It will depend on several matters, such as whether it will be for choke-or
capacitor- input, whether it will be for Continuous Commercial Service (CCS) or
Intermittent Commercial or Amateur Service (ICAS), and how much temperature
rise will be acceptable. All of these design criteria would permit smaller
diameter copper wire (and therefore a lower percentage of copper): Choke input
rather than capacitor input, ICAS rather than CCS, and higher temperature rise.
I was thinking of doing this for two transformers (main power supply and screen
supply) one time It appeared to me that transformer designers aim to have
about half of the heat generated in the iron core, and the other half in the
copper windings. Core selection appears to be fixed mainly by the voltage
across the primary (so that there is sufficient inductance in the primary) and
the peak current that flows (so that the core doesn't saturate). So designers
don't have that much flexibility in iron core selection, implying that they
can't vary it as much as they can wire diameter.
I did some research, which was interesting and fun. Then, I tried to do an "on
paper" conservative design, and the thing would have weighed over a hundred
pounds if I had made it. It was also unclear how much money I would have saved
after I bought the iron cores at a single-unit price. I did not have the
facilities to bake it or do a decent job of laquering it or making sure that
there was sufficient insulation between the primary and secondary. It also
probably would have looked like junk if I had made it. So after that, I had
Peter Dahl make the transfomers (this was a while ago)
The plate transformer he made for me-- 3KVA output, 99 degree F temperature
rise for CCS, and capacitive input -- ended up weighing 47 pounds, and I
estimate that about 2/3 of that is iron. I like home-brewing, but I'm glad I
did not try it myself.
There is a LOT that goes into making one of them, make sure that you know what
you are getting into first.
Gene May WB8WKU
> Date: Thu, 8 Sep 2011 14:21:08 -0700
> From: rj3819@yahoo.com
> To: amps@contesting.com
> Subject: [Amps] Transformer material weight
>
> Question about transformers ..
> If I was to buy the laminates and wire to wind
> a 2 KVA transformer and say it weighed 50 lbs.
> What would be a good guess for how much of that
> was iron and how much copper ..??
>
> Side Note.. It seems my acct may have been hacked ..
> So I changed the password ..
> I apologize for any spam emails that were a result of that ..
>
> Randy - N2CUA
> _______________________________________________
> Amps mailing list
> Amps@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/amps
_______________________________________________
Amps mailing list
Amps@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/amps
|