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Re: Why tesla coil is air-cored to operate efficiently at high freq?

Original poster: "David Rieben" <drieben@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Sam,

Others can probably give you a more scientific explanation
than I, but I think that it's basically that as the operating fre-
quency goes up the losses of an iron core get too high for
practical operation. Most commercial high voltage transfor-
mers that operate at a few kHz use ferrite core material (like
a flyback transformer). Also, the very high voltages of a Tes-
la coil would render proper insulation a significant challenge if the core was conductive iron.

David Rieben


----- Original Message ----- From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, October 08, 2005 12:44 PM
Subject: Why tesla coil is air-cored to operate efficiently at high freq?


Original poster: d a <btoc3000@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

Hi all,

I have three theoretical questions here:

I read this from a website: "A normal transformer users an iron core in order to operate at low frequencies, whereas the Tesla Coil is air-cored to operate efficiently at much higher frequencies".

I understand that a normal transformer relies on turn ratios and the air core is there to reinforce the magnetic flux.

May I then ask, why is an iron core only required in low frequency operation and why do we use an air-core for high frequency operation?

Lastly, I read this from another website: " In the Tesla "swing", the kick is supplied by the AC electrical current moving back and forth". Can someone elaborate on this please? Is it actually referring to the LC circuit - both the secondary and primary operating at the same frequency that reinforce each other?

Thank you very much for your kind attention.

Regards
Sam