Induction heating furnace related
Induction heating furnace related
Induction heating is used to heat large pieces of metal, the purpose of which is to obtain a completely uniform temperature. There, the high power intensity of induction heating is limited by the rate at which heat is conducted from the surface to the center. Surface hardening takes advantage of this “disadvantage”. The application of induction heating is very important. Although the basic principle of various induction heating methods is the same, there are great differences in the application. The figure shows an example of a part suitable for induction hardening.
Examples of parts suitable for induction hardening are treated only in the areas of the part that need to be hardened. By using high frequency to obtain high power density, the heat can be quickly concentrated in a local area. Without affecting the rest of the material, only the metallurgical properties of this area are changed, resulting in a thin surface hardened layer on the part supported by a low brittle center. These maintain a certain strength in the center and high wear resistance on the surface, and there is virtually no deformation of the part during the hardening process. For example, the torsional strength of a shaft after surface hardening may be three times that of a shaft of the same diameter that has been through hardened.
Induction heating furnace
Another alternative to induction hardening is carburizing, which is a batch process that requires long hours and skilled operators.
Due to the metallurgical transformation, carburizing usually requires the use of special alloy steels that are much more expensive than ordinary carbon steels or the cheaper alloy steels often used for induction heating. In essence, through-heat hardening processes consume a lot of energy to heat the entire part to a certain temperature – the energy consumed in quenching, and it is difficult to control the required hardened area. In contrast, induction hardening heats only a certain area of the part to a high temperature without affecting the rest of the material, which saves energy and allows local hardening.
It is easy to automate most induction hardening equipment and combine automated or semi-automated devices into continuous production lines. Because induction hardening has a short production cycle, it can be adapted to other parts of the continuous production line. Once the induction hardening process is established, the same process conditions can be accurately reproduced for each part, thus obtaining a high-quality product.