Permanent magnet heater for aluminum billets: Experimental results

The paper presents some experimental measurements carried out in an industrial scale prototype of Permanent Magnet Heater, PMH. The heater has been designed for the induction heating of aluminum billets with high efficiency. The experimental results are compared with the quantities calculated for the optimal design of the system and presented in a previous paper by the same authors. The design was carried out by means of transient magnetic and thermal 2D Finite Element Models coupled with multiobjective optimization algorithms. Experimental results have demonstrated the validity of the proposed design approach as well as the limits of 2D models in predicting the real performances of the device.