Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
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3, JUNE 1991
203
III. TOPOLOGICAL
FUNDAMENTALS
Basically, the load of an induction heating generator is an
inductor in which we find the piece to be heated. A direct
feed of the heating coil would result in apparent to real power
ratio that is too high; therefore, compensation of the heating
coil is needed. Compensation of the power factor is carried
out by a capacitor dimensioned so that this factor will be
close to the unity at the working frequency.
The compensation capacitor can be placed in series or in
parallel with the inductor. In the first case, the load acts like
a current source (inductance in series), and therefore, it has
to be fed by the voltage source (voltage-fed inverter). In the
second case, when the load is a parallel resonant circuit, it
will react like a voltage source (capacitor in parallel), and
therefore, it has to be fed by a current source (current-fed
inverter).
On the other hand, when driving a resonant load by an
inverter, there will always be a phase-shift between output
voltage and current. In the case of a series load, in some time
intervals, the current will flow from the load to the power
source. This implies that in an inverter with a series resonant
load (series inverter), the switches must be bidirectional in
current and unidirectional in voltage.
In an inverter with parallel resonant load (parallel inverter),
there will be some time intervals in which the output voltage
is opposite to the output current. In this case, the switches
must be bidirectional in voltage and unidirectional in current
(dual to the former case). These above theoretical differences
are summarized in Fig. 1.
Basically, the two load structures mentioned above adapt
correctly to the induction heating. However, there are some
I. INTRODUCTION
T THE MOMENT, two basic types of generators for
induction heating applications are on the market: thyristors static inverters and high-frequency electron tube generators.
The thyristor static inverters are used at frequencies from
500 Hz to 10 kHz. They are machines with great electrical
and mechanical robustness and satisfactory energy efficiency.
On the other hand, the most important problem is that the
frequency range of a thyristor static inverter is relatively
narrow so that in case of frequent inductor changes, it is
necessary to make difficult adjustments.
The thyristor technology is limited to use at frequencies
less than 10 kHz. This is due mainly to the recovery time
needed, which is very short, and the thyristor basic operating
principle does not allow such short recovering times.
Electronics tube generators, unlike thyristor static inverters, do not have any limit related to the frequencies used.
There are, at this moment, two type of electronic tube
generators: conventional or classic ones and aperiodic ones.
Both types of generators have in common the use of the
electronic tube. The most important disadvantages of both
types of generators are produced by the unavoidable use of
the electronic tube.
Electronic tubes have a limited life that, in practice, lies
between 4000 and 6OOO operating hours, depending on the
working conditions. On the other hand, the tube is a relatively inefficient element itself (never more than 75 %),
204
series
resonance
Parallel resonance
hC+
Load
++
+--
Switch
Source
* -+
TABLE I
DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN
PARALLEL
AND SERIES
INVERTER
Series Inverter
Parallel Inverter
coil possible
(+) high-voltage capacitors are
not required
simpler
(+) transistors conduct only the
(+) power source from a
active current
noncontrolled rectifier
( - ) unloaded operation only possible ( - ) logic control of the generator
more sophisticated
with a sophisticated control
( - ) power source by a controlled
( - ) no short circuit capability
( - ) power control by frequency shift recifier or a chopper
can give problems in some
( - ) need of a smoothing choke
appGcations
( - ) bigger size
( - ) Transistors have to conduct the
whole current of the inductor
A . Chopper Description
The chopper structure together with switching aid networks can be seen in Fig. 3 Coil L, is designed to limit
di / dt to less than 50 A/ps and capacitor C , for limiting the
transistor V,, to less than 200 V at the end of the collector
current fall time. The switch to be used in the chopper, for a
generator rated 25 kW/50 kHz, is a Darlington whose structure is shown in Fig. 4. The transistors used are ISOTOP
packaged (Thomson) and water cooled.
Fig. 5 shows the experimental waveforms of the collector
current (lower trace) and collector-emiter voltage (upper
trace) for the chopper switch (Fig. 4).
'
205
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RETURN
Fig. 5. Zc, V,, waveforms for chopper switch. Lower trace: I, (50
A/div); hpper trace: V,, (200 v/div); time scale: 0, 1 ms/div.
wo/w)
206
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m
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T *
I
I
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I
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L
(c
(phase Lag)
VMF
= i Dl
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Fig. 7. Switch of inverter bridge with switching aid network.
# (0
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results in
207
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Fig. 11. Equivalent circuit during conmutation when
> 0.
Y--Qi L
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II
-L
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
(+ ) No losses at turn on
(+ ) no recovery current in the series diode. This is very
(- )
(-)
( -)
A=
10
B=
5us
V
OF THE
RETURN
Fig., 13. V,, and V,, waveforms for the inverter switch. Lower trace: V,,
(10 V/div); upper trace: V,, (200 V/div); time scale: 5 psldiv.
208
A=O. 1 V
8-
5us
RETURN
Fig. 14.
INTEGRATOR
v c o
S
-
COMPENSATOG-
S1
- MODULE
AND
PWASE-SIUFT
- DETECTOR
AMjlESIGNUs
rlL
VMF
zERo-cRG
vMFNL
-316
MPD
COMPARATOR
-Qcc
R-S
-Q
BIESTABLE
-Q
209
Semicond., 1979.
[lo] -,
Semicond.. 1985.