Alternate heat source?

Why not use induction heaters?
Obviously the viscosity of the material being extruded would be affected by temperature and while nichrome wire offers fairly decent temperature control there are better solutions out there. Why not use an induction heater to heat the barrel? I mean wouldn't this allow for more precise control of temperatures in addition to being able to heat up quicker? Such a setup would also make it much easier to change tips on the extruder.

I had an idea to do that and have got as far as gathering all the bits together to make the electronics. However, the nichrome solution seems to work reasonably well, so for the moment I am concentrating my efforts elsewhere.

I might come back to it sometime.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/16/2007 06:07AM by nophead.

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I know this may sound na

-> John T Schiffer Jr
I'm sure the heat exchanger on an air conditioner might get hot enough to melt plastic, but it probably isn't viable for the RepRap.

You do know what a swamp cooler is, right? And how it works? That's why it's far easier to dehumify the air before blowing it around down here, yes.

But a reverse "swamp heater" isn't pratical--you'd still need a natural heat source large enough to spread it around with a reverse-spin fan. I'd stick to my nice little space heater, it does all of that by itself.

The thermocoupler is currently viable--I can think of a different way or two to do it that allows a different tip, but hey--apply the Yorkie way: if it ain't broke, it won't for quite some time!