Resurrection of a CFEI 100 KVA Induction Furnace

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awemawson:

--- Quote ---So you are human after all! :D

Pete

--- End quote ---

Only too human I'm afraid Pete - you've seen a few cock ups in this thread surely !

And there was I thinking I was boring the pants off you all with my ramblings

I've been looking in detail at what circuit diagrams I have for this beast - the power electronics is comprehensively covered, but the control electronics is treated as a 'black box'. It's a single large PCB called a Saphyr Monocarte with loads of microprocessor support chips and both digital and analog circuitry. Fortunately the manual labels the various connections to it, and I've managed to deduce that it IS monitoring the voltage on the resonant circuit (Internal massive capacitors and external crucible coil) through a step down transformer, so presumably that is the 'Voltage' displayed on the control panel, and it looks as though it has a limit set at around 646 volts as that value features in several of my pictures when 'at limit' independent of which furnace body is connected. The 'Current' displayed is the 3 phase input current and fairly closely corresponds to the value that the diesel generator indicates.

. . . it's all a learning exercise !

mattinker:
:D :) :D :) :D :) :D :)

Great stuff!

kayzed1:
Just imagine how many shillings you would need to feed the old meter to run that :zap: :clap:

awemawson:
Well it wouldn't be TOO bad. Including the standing charge we are paying about 18 pence per KWH. So running at 100 KW for an hour would be £18. BUT the heats I did today both were only minutes long. Say 10 minutes to do something useful, so £18 / 6 = £3

Not cheap but not earth shatteringly expensive. I've no idea yet a comparable figure is for running my generator :scratch:

awemawson:
Before I start using the foundry in earnest there's quite a bit of sorting out needed - stuff has just been piled up all over the place to let me get on getting the furnace working - well now it does so time to start the sorting.

Just outside the foundry sliding door, in the welding shop, were two 1 metre wide shelving units that historically have held electrical installation materials, rolls of conduit wire, adaptable boxes, isolator switches - you know - the stuff that accumulates and is too good to throw out as undoubtedly it WILL be needed. Over the past weeks I've been re-deploying it elsewhere - largely successfully but you always end up with stuff with no home :bang:

In the clear out I found a brand new emergency 'maintained light' unit - sensible to install it in the foundry if it still works - it's NiCd 4 AH 2.4 volt battery was down to 1 volt so it's now on charge but 'the jury is out' whether it will actually work.

The idea was to remove the two shelving units, put a back on one of them to stop it racking and also stop bits falling off at the back, and put it in the foundry for crucible, pattern, moisture meter etc storage where the 18" square clothing locker currently is where the PPE kit lives. This necessitated moving a foundry bench (that still has a load of Mansfield sand in it) sideways six inches, a feat accomplished with help from a friend yesterday.

So today I looked at the pile of sheet metal for a suitable backing sheet, and found a full 8 x 4 sheet of galvanised expanded mesh left over from building the Plasma Table extraction system - a result as I'm unlikely to need the mesh in future and it saves a sheet of useful Zintec for other needs.

I'd intended to lay the shelving unit down with the mesh on top, and cut it with an angle grinder, but then I remembered an electric hand held shear that I'd bought some years ago but found to be pretty puny. Rated for 1.2 mm it really struggled, but it ate this mesh like nobodies business :ddb: It was the inability of this shear to really work 1.2 mm steel that prompted me to get a guillotine so I shouldn't really bear a grudge!

OK back fitted, shelving unit installed, quite a bit of foundry related 'stuff' put on it AND I now have a two metre length of wall space in the welding shop that has allowed me to push the Linisher, the Corner Notcher and the Band saw up to the wall out of the way - all of a sudden movement is far easier!

The second surplus shelving unit has found a temporary home in the Tractor Shed - it needs fixing to something to stop in racking though.

I just need now to find somewhere for the clothing locker - the corner by the roller shutter would be perfect apart from the roof leak above it that I don't seem to be able to cure :bang:

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