A video in which Phil Geers explains how a precast CeraLoop channel goes into a channel furnace inductor and why it lasts longer.
The channel is the part of the inductor that wears out first.
CeraLoop arrives with that channel already fired and to shape.
In the CeraLoop installation video, Blasch market manager Phil Geers explains how a precast, fired ceramic channel is installed in the inductor of a channel induction furnace. The CeraLoop insert is set into the inductor box and backed with dry vibe or castable, so there is no former to burn out or melt out and no wash heat: the furnace can start with any alloy, and the channel is a dense, non wetting ceramic from the first melt.
The video follows the steps for an inductor reline. The CeraLoop channel, in one or several pieces, is placed in the inductor box in its final position. Dry vibe or castable is filled around it as the backup lining. Because the channel is already fired, the inductor does not need the burnout of a former that a conventional rammed or cast channel needs.
In a conventional inductor, the channel is formed from a refractory that sinters in place. It can soak up metal, and in zinc bearing alloys zinc vapor penetrates and weakens it. Erosion, cracks, buildup and clogging follow, and so does the next reline. A CeraLoop channel is dense and fired before it goes in, so the surface that sees the metal is finished ceramic, not a refractory still sintering.
At a brass foundry with four 10,000 lb channel furnaces and 500 kW twin loop inductors, zinc vapor had cut campaign life on leaded brass by up to 90%. The first CeraLoop, run from March to August 2019, carried about twice the previous tonnage and was intact at tear out. The second reached 300% of the previous campaign length.
A rammed channel is still turning into ceramic while the first metal runs through it, while a precast channel has finished that step in a kiln, where nothing can soak in.
If your inductors fail early from zinc penetration, erosion or clogging, and every reline means a burnout and a wash heat, the video shows a shorter route back to production. The comparison worth making is campaign length and downtime per reline, not the price of the channel alone.
Sizes, materials and options are on the page for CeraLoop channel furnace linings. The brass foundry case is described in the CeraLoop case study for brass channel furnaces, and related products for copper, brass and zinc furnaces are grouped under non-ferrous and aluminum products.
No. The channel is fired before delivery. After the backup lining is placed, the furnace can start with the alloy it runs.
Copper, brass, bronze, aluminum, zinc, Galvalume and iron, in single, double, slanted or canoe channel shapes.
Blasch makes the channel, and Allied Mineral Products distributes CeraLoop exclusively, together with the backup lining.
Send the inductor type, the alloy and how the current lining fails. A Blasch engineer checks whether a CeraLoop channel fits.
