Is it worth having an induction heater in your workshop?

If I asked you the question: "What is the most underrated device in your workshop before you bought it?", what answer comes to your mind first?

If you answered: induction heater , then you are certainly not alone in such thinking. It is very difficult for us, as the Workshop Equipment Department, to start a conversation with potential customers about this device with a catalog in hand. It would seem that the relatively high price of the induction heater, and above all our "resourcefulness", effectively discouraged us from buying it. We never thought about how much time the mechanic spent in our workshop with a torch in his hand, a press, a puller, or fighting with a stubborn element. He just had to deal with it. And he was doing fine. But is that the point?

So how is it actually with this induction heater? Why is it underrated?

To begin with, let's describe how the induction heater itself works. When the device is connected to the power supply, it starts to generate an alternating magnetic field, which creates eddy currents in the material, which generate heat. More precisely, the handle of the device is simply a copper conductor through which the coolant flows (in more powerful devices). It charges the ferromagnetic tip, thanks to which a coil is created that generates an alternating electromagnetic field. In the conductive elements of the heater itself, a unidirectional movement of the electric charges of the metal or alloy is initiated. As soon as they are within range of the field generated by the device, they will change direction. The consequence is the formation of eddy currents, disturbing the previous movement of charges. This increases the temperature of the heated material.

What does this mean for our workshop and what results from taming these phenomena?

As an alternative to the heater, workshop workers most often use gas burners. This solution is popular, but also troublesome. Why? There are several reasons for this statement:

• using it requires the mechanic to have the appropriate permissions granted by the Office of Technical Inspection,
• the workshop must take care of the increasingly expensive technical gas to supply,
• has little mobility due to the ban on transporting cylinders in a car not adapted to the transport of technical gases,
• if we treat the metal/alloy with an open fire, it causes the carbon particles in the heated material to burn out, and thus it loses its properties, i.e. shrinks, loses plasticity and crumbles,
• using the burner near electric or pneumatic wires, e.g. on the truck frame, causes numerous damages to them and sometimes even a threat to health or life, which significantly limits our field of operation. Very often, the heated elements are adjacent to covers or rubber sleeves, which end their lives when the torch is applied.

And these are the reasons why the induction heater makes work in the workshop more efficient, saves us valuable time and, above all, is a much safer solution.

In all this, we cannot forget about the convenience of use.

The mentioned heater is a mobile device. Thanks to this, we are able to drive it directly to the workplace. Just literally plug it in and it's ready to go. Importantly, with the increasing power of the selected device, we can be tempted not only to knock out pins, pins, rod ends, but even such demanding repairs as straightening the frames!

It is worth asking yourself the following questions:

• How much time and money can you save?
• What jobs can you do faster and more efficiently?
• What power should the device in your workshop have?

If you do not know the answers to them, after talking to our Technical Advisors and demonstrating the capabilities of the device, you will already know them. Do not wait - contact the nearest Autos store or check our offer on our website - Induction heaters .