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If you have city water you probably have some of the brass, stainless or cast iron products this Wabash Indiana company manufacturers. Their piping and valve products are mostly used from the “Main to the Meter”.
In the pictures, Kevin Burdette and Don Morris are making the coil that electrically melts the No-Lead brass for these products.
The Induction Coil was re-designed from the original coil to be stronger by Don Morris. All the fixturing and jigs were hand-made specifically for this process as they are on any custom coil the shop builds. The induction heating coil is wound out of “12-in-hand”, fiberglass/film coated rectangle copper wire. The raw fiberglass tape used as the turns are wound holds all 12 wires secure in a double stacked bundle. Each transition at the end of the layer is a bit tricky getting all of that copper to change directions and go the other way. When the winding process is complete “air-sticks” are driven out between the steel winding fixture base and coil to get them apart. Kevin then adds epoxy to each end of the coil to protect the windings, tapes the entire coil with raw fiberglass, fabricates and welds on copper buss terminations then off it goes to get the VPI process.
Tomorrow morning when your brushing your teeth and leaving the water running, and that meter is adding it up….. just think, it wouldn’t be possible without the Transformer Department!