Title: Industrial electroheating and electromagnetic processing

Scope: Standardization in the field of industrial equipment and installations intended for electroheating, electromagnetic processing of materials and electroheating based treatment technologies

Note: The scope of interest covers industrial installations with the use of the following equipment:

- equipment for direct and indirect resistance heating;

- equipment for electric resistance trace heating;

- equipment for induction heating;

- equipment using the effect of EM forces on materials;

- equipment for arc heating, including submerged arc heating;

- equipment for electroslag remelting;

- equipment for plasma heating;

- equipment for microwave heating;

- equipment for dielectric heating;

- equipment for electron beam heating;

- equipment for laser heating;

- equipment for infrared radiation heating.

The list presents typical examples of equipment and its applications and is not exhaustive.

The scope of TC 27 covers all industrial electroheating (EH), including electroheat-based surface treatment technologies, and their combinations as well as electromagnetic processing of materials (EPM). Excluded from the scope are domestic uses, medical uses, and welding applications.

Secretariat: Poland Chair: Germany

Advisory Groups

AG 1 Chair's Advisory Group (CAG)

Maintenance Teams

MT 17 Maintenance of, IEC 62395-1 and IEC 62395-2

MT 18 Maintenance of IEC 60519-1 and IEC 60398

MT 21 Maintenance of IEC 60519-4, IEC 60676 and IEC 60683

MT 23 maintenance of IEC 60519-6, , IEC 61307 and IEC 61308

MT 24 Maintenance of IEC 60519-3, IEC 60519-11, IEC 61922 and IEC 62076

MT 26 Maintenance of IEC 60519-7 and IEC 60703

MT 28 Maintenance of IEC 60519-8 and IEC 60779

MT 31 Maintenance of IEC 60519-12, IEC 62693 and IEC 62798

MT 32 Maintenance of IEC 60050-841

MT 33 Maintenance of IEC/TS 62996 and IEC/TS 62997

Joint Working Groups

JWG 34 (MT 17 members and IEEE members) Electrical resistance trace heating systems for industrial and commercial applications

TC 27 was established in 1937 to prepare international standards for characteristics, safety requirements and test methods for industrial electroheating installations. One of TC 27’s main objectives is to provide the market with relevant safety requirements, along with test and measurement methods, which also take into account the impact of industrial equipment and installations for EH and EPM on the environment, people and the electric supply network.

In general, EH is used in the following generic industrial operations: fluid and solids heating, drying, sterilization, annealing, metal and non-metal melting, smelting/agglomeration, curing and forming, to name the most important. EPM processes can be thermal or non-thermal, they rely on magnetic or electric forces and may further employ very high pressures including compression waves, as well as vacuum. Examples are induced change of crystal orientation, separation processes including pulverization, stirring of liquids and high pressure sterilization. Such technologies are used for producing or processing many different materials, that range from metals to glass, natural fibres to polymers but also paper and foodstuffs.

The techniques under the scope of TC 27 use a substantial part of electricity generated on earth. They are widespread and found in most industrial processes or somewhere used for the manufacturing of most stuff – especially manufacturing of electronic devices and technologically advanced products.

− high production capacity at comparably low production cost and cost of ownership;

− high safety, efficiency and reliability provided through simple process control and monitoring;

− possible full automatization of electroheating processes in small-scale production;

− low to no critical emissions of pollutants at the production plant;

− good working conditions and safety for personnel;

− safety advantages over fuel combustion energy use, due to the hottest object typically being the workload itself;

− fully operational with non-fossil and renewable energy sources.

Standardization in industrial EH and EPM is of great importance for manufacturers of equipment and installations. Manufacturers cover the complete range from specialized small or medium-sized enterprises to global corporations. Their products are usually individually designed and custom engineered according to specific needs of the end users. Establishing common international standards with safety requirements and other characteristics that may vary is rather difficult, but supports global harmonization and reduction of trade barriers. Harmonization of safety aspects is of particular importance; it especially enables small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to make safe equipment for the international market.

End-users of TC 27 publications are customers coming from various industrial sectors

• basic material industry like iron, steel or non-ferrous metal, cement, glass, ceramics and chemical;

• industry manufacturing industrial machinery and equipment, photovoltaic cells, batteries;

• industry manufacturing products for the end user, like automotive, food, paper and print, items made from plastic including fiber reinforced plastics.

EH technologies cover a large percentage of industrial electricity consumption. In the European Union it is estimated to range from 20 % to 40 %. This industry faces increasing concerns and requirements on energy efficiency and energy management from society and customers.

There is an increasing need for international standards dealing with safety requirements, test and measurement methods of relevant equipment as industrial enterprises providing EH and EPM equipment with their various techniques act more global.

A growing number of heating installations use electric heating rather than fossil fuel. The market recognizes that industrial EH equipment offers a significant opportunity to enhance industrial productivity, increase energy efficiency, decrease emissions from industrial sites and enhance global competitiveness. Some of the technical, economic and environmental advantages of EH in comparison with heating processes powered by fossil fuels are

− fast heating, superior temperature accuracy and instant on-off operation;

− high quality of final products,

− high production capacity at comparably low production cost and cost of ownership;

− high safety, efficiency and reliability provided through simple process control and monitoring;

− possible full automatization of electroheating processes in small-scale production;

− low to no critical emissions of pollutants at the production plant;

− good working conditions and safety for personnel;

− safety advantages over fuel combustion energy use, due to the hottest object typically being the workload itself;

− fully operational with non-fossil and renewable energy sources.

Due to the increasing demand for energy savings, product quality and environmental protection EH and EPM methods are becoming increasingly challenging but essential for industry.

Industry demands increasingly compact equipment, higher throughput, higher flexibility in materials processing and advanced control over product characteristics.

Development of new materials for construction and advances in computer aided engineering (CAE) enable new generations of EH or EPM equipment to be manufactured. Industrial EH and EPM are also considered as fields with tremendous potential for the application of power electronics (converters and digital control systems), which could help to achieve significant energy savings, enhanced productivity and improved quality.

Advanced technologies offer considerable industry-wide cost savings and high performance efficiencies – energy consumption can be reduced by 5-25 % over the next 10 years. It is envisioned that advancements in EH and EPM will make significant contributions to achieving set targets regarding safety, energy efficiency and environmental performance.

Reducing the carbon footprint of industry will have a major impact on development and application of industrial EH and EPM. New applications substituting conventional heating techniques will be instrumental for creating global sustainable energy usage.

Industry and NCs tend to take standardization in the area of TC 27 for granted or stick to long outdated versions of standards. This could be caused by

— the fragmentation of the market into many small segments;

— this fragmentation necessitates a specialization thus, testing bodies might be less interested in participating in the safety work;

— regulators tend to produce requirements which are not always applicable to specific types of equipment, creating a situation not encouraging standardization work;

— other issues in standardization being of more immediate concern to industrials players (e.g. digitalization);

— SMEs often do not have sufficient in-house resources for active participation in standardization work, as the expert is needed for day-to-day activities.

These effects seem to result in the observed decreasing support from industry or NCs to TC 27. Today’s situation is marked in that the loss of three core experts from the TC would make it basically inoperable – this demise is expected soon due to age or lack of funding.

TC 27 cooperates with its liaison partner ISO/TC 244 (Industrial furnaces and associated processing equipment) aiming at:

— aligning the safety standards of the committees, avoiding documents with overlapping scope or double work;

— increasing mutual understanding of respective roles and responsibilities as well as needs of the market;

— enabling joint projects.

With reference to Clause 33 of Part 2 of the ISO/IEC Directives all publications are in line with the requirements related to conformity assessment aspects. IEC 62395-1 is used by the IEC System of Conformity Assessment Schemes for Electrotechnical Equipment and Components (IECEE). TC 27 publications include test specifications, reproducible test requirements, and test methods. There are no special conformity assessment requirements generated by any standards projects.