Induction Heater melting and boiling copper

This is a 2.8kw induction heater boiling copper. Frequency is 62.5kHz. You can read about the induction heater at http://www.mindchallenger.com/inductionheater

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Induction
• heater
• heating
• boiling
• molten
• copper
• melting
• DIY

[imsmoother]

The heater boils the copper because it was bubbling in the molten state. 12kw of power can do quite a bit. The iPhone app Thermal Light, while not 100% accurate, is accurate enough. For $5 it is a great deal compared to $800 for an IR thermometer. The work coil has water running through it to keep it cool. It acts as the primary of a step-down transformer, so the primary (the work piece) has the current upped by a factor of 5. This is 5^2 more power going through it in a smaller cross-section.

[imsmoother]

I also wrote an app for the iPhone, Thermal Light, to measure the temperature of the metal from 1000F-2700F!

[dudebot09]

@imsmoother wouldn't different metals glow differently?

[imsmoother]

@dudebot09 all objects irradiate the same wavelength of light at the same energy levels. This is part of black body radiation theory. A piece of firewood at 1700F glows the same as a piece of steel at 1700F.

[WOLFGANGFIGHTER52]

@imsmoother nice job on the app

[imsmoother]

@WOLFGANGFIGHTER52 Did you get it? Has it been helpful?

[PaulAcito]

@imsmoother

sounds pretty interesting. If it's free i think I might just melt things just to try it out. And, if it works, congrats on being intelligent.

[microchook]

What magic is this...?

[svenp]

I'm pretty sure you weren't boiling the copper, you'd need 2500C for that. It doesn't make sense that you were 1500C OVER the melting temp. I bet the bubbling was out-gassing from the homemade crucible. Still, VERY cool to be able to melt copper at all. Not an easy thing to do.

[60058366]

ok now make a copper tube again :D

[kleetus92]

@imsmoother What about emissivity? a black object at x temp will not produce the same light as a shiny one at the same temp x. There's a calibration curve for that.

[70c4n1]

@imsmoother as far as i know youre rigth but the measuring depends more on emmisivity of the object being measured and it is not the same even in the same material on different surface finishes

[dudebot09]

@Subparanon I found the source of my confusion a while back. I was thinking about the colors generated by the "flame tests" of different metals, since different elements have different emission spectrum. This is fundamentally different from molten metal since the mass is all the same temperature, where flames are significantly hotter, and different metals will burn at different temperatures. I'm still not sure if this is strictly from the element's emission spectrums, or the ions being hotter...

[roblokzd]

1:00

its glowing

ITS GLOWING

[jdmmer]

chuck norris uses that to light his ciggarette