Induction heating of aluminium billets using superconducting coils

It is proposed to apply high-temperature superconducting (HTS) tape in the coil windings for induction heaters for aluminium or copper extrusion billets. The potential for efficiency improvements is substantial, as conventional copper coil induction heaters rated for up to around 1 MW operate with an overall efficiency of typically only 50–60%. The efficiency of a HTS induction heater depends very much on the performance of the HTS tape, in particular the magnitude of the AC losses. A small-scale induction heater demonstrator based on HTS tape is being designed