COOLING Is Crucial
Smart system design and maintenance keep induction melt operations running. SUSAN HUNTER, DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT ENGINEERING, EMSCO, MASSILLON, OHIO
Space Station in December, when one coolant pump failed. Tat left only one other pump to provide cooling for the station’s vital electrical and life-support systems. Tis required a crew member to make an emergency spacewalk to swap a spare for the pump that had failed. With its new pump in place, the station was back in the space exploration business. While it might not be rocket science,
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when it comes to cooling, induction melting is as dependent on an effec- tive cooling system as the International Space Station. Without adequate cooling, induction furnaces are not able to operate. And in the worst cases of cooling system failures, furnaces have been damaged or destroyed, endangering workers and causing significant damage to the foundry. Metalcasting cooling systems nor-
mally operate quietly in the background and receive regular attention only from the maintenance personnel tasked with keeping them running. Te goal for this article is to provide useful insights into the design and operation of effective and efficient induction melt shop cooling
32 | MODERN CASTING February 2014
e saw how essential a cooling sys- tem is to the International
systems, with real-world illustrations drawn from a new system installed at Chassix Columbus Casting Operation, Columbus, Ga. Chassix is a $1.2 billion global company headquartered in South- field, Mich., serving automotive custom- ers from 25 locations in eight countries. Its Columbus facility melts 240,000 tons of ductile iron per year.
Cooling System Basics Induction furnaces of all types and
sizes normally are cooled by water flow- ing through the furnaces’ coils, which are made of heavy copper tubing. Tese coils
generate high levels of heat, principally from the enormous electrical currents flowing through them and only to a much lesser extent from heat produced by the molten metal held in the furnace. Induction power supplies also require water cooling of their electrical compo- nents. Without an effective cooling sys- tem, induction furnaces will not operate. At its most basic level, an induction
furnace cooling system includes pumps circulating water through the furnace to absorb heat and on to a cooling tower where that heat is released. But to be safe and effective, a cooling system must
Chassix’s old cooling tower and pumps lacked the capacity required to cool all the furnaces at the same time, limiting production.
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