210 Ton/Hour Induction Melting Plant Competes with Arc Furnaces


The Inductotherm Furnace Group has received an order for six (6) 30 ton steel capacity coreless induction furnaces, each with an 18,500 kW VIP® power supply from a customer in the Middle East.

The Inductotherm Furnace Group has received an order for six (6) 30 ton steel capacity coreless induction furnaces, each with an 18,500 kW VIP® power supply from a customer in the Middle East. When all the furnaces are on full power together, this installation will melt at the rate of 210 ton/hr - making it by far the largest induction furnace melting plant ever built with a total connected load of 111 MW.

The Inductotherm induction furnaces were preferred over arc furnaces because of their many environmental advantages. And, in fact, when all elements are correctly evaluated, the induction furnaces can melt steel at lower cost than the previous arc furnaces.

Inductotherm induction furnaces, when compared to arc furnaces, have many other advantages as well. They have much lower sound levels, greatly reduced oxidation losses, much reduced dust collection requirements, excellent temperature and chemistry control, and they present a very stable electrical load to the power network. Utility providers much prefer induction furnaces due to the unique VIP inverter design.

Inductotherm is the only induction furnace supplier worldwide who, at these high power levels, can guarantee a constant high line power factor down to very low power levels - with minimum voltage notching and the lowest harmonic generation - and the Inductotherm inverter is much preferred when the power comes from a diesel powered generator.

Inductotherm has now supplied, or has on order, 37 installations worldwide of 14 MW and above, of which 26 installations are for melting steel. Some of these were supplied as multiple-output installations depending on customer specific output production requirements, since these systems can increase productivity and achieve a nearly 100% utilization rate! Many of these installations include load cells, PC-based melt shop control and management systems, fume hoods, superior push-out lining technology, charging systems, and the latest advancement, the ARMS® (Automated Robotic Melt Shop) System. In addition to induction melting furnaces, Inductotherm is also able to offer downstream of the continuous caster the necessary re-heating furnaces for the billets.

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