I got a question and I can’t find any reference to it on the forums.
I work in the foundry industry around an Induction Furnace but have wanted a biomagnet for sensing since before the Titan was around. Running the Furnace isn’t my main job, mostly I pound sand to pour the molten metal into, but I’m wondering if the Titan is okay to be around the electromagnetic field of the Furnace. Specifically a 100kwh Induction Furnace which normally runs at ~80% of main power (so ~80kwh). I do sometimes spend an hour or so consecutively in a work day around it.
Just in case it matters, we don’t melt Titanium, we do (in order of quantity); Aluminium, Cast Iron, Steel, Zinc, Lead, Copper, Brass, Bronze, Gold, Silver and various alloys of them.
Apparently (according to my Foreman) another Foundry has an owner whom had stents due to a heart attack and he wasn’t allowed within 10m of his Induction Furnace due to risk of them melting inside him. I know that once my nerves reform around the magnet, it’ll feel insane (like a metal detector on 'roids).
If I were you I would get a small neodymium magnet covered in a few layers of duct tape and put it in your pocket for a workday. That should tell you everything you need to know. Since field strength drops off with the inverse cube (1/r^3) of the distance, unless you’re in the chamber I doubt the field will be strong enough at any distance to overcome the magnets field in order to heat it at all. A regular piece of steel might heat up, but that’s because it doesn’t have a strong field of its own like a magnet.
Worst case if it does heat up you’ll know pretty quickly and can flip your pocket inside out and the magnet will fall and stick to whatever metal thing is around, and the tape will keep it together so it won’t break into dangerous shards.
I think the 10m on a guy with stents thing wasn’t realistic, it’s just an insurance liability thing someone made up.
I’ve done testing with my Titan on 2 different induction cooktop mechanisms and never been able to induce any heat putting it right in the coil at max power (even the “P” setting which is witchcraft).
Legend, I hadn’t thought of that to be honest. I’ll pick one up some point soon and give it a go. I might try the old trick of taping a magnet to the side of my finger in the intended implantation point. I know the field gets insane when we charge the furnace, as in the furnace physically tries to throw lighter pieces of Iron out of it and until it gets into the middle of the field, it takes some strength to charge it so sometimes my hand is physically inside the magnetic field for a few seconds at a time.
Yeah, my Foreman is a real debbie downer whom takes pleasure in crushing other’s dreams or thoughts so it was my first thought that he was bullsh*ting me.
It seems (at least the Induction Cooktops sold in NZ) that their power is at max 7kwh which is 1/11th the power of our Induction Furnace but with the Inverse Cubed rule you pointed out, it’d most likely be safe I’d say.
I think it may be time I stopped delaying getting a Biomagnet, after all, I’ve been wanting one since before the Titan was around.
Thank you @Satur9 and @CoreySpondant for putting my mind at ease. I’ll pick a NdFeB magnet for a day or two and f*ck around at work and see if in worse-case scenarios anything happens. Pump the furnace to 110% for a bit and see if anything happens.
At least Amal tested a long time back what happens when a Titan is inside flesh and heated from the outside like when I get burnt from Cast Iron.
Heh report back! Would be good to know for others who may be in a similar situation but don’t know it yet! I know I’m certainly interested, induction furnaces are super cool!
BlockquoteIf I were you I would get a small neodymium magnet covered in a few layers of duct tape and put it in your pocket for a workday.
Blockquote
Even better would be to obtain a disc magnet 2mm thick, 3mm in diameter and super glue it to the intended location of your finger. That’s about the best analogue you’re gonna get
Reporting back, only just got a few 3x4.5mm N50 (made a mistake in ordering wrong strength).
Held inside the crucible area for a couple minutes on 80kwh, nothing noticeable. Going to carry out further testing in the upcoming week attached to my finger. My foreman went from skeptical when I retold him why I want one at lunchtime to admitting it may be a good idea at the end of the day.
Came out very handy in my line of work on Friday, even just having loose magnets has helped enormously sorting small pieces of metal for remelting. Without having concern about the magnet getting stuck to larger pieces of scrap, I can’t help but think biomagnets may be perfect for Foundry and scrap metal industries.
There was a discussion about this and how metal filings “could” over time be pulled through the skin. I think the consensus is that you should wipe it off just in case.
If a tiny bit ended up being pulled through its very likely your body would just get rid of it naturally.
It happens to me regularly when sawing or filing and also at the beach (surprisingly). I wipe it off when I’m done and have never noticed any visible damage to the skin.
We all go home at the end of the day covered with cuts and splinters. To be honest, aluminium is the worst offender. Ferrous metals ball when they contact room temperature materials (like skin or sand) or cools naturally. The splinters that are made when Fettling castings though can be sharp. Aluminium creates massive long needle like shards that go deep and require cutting the skin around it to get out. The worst is when molten aluminium gets on your skin, it just keeps eating down, creating a funnel into your skin until it cools enough where it won’t eat anymore. At least with ally being non-Ferrous, a biomagnet won’t have any effect on drawing the shards or molten ally. All just part of being a Foundryman.
I think it’d help me enormously in ways such as (but not limited to) withdrawing patterns from the molds, sorting scrap, preventing scrap iron from being reused in the sand, preventing iron from messing up my sieve. Hell, just being able to get a better grip on tiny patterns like a key I was making on Friday would be a lifesaver.
Oh no, please tell me it isn’t an organized display of implants that’s causing so many people to have mental issues on aircraft lately accusing people of not being real or robots? /s
If mechanical parts installed on an organic body are called implants, then would organic parts on a mechanical body be called implants?
The Tin Man got a heart, so did he get an implant? Is he considered a cyborg or a reverse cyborg?
Bored thoughts while watching the printers go wishing I could make them faster lol
