Inductive Annealer

[ToddDubya]

Hey guys. A friend of mine built a pretty slick inductive heater for annealing brass. If you don't know what that is, it induces a current in the brass itself that heats up the brass. It doesn't involve flames or other heating elements to anneal the brass. I'm trying to talk him into consider getting his cost down and making a few to sell.

Here's a video demonstrating the unit and showing it work. He uses thermal paint to show that it heats the shoulder enough without overheating the rest of the case.

 

[Boris]

that's very cool and looks like a really fast process to boot. I'm looking forward to any updates on cost.

 

[DrBurnsides]

you should have him patent it.. and incorporate it into a dillon case feeder.

 

[jtnf]

you should have him patent it.. and incorporate it into a dillon case feeder.

Inductive heat treating has been around a LONG time. Because its' so fast it is often used in in-line processes (like annealing wire as its' making its' way through the drawing process, etc.)

 

[ToddDubya]

you should have him patent it.. and incorporate it into a dillon case feeder.

I talked to him about the case feeder. I guess other people have suggested the Dillon as well. He thinks it adds needless complexity and cost for something that doesn't run for very long. AFAIK annealing is really only done by bench rest shooters who might have to process 100-200 cases. At a second apiece, that's less than four minutes.

I guess he started with a kit that included a lot of the guts of the device. He built all of the stuff you see from the outside, as well as the logic and actuator system that drops the cases when it's done. I'm going to suggest that he sell the stuff he designed/built, which can vary depending on your case size. He has inserts to automatically center the case in the coil which are specific to a given diameter case. He also hand wound the coil around a mandrel he designed and had machined. If you were to get into larger diameter cases you'd need a larger coil, so he could have another mandrel built and wind those as well.

I guess the cost for the first one was pretty high. I think some tweaks to reduce or simplify the machining would go a long way (I'm thinking a 3D printer for some custom parts) toward reducing the cost.

I also suggested he make more videos showcasing individual parts of the design. I think he just made the one to show friends, not to be a potential marketing tool.

 

[Boris]

there are many circuits for induction heaters, from pure fun to serious production (i.e. knife/blade) making. Circuits and setups tend to be purposed for specific operation/ parts. If he wants to get this product going, getting it done cheap, i.e. optimized for production is the key.

There are two markets here. 1. Built from a kit (not much markup once you have the circuit and can order all that from Mouser yourself) 2. pre-built device. More markup, but you need to worry about QA and some warranty.

Induction heaters aren't easy and some cases you may need a scope (oscilloscope) to tune it. In other words, I doubt that many people would want it. Setting up production means $$$ and time investment and you really don't know if this shit will take off. This is the reason Dylon may want to sit on the fence and see how this plays out.

This is a good product with good potential and a very predictable heat treatment (which is important for predictability) The real question is how cheap can he make it and how much people would be willing to pay for it. If anything, people should post how much money they would pay for it. I'd buy at $250 for complete unit (which most likely is not enough)

he can try "kickstarter" without leaches getting 5%

 

[icyclefar]

Very nice!

Back in my manufacturing days, we had a 20kVa dual head induction heater that we used for lots of stuff. One operation we did took 3" solid steel rounds and heated them cherry red in about 4 seconds. The coil remains cool to the touch.

**mine was "pre-solidstate", it ran off vacuum tubes

Crazy stuff

 

[icyclefar]

Oddly, one of the country's largest induction heater companies is located in Brockton, MA - East Coast Induction

 

[FreeWillie]

Man, that type stuff is right up Skysoldiers alley. He knows the whole process from design to production.

Sent from the depths of Hell using TapaTalk

 

[mac1911]

cool build, He might be better off just offering annealing services!