Heating systems and methods
AssigneeiTherm Technologies, LP
InventorValery Kagan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Heating systems and methods for inductive heating or a combination of resistive and inductive heating. A heater coil is inductively coupled to an article and a current signal is supplied to the heater coil. The heater coil generates a magnetic flux, based on the applied current signal, for inductively heating the article. Current pulses of a certain profile are used to enhance the rate, intensity and/or power of inductive heating delivered by the heating element or coil and/or to enhance the lifetime or reduce the cost of the inductive heating system.
Claims44
-33. (canceled)
A method of controlled heating comprising:
- providing a heater coil inductively coupled to a ferromagnetic substrate;
- supplying a current pulse signal with high frequency harmonics to the heater coil for inducing an eddy current to heat the ferromagnetic substrate;
- transmitting the heat from the ferromagnetic substrate to an article to be heated;
- and
- intermittently cooling the ferromagnetic substrate by reducing the signal supplied to the heater coil to reduce the induced heating.
A method for temperature control of a flowable material in a passage, the method comprising:
- providing a ferromagnetic substrate with a passage for a flowable material and a heater coil inductively coupled to the ferromagnetic substrate;
- applying a current pulse signal with high frequency harmonics to the heater coil for inducing an eddy current to heat the ferromagnetic article to effect a rate of flow of the material in the passage;
- and
- intermittently cooling the ferromagnetic substrate by one or more of reducing the applied signal to the heater coil and drawing heat from the substrate to effect the flow of the material in the passage.
A controlled inductive heating apparatus comprising:
- a ferromagnetic and thermally-conductive substrate;
- a heater coil inductively coupled to the ferromagnetic substrate;
- a source of a current pulse signal with high frequency harmonics for activating the heater coil to induce an eddy current to inductively heat the ferromagnetic substrate;
- a source of a cooling medium for cooling of the ferromagnetic substrate;
- and
- a control mechanism for providing intermittent application of the pulse signal and the cooling medium.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.