Induction Heating Coil

What diameters do you have in mind?

Hi Rick. If you consider tight bends you should consider doing it in stamp with anvil system. Otherwise the outside (longest side of the bend) can get structurally damaged.

Not always visible, but stretching a metal too much can change the structure

This however is not your question:

For the coil, most of the time a copper pipe is used, rolled or formed in a way that your material can pass through it easy and it can be centered in the centerline of the coil.

Pipe from 1/8" up to 3/8" is used for this purpose. Your windings should not touch each other.

In theory the coil doesn't heat up too much by itself, but will receive most of its heat from the workpiece that will glow up and melt. To keep the coil cool, you can send water through it from a reservoir or cooler.

In principle the length of your coil will need to be the length of the spot you want to heat up for bending.

Stock steel will work best with a frequency between 7 and 22 kHz. This will be to find by yourself when working with it.

In order to work easy, and if possible, you can make a sort of sliding track with your coil at a fixed point, so that your bar slides in the center.

When your spot is hot enough, you can push it through to your bending tool.

You will need to control, parameters as time and/or power, and move your piece before it melts and destroys your coil.

The power needed will be between 3kW and 20 kW, depending on your work. Material, diameter working speed.

The power supply can be made with a frequency generator (a stable multivibrator) and a power end stage with power transistors in parallel.

These working frequency do not radiate as much as HF aluminium melters. Radiate in a way of RF interferences, and not harmful.

When interested in a portable power supply, if I can paste it here is one:

have fun.

DIGIMAC

DIGIMAC is a compact and transportable system able to heat determined areas of metal parts in a fast, accurate, clean and easy way through induction heating. The main benefits of this system are: • Increased productivity and parts quality • Energy savings and reduced production costs • Easy to operate and process control • Enviroment friendly process: low noise level and no toxic gases

Digimac is composed of a generator up to 25KW and 20kHz frequency with user interface for process control; and a grip header with incorporated transformer and coil.

The system is delivered as a kit ready to use.

I am missing a lot of ability to paste here. The size of the power supply is comparable with a portable MIG of about 100 Amps.