Numerical investigations of induction heat treatment for the press hardening process

High strength steels are more and more established in industrial applications. Especially the use of presshardened products is rising because of their benefit for lightweight constructions. The use of these materials in mass production with short cycle times demands the most effective heating method. Therefore the induction heating becomes interesting. The major advantages of induction heating are the contactless heating with high power densities and high efficiency and the easy and fast process control. In contrary to conventional heating, it is possible to get adapted inhomogeneous temperature profiles for tailored properties. Different concepts are possible including the combination with conventional heating, where the benefits of the two heating concepts can be utilized. This paper focuses to the development of a simulation tool for describing the heating process of a blank for the press hardening process. By means of the model first investigations have been performed to demonstrate the differences of diverse heating concepts.