History of Electric Induction Heating

This Chapter

Induction Heating
  1. Early work to Salesman
  2. Salesman to entrepreneur
  3. Vacuum furnaces
  4. Henry Rowan, Mars Rocket
  5. Cheston, Cragmet, IRS
  6. Visit Russia, Meet Vera
  7. Around the world, Meet the president
  8. Kramatorsk
  9. Consarc
  10. Consarc UK
  11. Carbon contract
  12. Russians in Scotland
  13. The Embargo is Coming
  14. Embargo and Aftermath
  15. BEPA
  16. After BEPA
  17. Fiber Materials Appeal
  18. Consarc Officials Deny Wrongdoing in Sales to Soviets
  19. Memos from Henry Rowan to Metcalf
  20. Rowland motor patent 1868
  21. Rowland reviews the bids for Niagara Falls power station
  22. Metcalf's father's poem, and Metcalf genealogy
  23. The Peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
  24. Problems of Russia's Policy With Respect to China and Japan
  25. History of Ajax Magnethermic
  26. The most important event for Inductotherm
  27. Fright Flight
  28. Black art of carbon production
  29. Polaris Missile
  30. Nuclear Airplane
  31. Nuclear Engine
  32. Molten metal eats through and explodes
  33. Cannon Muskegon Corporation
  34. Metcalf at General Motors Research from April 1955 to Oct 1955
  35. Metcalf pouring superalloy at GE from Oct 1955 to June 1956
  36. Metcalf at Waimet (later Howmet) from June 1956 to July 1957
  37. Black art of carbon production
  38. Project to test NASA hot hydrogen engine
  39. Special Metals Number 9
  40. Metcalf joins Inductotherm group
  41. Device to load materials into a furnace for melting
  42. Bank reneged on a commitment to finance a job in Russia
  43. Inductotherm private airport
  44. NERVA (Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application) and all I know about carbon
  45. NERVA Engine Control Rods
  46. same as 383-Nuke.html
  47. Development of Polaris missle
  48. Ajax NASA
  49. Production of carbon fabrics and threads made from rayon
  50. George Houghton, Aerojet Inspector gives Metcalf Rocket history
  51. Rayon to carbon to graphite
  52. Metcalf buys the control division of the Pelton Water Wheel Company
  53. Rowan's account of firing Consarc President
  54. Kama Purchasing Commission, Ukraine
  55. Role of chromium in vacuum melters
  56. ASEA wins contract for isopress
  57. Induction heating to re-refile tank cannon
  58. Hoover-Ugine Company
  59. Letter to Henry Rowan at Inductotherm
  60. John Mortimer in Rancocas
  61. Consarc Board of Directors Meeting
  62. Consarc Board of Directors Meeting
  63. Hillbilly
  64. How to produce Calcarb
  65. Newsday, late 1987
  66. Embargo Regulations
  67. Seizure of Goods
  68. Minutes of Dept of Trade, London
  69. Minutes of ECGD Meeting
  70. Rowan Interview
  71. Bombshell looks like dud
  72. Letter to Hank Rowan
  73. Consarc Board Meeting
  74. Minutes of DTI Meeting, London
  75. Stansted Fluid Power
  76. Minutes of DTI Meeting, 3 Oct 85
  77. Letter to IHI Master Metals

Induction Heating

By James Farol Metcalf

Device to Load Materials into a Furnace for Melting

The Charging Machine for Vacuum Melting Furnaces.

Hereinafter called the Charger.

Melting metals in vacuum requires a device to put in materials to be melted without releasing the vacuum.

This basic idea for a new type charger had it's beginnings at 100 Indel Avenue in 1967 when a single person did all the drawings for a new company called Cragmet located in the Inductotherm building. Cragmet was actively engaged constructing a 15,000 pound vacuum melting facility for Special Metals where we were using a 15-ton hydraulic crane for most of the lifting.

The #9 furnace facility was designed under my watchful eyes at the offices of Venetta Engineering in Warren, Ohio. The contract to build this facility was given to Ajax Magnethermic but John Logan, president of Ajax, decided that we would have to sub contract the housing and vacuum system to Airco Temescal. Temescal had an office near Philadelphia run by Reese DeHaven and his sidekick Vince Flynn who were responsible for the details of the design.

The charger was typical of many built to date but the valve that isolated the charger from the melting chamber was much larger than the ones used before, AND this large valve was in the face of hell just above the molten metal. Jack Huntington and I went round and round as to the best way to solve this problem but in the end went back to the old way.

When International Nickel wanted a 15-ton furnace in Kentucky in early 1968 I asked Jene Shrock to study the Pettibone hydraulic crane as a model for a new type charger. He completed most of this design with details by other draftsmen who were borrowed from Venetta to work in Rancocas.

The first charger of the type was put in service at Certified Alloys in Long Beach, California before the final construction was completed.

Another was installed for Armco Steel before the Russian job was finished.

The most interesting modification was installed in Chicago for Western Electric.

We built another type charger for Cannon Muskegon and Howmet that featured a large vibrator fed with a drum that looked like a cement mixer. If someone has a photograph please send it.

There were quick ways to insert a thermocouple for measuring temperature and a device to take a sample.

POSTSCRIPT

When Robert Klingerman and I arrived in Moscow in the dead of winter in early 1973 we stayed at the Metropole Hotel near Red Square. There was an engraved note on the top edge of the building that read in rough translation. "After building s new building I can see better ways of doing it next time."

In 2004 not yet the age of 73, I am ready to sit down with any of you that need a better mousetrap.