Frequently Asked Questions

  Is your material ferrite?   No, ferrites are ceramic-like materials made of oxides of different metals. They are hard, brittle, have low saturation flux density and service temperature due to low Curie point. Fluxtrol and Ferrotron materials are Soft Magnetic Composites (SMC) or Magnetodielectrics (MDM). They are made of highly magnetic metal powder and plastic binder according to proprietary technology.

  I have problems with laminations degrading and rusting, is that a problem with your product?   First of all, this degradation of laminations can result in coil failure or changes to the heat pattern. All Fluxtrol materials, being solid in form, eliminate the degradation/corrision build up that is common between individual laminations. Another significant benefit of Fluxtrol materials is that they can be easily machined. This includes in-field modification when necessary which is not possible with individual laminations.

  In some articles it is said that we need to avoid application of magnetic flux concentrators because they can deteriorate in time and cause quality problems. Is it correct?   Fluxtrol Inc. carefully controls concentrator applications in different industries and there were no complaints or undetectable changes of flux concentrator performance. Of course quality control of the induction coil must include visual control of flux concentrator conditions. In some applications Fluxtrol concentrators work for years without any change in performance. In heavy-loaded applications Fluxtrol materials may have limited lifetime (as well as the induction coil copper) and other parts of induction installation. Concentrator lifetime may be increased by coil design optimization, correct selection of flux concentrator material grade and proper coil maintenance. We recommend evaluating concentrator application benefits versus additional manufacturing costs for all applications and are ready to help you to do this.

  We use laminations for seam annealing inductors. Laminations get hot and actually burn, especially in the end areas of inductors. Can Fluxtrol help?   Yes, we know this problem. There are two factors causing lams overheating. Firstly, it is difficult to provide reliable heat transfer from laminations to water-cooled copper tubing. Secondly, the magnetic field in the "end areas" is 3-dimensional and there is magnetic field component perpendicular to the lamination sheets. This field generates eddy-currents in laminations causing their overheating. Fluxtrol materials can solve both problems. It can work in 3D fields and provide good heat transfer to inductor copper.

  Is Fluxtrol material competitive to laminations? It looks like laminations are cheaper…   Yes, laminations are cheaper as raw material. If you compare total costs of lamination application, including lamination stamping or cutting, assembling and installation, they will be comparable. The Fluxtrol Advantage becomes more evident at higher frequencies (>15kHz), when laminations must be thinner or may not be used at all. With Fluxtrol, the time to repair the induction heating coil is greatly reduced because of the labor intensive task of stacking and attaching the laminations individually.

  I would like to shield machine parts from heating by magnetic field of induction coil but available space is very small. What can I do?   You can use thin plates or shells of Fluxtrol for shielding. We manufacture Fluxtrol plates 2 mm thick. They work very well in situations similar to what you describe.