WARNER, New Hampshire December 1, 2011 – Electrically powered industrial furnaces typically have multiple heating elements, regularly spaced within the furnace. This is to ensure a uniform temperature throughout the hot zone. Such furnaces often utilize low voltages for operator safety and avoidance of internal arcing. Consequently they require heavy currents to deliver the required power.
Conventionally, electrical power is supplied by a stand-alone electrical power supply, separate from the furnace itself. Typically, for high power applications, either water-cooled cables, or bus-bars, are used to connect from the power supply to the furnace. Such cables or bus-bars create resistive losses which reduce efficiency. Additionally in AC systems, inductive coupling to nearby steel components can cause parasitic heating in those nearby components and corresponding energy losses. Such resistances and inductive losses can cause an imbalance in the system, which can cause an imbalance at the heating elements and undesirable temperature gradients within the furnace. This can degrade the industrial process, reducing the quality, yield and market value of the ultimate finished product being processed in the furnace.
Further thermal imbalance may be created by differences in the resistance values of the individual heating elements themselves, due to aging, which cannot be compensated for, where several such elements are powered from a single power supply.
Because of the very high currents, which can range into the tens of thousands of Amperes, resistive losses in the cables or bus bars can be very significant and degrade the overall efficiency of the system. Such losses may exceed 10% of total power consumed and may additionally require water-cooling to prevent over-heating. Furthermore water-cooled cables and bus-bars are heavy, expensive and cumbersome in the confined space of a modern plant.
To address these various problems, which are generic in the industry, Warner Power has filed patent and is promoting the use of multiple distributed, highly miniaturized power supplies physically located at the furnace electrical terminals. This means that cabling and bus-bars can essentially be eliminated, together with their associated costs and power loses. In addition, each heating element may now have its own dedicated, independently controlled power supply to provide uniform power to each heating element regardless of resistance variations, to achieve a precisely uniform temperature within the furnace.
More about Warner Power LLC
Warner Power manufactures electrical transformers, power supplies and data entry terminals, boasting many years of experience and a reputation for quality and reliability at a competitive price. Rooted firmly in the New England traditions of inventiveness, hard work and thrift, Warner Power products support the fast-growing alternative energy industries in China, Korea, Europe and the U.S. Over 40% of the company’s production is exported. Other key markets include power supplies for industrial heating, elevator drive systems, and medical equipment.
In 2008 the Company was recognized as one of the fastest growing privately owned companies in New Hampshire by New Hampshire Business Review magazine. In 2010 Warner Power was recognized by New Hampshire Governor John Lynch in his State of the State Speech.
Warner Power is a portfolio company of American Capital, Ltd. (NASDAQ:ACAS), a Bethesda MD based publicly traded private equity firm and global asset manager. Visit: www.warnerpower.com
