Induction technology to reduce the cost of heating or reheating steel slabs for rolling.
Inductotherm’s high power-density induction systems provide mill operators with the most efficient and cost-effective technology for bringing even the largest steel slabs to the optimal temperatures required for rolling.

Induction reheating systems are designed to reduce fuel by taking over the slab heating process at the point in the thermal curve where gas-fired furnaces rapidly lose efficiency, about 1900℉. That’s because, unlike gas, induction heating systems maintain their high efficiency throughout their operating range.

In a typical induction-based slab reheating operation, the slab would be brought to 1900℉ in a conventional gas-fired furnace, and then would move into the induction system where it would be raised to the precise temperature needed for rolling. Because induction heats the metal directly, the operation occurs quickly, increasing slab throughout and reducing scale formation.

The 42,000kW system inductotherm installed at a western U.S. rolling mill received slabs at about 1900℉ from a gas-fired reheat furnace. These slabs, measuring up to 8.6 in. thick, 126 in. wide and 36 ft. long, were then heated to rolling temperature with induction. This system was able to produce more than 500 tons per hour, raised a minimum of 300℉.

With an overall length of just 50 ft., the system minimized the mill space required for the reheating operation.

Generally, induction-based reheating systems require just 10 percent of the floor space needed for comparable gas-fired furnaces.