Irún, Spain. 17/09/2015
During the month of September the NIWE partner CIRCE proceeded to the commissioning and start-up of the 100kW prototype IPT system for aluminium at TECNALIA’s facilities in the municipality of Irún.
The prototype worked according to the expectations and maintained 400 kG of aluminium the furnace of KROWN. In recent tests, the IPT system has been able to transfer the power necessary to melt 300kg of aluminium within 3 hours, showing the suitability and potential for industrial applications.
Moreover the representatives of the aluminium sector (F2A and KROWN) that integrate NIWE consortium assessed that the replication and deployment of the project’s developments may lead to a revolution within the sector concerning the flexibility and the improvement of the quality of the final products.
Regarding the construction of this prototype, the project partner CIRCE has been in charge of the design and development processes, including the coils, the power electronics and the cooling of the IPT.
Thus, the project has overcome the challenges to scale up the prototype when getting closer to industrial-size equipment.