Adopt induction cooker for metal melting
Hello everybody, i have 2kw induction cooker, working principles as image below, working on 50kHz frequency with 100uH working coil, try adopt to 11.4uH coil made from copper tube D=10mm. Also i have 0.5L crucible for metal melting. Using coil32 program to calculate 100uH inductance and i get VERY big coil size. I want to build matching transformer from 2 pieces amidon T200-26 (yellow-white) toroidal core, i have L=11.4uH C4=34*0.1uF C3=0.33uF. Please help me calculate matching transformer.
It's likely that if you use a transformer to work with a lower inductance coil, the overall power efficiency will be very poor. The transformer may end up heating more than the coil. If the original coil was already capable of producing sufficient field/power to a load, why change to the copper tubing?
It looks like Amidon provides some resources that you should find helpful:
Basic data on core loss for 26 material.
Some guidelines on max power dissipation of core sizes
26 is a good material for chokes/inductors, but for a transformer you may be better off with a basic ferrite core (doesn't have to be toroidal either). You'll require less turns and have better coupling, possibly lower core loss.
For the windings you will likely need good litz wire to avoid excessive copper loss.