An inductor is a coil of metal wrapped around a core material. Pass a current through it and it will create a magnetic field that heats up nearby metal. In the hands of a good auto technician, this is a tool that can work wonders.
Applicable to many tasks both big and small, an inductor can save a great deal of time and effort, making it something that any aspiring auto technician should take a look at.
Curious about what kinds of work an induction tool can do? Here’s what you need to know.
Pros in Auto Mechanic Careers Love Induction Tools for Loosening Nuts & Bolts
A stuck nut or bolt can make for a frustrating time in the world of auto repair, and it’s something that isn’t so uncommon. An induction heating tool, however, can be just the thing needed to get one of these stubborn little pieces moving the way it should. An induction tool can heat up rusted or stuck bits, making them a little looser and easier to remove. Perhaps best of all, it does this without generating a flame, yet can still get the components quite hot.
Check out this video to get an idea of what an induction coil can do—without even touching the part in question:
However, Induction Tools May Be Slightly Limited Compared to Torches
In a more perfect world, stuck nuts, bolts, and screws would always be intact. Auto technicians know all too well, though, that it often happens that a repair job will see the head of a screw or bolt come clean off, leaving the shaft embedded and trickier than ever to remove. Using a torch, it’s relatively easy to direct heat to the particular place where it is needed—the heat gets projected forward into a point of flame—but it can be a bit trickier to pull this off with some induction tools.
Graduates of auto technician courses, then, tend to see induction coils not as replacements for traditional torches, but rather as a complementary implement that is preferable in many, but not all, situations. If using flame is a concern and if the intended heating target is accessible, an induction tool is ideal. For other situations, a torch might still be best.
Induction Tools’ Prices May Be Prohibitive to Recent Graduates of Auto Technician Courses
The snag with induction heating tools is, as one might expect with wonder tools, that they are typically pretty expensive. Even a small induction tool, useful for fewer jobs than the larger models, will cost a couple hundred dollars.
For new graduates of auto mechanic training, or for seasoned professionals who tend toward frugality, the premium price of this kind of tool could understandably be a bit too high. You might expect to get to use one of these in shops doing a lot of business and wanting to improve efficiency or safety, but in other circumstances, torches are still the go-to tool for many auto professionals.
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