Green Heat is the name of the Mistra-financed ProEnviro project that has now been completed with superb results. Together, HJ Mek, Magnetic Components and Lund’s University of Technology have jointly developed created new technologies for heating by induction.Currently, HJ Mek and Mag Comp are building new mechanics and techniques for Green Heat. Thus far there is no single entity to carry on the work.
“No, a more substantial foundation is needed for that. The interesting thing now is to get the technology and applications working. Our customers of mechanics are often in the dark about emerging technologies, so we have to be more active, however, Mag Comp’s customers often know a lot about heating," says Lars-Olof Jönsson, project manager at HJ Mek.
The uses for Green Heat are many. There are often many individual elements that need to be heated within the industrial process—such as metal parts before assembly, or to dry paint.
“It’s exciting. The possibilities are endless with only the customers' imagination setting the limits," says Lars-Olof Jönsson.
At the company AQ Holmberg in Anderstorp there was the need to evaporate oil out of deep-pressed metal units. A test installation of Green Heat was therefore installed to run parallel with their infrared heating system.
“It was pure magic," says production manager Ingemar Haase at AQ Holmberg’s.
He of course knows how it is done, but to see how metal parts on an assembly line can be heated to 120 degrees Celsius in seconds – completely without any visible interference may seem magical.
“We are very pleased. The alternative is to use an alkaline washing or heating using IR systems. With Green Heat you will use less energy, create a better working environment and it is, of course, cheaper," he says.
Infrared equipment is twice as big as a Green Heat Unit anduses ten times more energy. But there are more advantages than that: an induction heater molded by the method of Green Heat provides, inter alia, good operating economy and low energy losses. In addition, the machine is silent and fast.
“We see an incredibly high potential for commercializing the product. To start with, it was all about our own needs in our workshop, but the results are so much more," says Lars-Olof Jönsson at HJ Mek.
