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Re: saturable reactor vs choke



Original poster: "Gerry  Reynolds" <gerryreynolds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

I bet all cores have a less than ideal BH knee meaning there is some softness to it and I suspect that this helps with the "infinite" current problem.

Gerry R

Original poster: Steve Conner <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

Hi Gerry,

What happens if the load is a PIG where the SG is firing??? It seems like the load wont limit the current then

I think you just have to hope that the saturable reactor has enough stray inductance left over, even once it's saturated, to ballast the pig enough that the spark gap can quench. My gut feeling is that it probably would work fine. From reading the archives, it seems people successfully use ungapped variacs as ballasts, and these probably run in saturation most of the time.

When I really think about it, it seems that a small ballast choke sized to run the maximum power you want, combined with a pair of back-to-back SCRs wired like a huge lamp dimmer, would function identically to a SR, but be a good deal smaller and lighter. But i guess we want to keep the silicooties out :-<

Steve