Electromagnetic-thermal coupled simulation of induction hardening for excavator chains

Complex workpieces and extensive prototypes require a special detailed engineering. This paper gives a brief overview about several process techniques which can be used in induction hardening and describes in detail an electromagnetic-thermal coupled simulation. The computational mechanical engineering with ANSYS 17.0 was done for a complex inductor geometry which was used to harden big excavator chains. The simulated inductor was built and installed in one of the flexible hardening machines of Härterei Reese Bochum GmbH where a chain was hardened and evaluated. These results were used to validate the simulation.