Electronics > Beginners
Induction heaters - the theory
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drogus:
Hi,

I'm a noob in electronics and I recently got really interested in induction heaters. Eventually I'd like to build one (mains powered, maybe 2-3kW), but for now I'm trying to learn the theory needed to build one.

A bit of background: I'm a software programmer and I started learning electronics a few years ago. I know basic principles of passive elements and my most advanced project involving analog electronics was a 10A buck converter without using a dedicated IC for control (it was a lot of fun :D).

So I'm looking for resources that would be good for learning more stuff that is involved in designing an induction heater. Preferably books and preferably something aimed at beginners, but online resources will work as well. Just to clarify - I don't necessarily look only for resources on how to exactly build an induction heater, but also to learn about the concepts that are used, so stuff like AC voltage, transformers, inverters, power electronics - I guess when I understand this stuff better the tutorials that are available online will make much more sense to me. I know that it's quite a broad and not well specified request, but I'll accept broad answers ;) It can be a good book to learn electronics in general, a good book on power electronics or a book about electroheating or anything in between.
rhb:
This is the one I could find in my library.  I think I have another, but it's 5000+ volumes and rather disorganized at the moment.  But there are a lot of modern books on Amazon.  I just bought two more :-(

https://www.amazon.com/Frequency-Induction-Heating-Frank-Curtis/dp/0917914716

Unfortunately, Lindsay Books closed so all that is available is old stock.

However, there are a lot of example builds on line.  Try an advanced search with google of the hackaday.com site.

drogus:
Thanks for help! This book looks interesting.


--- Quote from: rhb on January 14, 2019, 02:07:17 pm ---However, there are a lot of example builds on line.  Try an advanced search with google of the hackaday.com site.

--- End quote ---

I found quite a few online writeups about induction heaters, the problem is that I also lack knowledge about how certain elements that are needed to build induction heaters, so resources about the basics will be appreciated too.

The stuff that I found so far, maybe it will be helpful to others as well:
https://www.instructables.com/id/30-kVA-Induction-Heater/
https://www.instructables.com/id/12KW-Induction-Heater/ and a website with another version of this tutorial: http://inductionheatertutorial.com/inductionheater/induction5.html
another tutorial: https://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Induction-Heater/
here's a good write up on how they work: https://www.rmcybernetics.com/science/diy-devices/diy-induction-heater
a good video on a simple design:
here's a post about someone's journey in designing a heater, I haven't gone through it yet, though:  https://www.dansworkshop.com/2008/03/induction-heating/

I also found the "Foundations of Electroheat" book: https://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Electroheat-Approach-C-Metaxas/dp/0471956449, but it's over $120 (+ $20 shipping to EU + duty taxes) and it doesn't look like a good starting point for a beginner, so I'm not going to try it unfortunately.

Sorry, I should have started with what I found so far :)

In any case, I'm aware of a lot of online resources, but a book is often much more thorough and I want to have a much better understanding on all of the components involved.
drogus:
Oh, and there's also a great open source project: https://reactorforge.com/about/, but it's still in the works.

And I knew that I forgot about something. I didn't have this link saved on my list, but I had it sitting open in my browser, here's a great article and a great blog in general: https://teslascience.wordpress.com/how-to-construct-simple-powerful-induction-heater/ (he also have a very good YouTube channel: )
T3sl4co1l:
I've also got an old series here,
https://www.seventransistorlabs.com/tmoranwms/Elec_IndHeat1.html
which has partial schematics, which aren't quite right but show a lot of the concepts needed to build a proper machine, not just a toy.  (Example: this is a better oscillator-inverter section, https://www.seventransistorlabs.com/Images/Small_2.png )

FYI, in typical Instructables fashion, the Instructables articles are toys, if not jokes.

Think I was the only one in the induction community circa mid 2000s that was designing (and building) anything practical, namely, with full controls and protection features included.  Don't know what anyone has been up to in the last ~decade.

Tim
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