Magnetically enhanced induction heat treating application

Abstract

Induction heating systems and methods, in which a DC magnetic field is applied to a magnetic workpiece while one or more induction heating coils are energized with AC current for an induction heating process. The heat treatment of the workpiece can be tailored to a achieve a desired thermal profile by controlling the workpiece permeability through the strength of the applied DC magnetic field in combination with control of the induction coil frequency, and the system can be adapted to different workpieces and target thermal profiles by controlling the relative permeability of the workpiece through DC magnetic field strength adjustment or setting and induction heating power, frequency and processing time.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.