Re: Different MASS MOT's.

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Mike Nolley by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <nolleym-at-willamette.edu>

snip

> ... however when I take it apart the MOT inside is MUCH lighter and
> less bulky than the other MOT's I have so far. My question is: Does the
> mass of the transformer have anything to do with performance?

    Yes.  The mass of the core is roughly proportional to the power
handling of the Mot.  This is because
the cross section of the core determines how much magnetic flux the core
may carry before saturating.
     If a transformer saturates, the primary and secondary will start
carrying far more current then they
are rated for, leading to resistance losses, i.e. heat.  This is what
happens when a transformer "lets
out the smoke".  All Mots have current limiting shunts in them to prevent
saturation from occurring:  and
so for all practical purposes, the size of the Mot core determines how much
power the windings of the
transformer can safely handle.
       There are some additional and somewhat confusing details which I
have omitted, including the fact
that saturation is strictly related to voltage and frequency, not
current--the important aspects of wire
size, resistance--permeability of the core material, magnetizing current,
etc.  I'm sure someone else on
the list with more accurate knowledge could fill in the blanks here.
            --Mike