn’t require as much maintenance as a traditional gas-fired or fuel-fired
furnace.
