On Mon, 21 Jun 2004 11:00:21 GMT, (Ken
Sterling) wrote:

All,
A fella runs a junk yard and has a crane with an electro-magnet for
moving scrap metal - he uses a 10,000 watt DC generator to power the
magnet. The generator is "going bad" (I don't know the details) and
he is looking for a replacement (fairly quickly). He is looking for a
10,000 watt DC generator, 240 volt, electric start and it can be
either gas or diesel...... Any suggestions or ideas?

Your original post asked for a DC generator. Most of the responses
you've gotten recommend AC generators with rectifiers. AC
generators will be a *LOT* easier to find than DC generators.

I thought I'd mention that this will work fine. A big electromagnet
like that will have so much inductance that the current will be
essentially DC even if the applied voltage is rectified AC. At 240
volts and 10KW, the avg (DC) current is about 41.6 amps, while the AC
ripple current from rectified single-phase AC will probably be well
under 1 amp. The difference between this and "pure" DC excitation
would not be noticable.