Efficient induction heating approach for rubber product manufacturing plates

Abstract

The paper proposes an approach to design and implement a novel system based on induction heating principles in pressing plates used in rubber product manufacturing. This work aims to substitute a conventional heating system which uses heating energy through resistances radiation effect. The proposed system exhibits a better performance in terms of heating rate, energy saving, efficiency, temperature uniformity and pollution mitigation. To be able to reach an appropriate system in its primarily design stages, our study is focused on a low scale power experimental kit that emulates the industrial system counting for the generator as well as the heating load. The latter consists of a coil, metallic plate and a mold. Here, the heat is transferred by conduction effect through this metallic plate recipient of the eddy currents placed on the top of the coil, and supporting the mold containing the rubber material for processing. To support the merits of the study, an analytical approach based on energy evaluation, followed through a numerical coupled magnetic-thermal analysis. With regards to power supply, an electrical modelling simulation was performed to find the optimum power control parameters. In addition, the effect of the air-gap, flux concentrator, frequency and input power are investigated. The simulation results are compared to those determined on a low power testing bed for performance investigations. To consolidate the merits of our findings, an attempt is made to evaluate its performance in comparison to a similar workpiece, but based on resistance heating. The induction heating shows a higher efficiency with heating rate of about 31°C/min compared to 18°C/min in the heating resistance based under similar input power.