Use Case: Optimizing material and residual stress conditions during induction hardening

When hardening large components with induction, such as bearing rings in wind turbines, the component is often heated using a moving induction coil due to its size. This allows for targeted improvements in wear resistance and service life.

Since residual stresses and microstructural properties are critical to the service life and performance of the components, the challenge lies in controlling these conditions efficiently, reproducibly, and cost-effectively. This involves the precise control of temperature and time-dependent microstructural transformations as well as the resulting residual stresses. The complex interactions of temperature profiles, heating and cooling rates, and transformation strains influence the distribution of phase fractions and mechanical stresses within the component. Furthermore, the process control must be designed to ensure material homogeneity.

The optimization strategy involves simulating the temperature-time curve within the component during inductive heating with virtual movement of the inductor. This allows for the precise calculation of austenitization and the subsequent phase transformations into ferrite, pearlite, bainite, and martensite. This simulation-based microstructure modeling enables predictions of hardness and residual stress distributions as key parameters for process optimization.

Our research and development services for the optimized application of induction hardening

• Development and validation of efficient simulation models for temperature field calculation and local microstructure evolution
• Mapping to visualize residual stresses and phase transformations
• Simulation of the interactions between process parameters, microstructural development, and residual stress distribution within the component
• Computational adjustment of energy input to experimental temperature-time curves
• Microstructural investigations to validate the simulation results.

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