Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Proceedings of The Institution of Mechanical

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical
Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical

Engineering Science
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Design of an induction heating coil coupled with magnetic flux concentrators for barrel heating of an
injection molding machine
Huy-Tien Bui and Sheng-Jye Hwang
Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science published
online 5 June 2014
DOI: 10.1177/0954406214537806
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for barrel heating of an injection DOI: 10.1177/0954406214537806

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molding machine
Huy-Tien Bui and Sheng-Jye Hwang
Abstract
In an injection molding machine, the conventional barrel heating system which uses resistance heating method (RH) has
some drawbacks such as low heating rate, long heating time, and energy loss. With induction heating (IH) technique, the
barrel can better handle almost all of these disadvantages. However, non-uniform temperature distribution on inside
surface of a barrel is the main drawback of induction heaters. A working coil coupled with magnetic flux concentrators
via adjustment of magnetic flux concentrator spacing to achieve uniformity of magnetic flux and temperature distribution
on the inside surface of a barrel was proposed and experimented. Results showed that, when barrel was heated by
induction heating method with the proposed induction heating coil, heating time to reach a specific temperature could
be reduced, and heating rate increased compared to resistance heating method. With 8 mm pitch of magnetic flux
concentrators on a coil, the temperature distribution was the most uniform.
Keywords
Coil design, induction heating, rapid heating, magnetic flux concentrator, coupling
Date received: 25 November 2013; accepted: 14 April 2014
Introduction higher than that with barrel resistance heating

In a barrel heated by resistance heating method (RH) system because there is no contact heat resistance
or a barrel resistance heating system for short, a band- existing between IH coil and the barrel.5,6
heater that is actually a resistance heater, was used to In addition, magnetic flux tends to concentrate
cover a heated area outside the barrel. The operation toward the center of the length of a working coil,
of RH system can be briefed shortly as follows: the and thus the heating rate in this area is generally
heat generated from the band-heater was transferred higher than that produced toward the end sides of
to outer surface of the barrel via contact. If the sur- working coil.7 However, in an injection molding
face of the barrel is rough due to machining, dirt, rust machine, uniform temperature distribution along the
or other reasons, the heating efficiency would be low. heated part on the surface inside the barrel is required.
Heating rate for band-heater thus will be low. The This is the main drawback of IH system when applied
losses of heat to ambient are not only from the in an injection molding machine. There are sev-
barrel but also from the band-heater itself if it is not eral approaches to modify the magnetic flux field
properly insulated. The barrel system heated by RH or uniform temperature distribution such as adjust-
method therefore is inefficient and less accurate in ing the number of turns in a working coil, adjusting
temperature control because of its large residual the pitch of turns of working coil,7,8 adjusting
heat after turning off the power supply.1,2 the distance between coils and barrel,9,10 changing
For a barrel heating system heated by IH tech-
nique, a power supply with high current frequency
and working coil are required to generate a magnetic
field. This magnetic field induces eddy currents in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Cheng Kung
barrel located inside the working coil. These induced University, Tainan City, Taiwan
currents have the same frequency as that of the work-
Corresponding author:
ing coil. These currents produce heat by the Joule Huy-Tien Bui, Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Cheng
effects.3,4 Heat is transferred directly to the barrel. Kung University, No. 1, University Road, Tainan City 701, Taiwan.
Heating rate in barrel induction heating system is Email: n18987014@mail.ncku.edu.tw

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2 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)
cross-section shape of coil,11 using magnetic concen- that include neighboring areas such as work-piece as
tration bars,7 and so on. shown in Figure 1, tools, metal support, auxiliary
Although uniform temperature distribution is equipment and so on. Eddy currents are induced in
achievable with coil modification and adjustment, the work-piece by the magnetic field. Due to
the process is tedious and time consuming.7 This Faraday’s law, eddy currents induced within the
drawback is one of the reasons why induction heating work-piece have an opposite direction to that of the
of barrel is not popular. To solve this problem, an current flowing in the working coil. Owing to proxim-
induction heating coil coupled with magnetic flux con- ity effect,3 the working coil current and work-piece
centrators was proposed. The induction heating coil eddy currents will concentrate in the areas facing
was made from a wire with magnetic flux concentra- each other. The induced eddy currents produce heat
tors equally spaced along the wire. The effects of in the barrel. But, due to electromagnetic field propa-
arranging magnetic concentrators along working coil gation, the eddy currents are induced not only in the
to temperature distribution were discussed in this art- work-piece, but in the adjacent areas as well.
icle. In other words, the effects of pitch of magnetic When installing an external magnetic concentrator
flux concentrators distributed along the working coil around the working coil as shown in Figure 2, a small
to magnetic flux field were considered. The design of portion of the electromagnetic field of the coil will link
the magnetic flux concentrators coupled with working with adjacent areas. The magnetic concentrator
coil could standalone provide a uniform magnetic will squeeze the current of working coil to the ‘‘open
field and temperature distributing on the inside surface’’ of the concentrator. This electromagnetic
surface of a barrel if the pitch of the magnetic flux phenomenon is called the ‘‘slot’’ effect.3 Current con-
concentrators were properly designed. centration within the working coil surface facing the
work-piece results in good ‘‘working coil-work piece’’
coupling and therefore improves the efficiency of heat
Design of an induction heating coil with transfer to the barrel.
uniform magnetic distribution In this paper, with the theory about magnetic flux
concentrator, magnetic flux concentrators coupled
Overview of magnetic flux concentrator with working coil was proposed to achieve uniform
Magnetic flux concentrators are made from high rela- magnetic distribution to ensure uniformity of tem-
tive magnetic permeability, high values of electrical perature distribution at the inside surface of a barrel
resistivity, thermal conductivity, and low power-loss of an injection molding machine.
materials. One of the most important magnetic prop-
erties of a magnetic flux is low value of hysteresis loss.
The magnetic flux concentrator materials are of the
Experimental work
following types: magneto-dielectric materials, electro- The main goal of this paper is to prove that the pro-
lytic iron-based materials, pure ferrites, carbonyl iron- posed coil could be used to wrap around a barrel
based materials, and ferrite-based materials. without time-consuming adjustment and achieve mag-
The effects of magnetic flux concentrator on uni- netic uniformity with higher heating rate and uniform
formity of magnetic field and temperature distribution temperature distribution at the inside surface of an
at the inside surface of a barrel were discussed in this injection molding machine.
section. First of all, let us see what happens when a C- The equipments prepared for the experiments were
shaped bar of magnetic flux concentrator is located listed as below.
around the working coil as shown in Figures 1 and 2. Barrel: A barrel of an injection molding machine
Without a magnetic flux concentrator, the mag- needed to be heated was made from 42CrMo material
netic field would spread around the working coil and has dimensions as shown in Figure 3. Its material
and link with electrically conductive surroundings properties are listed in Table 1.
Figure 1. Magnetic field distribution without magnetic Figure 2. Magnetic field distribution with magnetic
concentrator. concentrator.3

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Bui and Hwang 3
Induction power supply: A power supply with supply. This resonant frequency is defined by the
power range from 1.2 kW to 1.3 kW and operation formula12
frequency range from 17.5 kHz to 20 kHz was
chosen to generate a high frequency current as 1
f¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ðHzÞ ð1Þ
shown in Figure 4. 2 LC
Magnetic flux concentrators coupled induction heat-
ing coil: Magnetic concentrator bar was made from where L is the inductance of the working coil (H) and
ferrite-based materials. The dimension of the mag- C is the capacitance of the tank circuits (F).
netic flux concentrator was shown in Figure 5(a). Working coil plays an important role in the tank
Most induction heating systems make use of an circuits. Its value depends strongly on the number of
AC electrical circuit known as tank circuits. Tank turns and the diameter of the work-piece. For given
circuits include a capacitor and an inductor. induction power supply, operation frequency range is
Tuning in induction heating generally refers to the limited and capacitance value of capacitor in the res-
adjustment of the capacitance or inductance of tank onant tank is also a constant. Thus, inductor or work-
circuits containing the working coil and work-piece, ing coil’s inductance should be limited in a range.
so that the resonant frequency of the circuit is equal With the requirement of heating length of a barrel,
or close to the frequency of the induction power it is necessary to compute a proper inductance of
working coil based on the given power supply. In
this study, the heating length of barrel by IH which
was chosen to be the same as that by resistance heat-
ing (RH) is 130 mm. Under these bases, a working coil
with two layers of 28 turns, 14 turns for each was
experimented and made from soft copper wire with
3 mm in diameter as shown in Figure 5(b).
Resistance heater and working coil without magnetic
flux concentrators are shown in Figure 5(c) and (d).
Barrel heating system via RH (RHS) was first
Figure 3. Geometry of the barrel used in the experiment.7 experimented. For RHS, the main equipment is a
resistance heater with 130 mm in length, and 70 mm
inner diameter covers around the heating areas of the
barrel. The installation of RHS was shown in Figure 6
Table 1. Material properties of the barrel used in the and parameters of the resistance heater were listed in
experiments. Table 2. In order to consider the temperature uni-
formity at surface inside of the barrel and
Properties Value Unit
heating rate when using RHS, the temperatures at
Material 42CrMo three locations A, B, and C were measured as
Relative magnetic 200 Dimensionless shown in Figure 7.
permeability For IHS, the working coils coupled with different
Density 7860 kg/m3 pitches of magnetic flux concentrators were con-
Thermal conductivity 60.64 W/m C sidered. Copper wires without and with different
Resistivity 8.8 107
m pitches of magnetic flux concentrators are shown in
Specific heat capacity 420 J/kg C Figure 8. Working coils thus were made from these
copper wires as shown in Figure 9.
Figure 4. Induction power supply used in the experiment.

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Figure 5. Components used in the experiments. (a) Dimensions of the magnetic concentration bar, (b) Copper wire used to make
working coil, (c) Resistance heater and (d) Working coil without magnetic flux concentrators.
These working coils were connected to the induc-

tion power supply. The to be heated barrel was put in
magnetic flux field generated around the working coil.
Because working coil covered the center of the barrel,
the magnetic flux field at both ends was similar and
temperatures at these areas were close. In order to
understand the uniformity of temperature distribution
at inside surface the barrel, three measurement loca-
tions of center area and two end sides areas therefore
Figure 6. Installation of resistance heating system. were used as shown in Figure 10. All experiments were
done with the same 480 seconds of heating time.
Table 2. Parameters of the resistance heater. Results and discussions

Properties Value Unit Effects of magnetic flux concentrators on magnetic
flux field and temperature uniformity at the inside
Length 130 mm
surface of the barrel
Inner diameter 70 mm
Power 1.2 kW For a working coil without adjusting the relative loca-
Voltage 220 V tion of the wires, the shape, size, or number of turns
of the coils or distance from coil to the work-piece,
magnetic flux tends to concentrate at the center of the
length of a working coil. The heating rate in this
area is generally higher than that produced at the
ends. Experiment results for this case are shown
in Figure 11.
The temperature at the center area, B after heating
time of 480 s was 294.1 C which was much higher
than 224.8 C at both ends. For the case of 2 mm
pitch of magnetic flux concentrators, temperature at
the middle area was also higher than those at both
ends. The temperatures at measurement locations are
shown in Figure 12. Temperature difference between
Figure 7. Temperature measurement locations A, B, and C in middle location and both ends after 480 s of heating
the barrel resistance heating system. time was 36.7 C. Although the temperature difference

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Bui and Hwang 5
Figure 8. Copper wires with different pitches of magnetic flux concentrators. (a) Without magnetic flux concentrators, (b) 2 mm
pitch, (c) 6 mm pitch, (d) 8 mm pitch, (e) 15 mm pitch and (f) 20 mm pitch.
was smaller than that for the case of working coil which was lower than that for the first two cases of
without magnetic flux concentrators, it was too large working coil.
to be used for barrel heating. In other words, tem- For 8 mm pitch of magnetic flux concentrators, the
perature uniformity for the case of working coil temperature distribution is shown in Figure 14.
with 2 mm pitch of magnetic flux concentrators was Comparing the 2 mm and 6 mm pitch cases, the mag-
improved, but the temperature difference was still too netic flux concentrator density of 8 mm was lower,
large. Using magnetic flux concentrator for working and the magnetic field intensity and distribution
coil did affect temperature distribution at the surface along the heating length of barrel was higher and
inside the barrel. However, the heat energy trans- more uniform. Heating rate for 8 mm pitch case was
ferred to work-piece from electrical energy was thus higher than that of the 2 mm and 6 mm pitch
reduced when using the magnetic flux concentrators. cases. The temperature uniformity was also better
The average temperatures at the center area and the than those of the 2 mm and 6 mm pitch cases. The
both ends or heating rate for working coil without temperature difference between middle area and
magnetic flux concentrators was much higher than both ends was 25.1 C. If magnetic flux concentrator
those for working coil with 2 mm pitch of magnetic density was continuously decreased or pitch between
flux concentrators. magnetic flux concentrators was increased, the uni-
Figure 13 showed the temperature distribution at formity of temperature distribution would be reduced.
surface inside the barrel for working coil with 6 mm The temperature distribution results for pitches of
pitch of magnetic flux concentrators. The number of 15 mm and 20 mm of magnetic flux concentrators
magnetic flux concentrators for this case was smaller showed this trend.
than that for 2 mm pitch case. The maximum tem- In the case of coil with 15 mm pitch of magnetic
perature values at the center area and both ends flux concentrators, even fewer magnetic flux concen-
for this case were therefore higher than those for the trators was used, and the temperature at B location
case of the 2 mm pitch. Temperature difference was higher than that of the 8 mm pitch case, whereas
between center location and both ends was 31.8 C the temperatures at A and C locations were a little bit

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Figure 9. Different working coils used in the experiments. (a) Working coil without magnetic flux concentrators, (b) Working coil
coupled with 2 mm pitch of magnetic flux concentrators, (c) Working coil coupled with 6 mm pitch of magnetic flux concentrators,
(d) Working coil coupled with 8 mm, (e) Working coil coupled with 15 mm pitch of magnetic flux concentrators and (f) Working coil
coupled with 20 mm pitch of magnetic flux concentrators.
Figure 10. Temperature measurement locations A, B, and C in IHS.
lower than those of the 8 mm pitch case. The tempera- For the coil with 20 mm pitch of magnetic flux con-
ture difference between the center area and both ends centrators, the effects of magnetic concentrators to
was 51.7 C which was larger than that of the 8 mm magnetic field were smaller than those with pitches
pitch case as shown in Figure 15. In other words, the of 2 mm, 8 mm, and 15 mm. The magnetic field inten-
uniformity of temperature distribution at surface sity at the middle area was larger compared to the
inside the barrel for the coil with 15 mm pitch of mag- previous cases, and the temperature at this area was
netic flux concentrators was worse than that of the therefore higher as shown in Figure 16. Hence, the
coil with 8 mm pitch of magnetic flux concentrators. heating rate for the 20 mm pitch case was higher.

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Bui and Hwang 7
Figure 11. Temperature distribution at the surface inside the Figure 14. Temperature distribution at the surface inside the
barrel without magnetic flux concentrators. barrel with 8 mm pitch of magnetic flux concentrators.
Figure 12. Temperature distribution at the surface inside the Figure 15. Temperature distribution at the surface inside the
barrel with 2 mm pitch of magnetic flux concentrators. barrel with 15 mm pitch of magnetic flux concentrators.
Figure 13. Temperature distribution at the surface inside the Figure 16. Temperature distribution at surface inside the
barrel with 6 mm pitch of magnetic flux concentrators. barrel with 20 mm pitch of magnetic flux concentrators.

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Figure 17. Comparison of uniformity and standard deviation of temperature distribution between the six cases of working coil for
experiments.
In order to identify the effects of magnetic flux temperature distribution, temperature difference and
concentrators to uniformity of temperature at the maximum temperature after 480 s in heating time
inside surface inside of the barrel, the uniformity, between coils with different pitches of magnetic flux
standard deviation, and heating rate were used and concentrators for experiments are shown in Table 3.
defined as In order to guarantee the required uniform induc-
vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi tion heating of the barrel, it is necessary to predict the
u N electromagnetic field distribution produced by the
u1 X
¼t ðxi xÞ2 ð2Þ induction coil. For the working coil without coupling
N i¼1 with magnetic flux concentrators, the electromagnetic
flux tends to concentrate toward the center area of the
where is the standard deviation, xi is the values of length of the working coil. The heating rate generated
the ith element in the data set, x is the mean of all in this area on the barrel is generally much higher
values in the data set, and N is the total number of than that generated at the two end sides of the
values in the data set. barrel. When magnetic flux concentrators were used,
Uniformity is defined as the magnetic flux concentrators will improve the effi-
ciency of the process partly by reducing the coupling
distance between the barrel surface and the current-
Uniformity ¼ 1 100 ð3Þ
x carrying region of the working coil. However, because
the magnetic flux concentrator is an electrically con-
where is the standard deviation and x is the mean of ductive body and is exposed to a high-density mag-
all values in the data set. netic flux, there will be some power loss due to heat
The heating rate is defined as generated within it. Using magnetic flux concentrator
would decrease the heating rate. Thus, the heating
TempðfinalÞ TempðinitialÞ rate of working coils coupling with magnetic flux con-
Heating Rate ¼ ð4Þ
tðfinalÞ tðinitialÞ centrator was lower than that without magnetic con-
centrator even though their temperature uniformities
where Temp(final) and Temp(initial) are the tempera- were better. Increasing the pitch of magnetic flux con-
tures at the final measurement time and the initial centrators from 2 mm pitch would reduce the effects
measurement time, respectively. t(final) and t(initial) of magnetic flux concentrators to magnetic field, while
are the final measurement time and the initial meas- the heating rate would increase. The effect of the mag-
urement time, respectively. netic flux concentrator with 2 mm pitch coil to mag-
Comparison of the results between the six types of netic field was larger than those with pitches of 6 mm,
working coil for experiments is shown in Figure 17. 8 mm, 15 mm, and 20 mm. For the coil with 8 mm
The uniformity of temperature distribution for the pitch of magnetic flux concentrators, the magnetic
coil with 8 mm pitch was the best. However, increas- field distribution along the length of working coil
ing or decreasing the pitch of magnetic flux concen- was the most uniform. In other words, the magnetic
trators from 8 mm pitch would decrease or increase field density at the middle area of 8 mm pitch coil was
the heating rate, but the uniformity of temperature for more approximate to those at both ends compared to
all would be worse compared to that of the 8 mm other cases. The temperature uniformity for this case
pitch case. The comparisons of uniformity of was therefore the best.

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Bui and Hwang 9
Table 3. Uniformity and temperature difference comparison Table 4. Specifications of the two barrel heating systems.
for experiments.
Properties Unit IH system RH system
Temperature Maximum
difference temperature Power supply kW &1.3 1.2
after heating after heating Frequency Hz 17500 –
Uniformity time time Heating time s 480 480
(%) 480 s( C) 480 s( C) Heating length of barrel mm 130 130

Without magnetic 83.85 69.4 294.1 Ambient temperature C 29 29
flux concentrator Voltage source V 110 220
2 mm pitch 89.84 36.7 229.5
6 mm pitch 92.37 31.8 258.3
8 mm pitch 94.02 25.1 264.5
15 mm pitch 88.35 51.7 282.3
20 mm pitch 86.80 57.1 285.8 Table 5. Heating rate comparison between the induction and
resistance barrel heating systems.
Heating rate ( C/s) IHS RHS
A location 0.4383 0.2462

B location 0.4906 0.2894
C location 0.4383 0.2696
Comparison of temperature distribution between

the induction and resistance barrel heating
methods
Heating rate and uniformity of temperature distribu-
tion were compared between the two barrel heating
systems under the same conditions of barrel heating
length, power supply level and heating time as shown
Figure 18. Comparison of temperature distribution between in Figures 18 and 19, and Table 4. Induction barrel
the induction and resistance barrel heating systems. Induction heating system with working coil coupled with 8 mm
heating system was with a working coil coupled with 8 mm pitch of magnetic flux concentrators was used to make
pitch of magnetic flux concentrators. the comparison.
Based on Figure 18, with the same power level and
480 s of heating time and heating length of the barrel,
the heating rate for induction heating barrel system
was higher than that of resistance heating barrel
system as shown in Table 5. In other words, the heat-
ing efficiency of IH method was larger than that of the
RH method. For RH method, heat is generated via
electrical current flowing through band-heater and
transformed to the barrel by contact. Because of this
heat transfer mechanism, the temperature at the outer
surface is always higher than that at the inner surface.
Besides that, a significant amount of heat is lost to the
environment because the band-heater is always at
high temperature. In contrast, for IH system, if the
barrel is placed inside the magnetic field generated
around the working coil, electrical energy trans-
formed to heat is transferred directly to the barrel.
In addition, when working coil coupling with mag-
Figure 19. Comparison of temperature uniformity and netic flux concentrators, a small portion of the elec-
standard deviation between the induction and resistance barrel tromagnetic field of the coil will link with adjacent
heating systems. Induction heating system was with a working areas. Heating rate and heating efficiency when
coil coupled with 8 mm pitch of magnetic flux concentrators. using IH system are therefore higher than that using

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RH system. On the other hand, the energy loss in the References

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barrel heated by induction heating and resistance ing. Control Eng Practice 2008; 16: 1259–1264.
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shown in Figure 19. Under proper design of working molding system. Patent 4726751-A, USA, 1988.
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centrators, the temperature uniformity for both resist- of induction heating. New York, NY: Marcel Dekker,
Inc, 2003, pp.108–117.
ance and induction heating systems were almost the
4. Pilavdzic JI, Buren SV and Kagan VG. Apparatus for
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inductive and resistive heating of an object. Patent
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with 8 mm pitch of magnetic concentrators could be 5. Burke PE. Induction heating and melting systems
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This study was supported by grants from the Department of
Mechanical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University,
Tainan, Taiwan.
Conflict of interest
None declared.

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Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical

Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical

The online version of this article can be found at:

Institution of Mechanical Engineers

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>> OnlineFirst Version of Record - Jun 5, 2014

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Proc IMechE Part C:

for barrel heating of an injection DOI: 10.1177/0954406214537806

Huy-Tien Bui and Sheng-Jye Hwang

Date received: 25 November 2013; accepted: 14 April 2014

Introduction higher than that with barrel resistance heating

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2 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)

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Bui and Hwang 3

Figure 4. Induction power supply used in the experiment.

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4 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)

These working coils were connected to the induc-

Table 2. Parameters of the resistance heater. Results and discussions

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Bui and Hwang 5

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6 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)

Figure 10. Temperature measurement locations A, B, and C in IHS.

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Bui and Hwang 7

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8 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)

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Bui and Hwang 9

Heating rate ( C/s) IHS RHS

A location 0.4383 0.2462

Comparison of temperature distribution between

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10 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)

RH system. On the other hand, the energy loss in the References

Downloaded from pic.sagepub.com at University of Birmingham on November 16, 2014

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