Amperes and Ampere-Turns

Related but not equivalent

If you work in Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) daily this should go without saying but if your knowledge is rusty or you are involved more in equipment procurement than NDT it is worth refreshing ourselves on the difference between the measurement units of:

Amperes, A or Amps - The current passing through a component, conductor, cable or coil.

Ampere-Turns or AT - The multiplication of the number of physical turns a coil has and the current in Amperes that flows through it - For example a rigid or flexible coil with 5 helical turns with 1500A passing through it would be a coil rated at 7500 Ampere-Turns.

It sounds silly but you would be surprised how often these two get mixed up - And wanting 1500A through a coil is VERY different to wanting 7500A through the same coil!