Recent development and research activities of induction heater with high-TC superconducting magnets for commercialization

Supercoil Co., Ltd. had commercialized a 300 kW-class superconducting induction heater (SIH) that is induction heater energized with high temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets on the end of 2017. Supercoil mainly produces many kinds of superconducting magnets and their application devices. Supercoil has a technology to keep thermal stability and reliability in the operation of a superconducting magnet against uneven quench through the metal insulation winding method. The performance test results of the HTS magnet as well as the 300 kW SIH were presented in the paper. Several components on the 300 kW SIH were introduced. Two HTS magnets were installed on the two iron cores and the excitation test results including terminal voltages, magnetic flux density and temperatures of the cryogenic cooling system were presented. The heating test results were shown with several pictures and graphs, and then they were analyzed for the energy efficiency. These results were useful for the commercialization of SIH to heat various metals such as stainless steel, copper and titanium alloys etc.