Inductotherm Corp.’s Furnace Group reports a new order for six 30-ton coreless induction furnaces, each with an 18,500-kW VIP® power supply, from an unnamed customer in the Middle East. The furnaces will melt steel, and when all the furnaces are on full-power simultaneously the installation will producing at a rate of 210 ton/hr – making it the largest induction furnace melting plant ever built, with a total connected load of 111 MW.
The customer chose Inductotherm furnaces over arc furnaces for environmental reasons, the supplier explains. It says that “when all elements are correctly evaluated,” induction melting product steel at lower cost than the arc furnaces they will replace. Other environmental advantages include lower sound levels, reduced oxidation losses, reduced dust-collection requirements, temperature and chemistry control, and stable electrical load to the power network.
Inductotherm reports that now it has supplied or has on order 37 installations worldwide of 14 MW and above, of which 26 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!
Separately, Inductotherm reported it has a contract to install induction furnaces for an unnamed steelmaker in the Far East, to replace arc furnaces at three different melt shops. The order calls for 18 furnaces in groups of 25 tons and 15 tons capacity, with VIP® power supplies of 15,000 kW and 9,000 kW, respectively.
The total connected load will be 102 MW, which will make it the second-largest order ever placed for induction melting equipment, based on connected load. It will melt steel at the rate of 195 ton/hour with all power supplies running at full power at the same time.