Intricacies of Induction Heating of Wires, Rods, Ropes & Cables

Heating by means of electromagnetic induction has become an increasingly more popular method for heating ferrous and nonferrous wire-type products.

By Justin Mortimer, Dr. Valery Rudnev, Dave Clowes, Bob Shaw

There are several ways to heat wires, ropes, rods and cable products including gas furnaces, electrical resistance heaters, infrared furnaces, electric ovens, molten lead baths, salt baths and induction heaters. Heating by means of electromagnetic induction has become an increasingly more popular method for heating ferrous and nonferrous wire-type products in such applications as heat treatment (hardening, tempering, stress-relieving, annealing, relaxation, etc.), heating before encapsulation, thermal diffusion, wire pre-heating prior to metallic or organic coating, drying, plating, cladding and others (Figure 1).