Induction Technology REPORTS
Procedural aspects of induction
hardening
by Stefan Dappen, Farsad Amiri
For increasing the vibration and torsion resistance as well as for improved wear resistance of highly stressed steel and cast
components, induction hardening is widely-used. This article gives the reader an understanding of several procedural
aspects of induction hardening from practical experiences, which frequently play a decisive role when it comes to the
coordination of hardening requirements on the one hand and their conversion into process requirements on the other.
I
nduction hardening is generally employed for surface
hardening, as the current induced during this process
is concentrated directly under the surface of the work-
piece due to the “skin effect”. The surface hardening depth
can be influenced to a certain extent, depending on the
choice of parameters. In many components subject to
high dynamic stress, the limitation of the hardening to
the surface layer is actually desirable, because maintaining
the ductility of the base material is crucial for the fracture
strength. Surface hardening also offers the benefit, how-
ever, that an appropriate tool and process design allows a
near-contour hardening pattern to be created. When using
suitable material with adequate serial variance, induction
hardening demonstrably provides highly reproducible
results after determination of the optimum setting. Fur-
thermore, appropriate parameter monitoring systems in
hardening machines safeguard the process and can react
to a possible drift even within a single cycle. This is a further
benefit of induction hardening compared with processes
such as furnace or case hardening, as each workpiece is
hardened individually and is subject to process control. In
the case of critical components, the process parameters for
each individual workpiece are recorded and documented
for traceability reasons. In some cases the traceability also
demands the correlation of the respective workpiece to
the process channel used and its specific tool.
WHEN IS INDUCTION HARDENING
OF INTEREST?
Induction hardening is fundamentally suitable for medi-
um-sized and large lots due to the comparatively high
process speed on the one hand, and the necessary invest-
ment volume on the other. With fully automated machine
4-2015 heat processing
concepts, for example, cycle times of approx. 30 s for car
crankshafts and approx. 13 s for various axle components
(tripods, flanges, axle journals, etc.) are achieved. The
actual process time depends on the drawing specifica-
tions of the hardening zone as well as on selected process
strategy for achieving these drawing specifications. This
is of significance as rapid microstructure transformations
may have a massive impact on resulting possible distor-
tions and crackings which need to be reliably prevented
during the process.
PRINCIPLE
Induction hardening is based on the induction principle
in which a primary coil (inductor) generates an alternat-
ing magnetic field that results in an induced alternating
current in the workpiece (Fig. 1). A single- or multi-turn
inductor matching the shape of the workpiece is used
as primary coil. The design of the inductor depends on
the application and follows the processing strategy (scan
or single-shot hardening). A key feature of this process is
the heat generation directly in the workpiece. By contrast
with classic hardening processes (furnace hardening, case
hardening, etc.), the power density does not depend on
the heat transfer at the surface. The power density can
therefore be significantly increased without overheat-
ing the surface (laser hardening, etc.). In the conductive
workpiece, the induced current creates a rapid increase
in temperature near the surface. Due to the short heating
time with high power density, this method of heating is also
referred to as short-time austenitisation. The subsequent
rapid quenching using a suitable medium creates a mar-
tensitic microstructure whose hardness is only dependent
on the material composition.
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 REPORTS Induction Technology

■■ Complexity of the part geometry,

■■ Hardening demands (hardness, hardening depth, micro-
structure),
■■ Alloy and initial microstructure of the material,
■■ Process strategy (scan, standstill, rotation),
■■ Process parameters (power, heating time, frequency,
quenching parameters),
■■ Inductor design (e.g. coupling distance of the inductor).

With complex part and/or hardening zone geometries,

however, there are mutual dependencies that preclude
arbitrary combinations of surface hardening depth, lateral
geometric form of the hardening zone and hardness profile.
In view of the differences compared with conventional
hardening processes, there are a number of specific ques-
tions that are raised below:
■■ What is the optimum heating for my material?
■■ How do I evaluate the heating on the basis of metal-
lographic specimens (too hot, too cold)?
Fig. 1: How induction works ■■ What is the optimum setting for induction heating?
■■ What quenching does the material composition require?
■■ What possibilities are there for tempering?

Due to the dynamics of the process, complex part and GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MICROSTRUC-
hardening zone geometries make high demands on the TURE FORMATION
process control, as only those areas of the workpiece are Heating
subjected to martensitic hardening that had previously During induction surface hardening, the transformation
been properly austenitised and then reached at least the processes take place far more quickly and therefore require
critical cooling rate. In general the result of the heat treat- a higher temperature. This relationship can be seen from
ment is dependent on the following factors: a material-specific time-temperature-austenitisation (TTA)
diagram [1]. With a typical heat-
ing rate of 100 K/s, the start
of austenite formation for the
material 42CrMo4 is reached at
approx. 760 °C (Fig. 2, point 2)
and is completed at 830  °C
(point 3). Depending on the grain
size of the initial microstructure
(point 1), the carbon distribution
is not yet uniform. Thus, temper-
atures beyond 920 °C are neces-
sary to provide a homogeneous,
fine-grain austenite as the basis
for a later homogeneous mar-
tensitic microstructure (point 4).
With average carbon contents,
further increase in temperature
is generally uncritical and results
solely in a slight reduction in
hardness. Higher temperatures,
however, also cause the austen-
Fig. 2: TTA diagram for 42CrMo4 ite grain size (and hence also the
martensite grain size) (point 5) to

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 Induction Technology REPORTS

increase, and with it the risk of cracking. Fig. 3 shows the

tapering out of a hardened zone. Outside the heat-affect-
ed area, a ferritic-pearlitic microstructure (1) is found, and
from the edge of the hardened area towards the surface a
transitional zone from partly transformed ferrite-pearlite-
martensite (2) through inhomogeneous martensite (3) up
to a fine-grained hardened microstructure (4).

Quenching
After austenitisation, quenching provides the necessary
rapid cooling of the austenite. The quenching processes
are shown in the material-specific time-temperature
transformation diagrams (TTT) and are far more depend-
ent on the real alloy composition of the workpiece. Fluc-
tuations in individual alloy constituents, even within
the permissible alloy tolerances, can lead to significant
changes in the quenching results. Fig. 4 shows for a Fig. 3: Microstructure distribution at the tapering out of
42CrMo4 alloyed at the lower specification limit the the hardening zone
microstructural zones for two austenitising tempera-
tures (850 °C continuous line, 1,050 °C dotted line). For
this material, the hardness does not differ significantly in
the area of the martensite and initial bainite formation Tempering
at the two temperatures. The blue cooling curves inter- The process step of tempering is applied post to the
sect the black curves of the microstructure zones and hardening process for almost all critical parts or parts
thereby define the microstructure contents in the cooled subject to high stresses. The hardening process creates
workpiece. Of particular note here is that the applica- a stressed matrix which, although resulting in a high
tion of the TTT diagram always presupposes adequate hardness due to C-atoms in solution, also leads to a high
austenitisation.
This in return means
that while induction
hardening, mixed micro-
structures occurring in
near surface areas of typi-
cal hardening patterns
are attributable to partial
transformation during
austenitisation and not
to insufficient quenching
(Fig. 2, area between Ac1
and Ac3).
The general demands
on quenching are:
■■ Intensive and rapid
cooling (not intersect-
ing the bainite zone)
over the entire hard-
ening depth down
to below the lower
martensite formation
temperature Mf,
■■ Avoidance of (undesir-
able) re-tempering. Fig. 4: TTT diagram for 42CrMo4

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Tab. 1: Comparison of tempering methods

Furnace tempering Induction tempering Residual heat tempering

Effect Heat is distributed Heat comes from the Heat comes from the inside and is distributed
uniformly outside, good distribu- uniformly
tion with sufficient
tempering time
Power requirement high low very low
Time required very high low low
Hardening depth any typically < 10 mm typically > 3 mm
Reduction in hardness variable with time and variable with time and max. 2-3 HRC
temperature temperature
Hardness distribution uniform uniform with sufficient uniform
tempering time
Materials steel/cast steel steel/cast steel steel, generally < 0.5 %C
Process control very good very good moderate

brittleness of the material. If the material is now heated
without the transformation temperature being reached,
C-atoms go partially into solution and form carbides. This
relieves the matrix and results in an increased ductility of
the material that is normally accompanied by a reduction
in hardness. Both the extent of the increase in ductility
and the parallel reduction in hardness depend on the
tempering parameters, temperature and time, between
which there is a systematic dependence [2]. Different
temperature/time combinations can therefore produce
a similar tempering result. In the light of this, temper-
ing from the residual heat and induction tempering are
being more and more widely used, as these processes
are also very fast and can substitute classic tempering
furnaces accordingly for many demand profiles. By con-
trast with furnace tempering, both tempering processes
(induction, residual heat) allow different hardening zones
with different hardness values to be created in one part.
The characteristics of the individual processes are shown
in Table 1.
Fig. 5: Boundary conditions for residual heat tempering
While induction tempering is an actively controlled pro-
cess with dedicated power input, residual heat tempering
is a passive process which uses the heat remaining from
the austenitisation (Fig. 5). Even after quenching, the heat
stored in the workpiece must still be sufficiently high to
obtain the tempering temperature. In order to achieve
this, quenching is generally reduced. At the same time,
however, a sufficient martensite transformation must still be
achieved over the full hardening depth (SHD). If the residual
heat is not sufficient, e.g. with hardening depths of under
approx. 3 mm, the tempering process can be supported
with an additional low-level power input. Both tempering
processes are successfully used in series production for
steel materials.
SETTING OF THE OPTIMUM HEATING
A characteristic of induction hardening is that the penetra-
tion depth of the induced eddy current is not the same
as the surface hardening depth. The heating process at
the part surface with high power densities creates a tem-
perature gradient that causes
heat transfer into the workpiece.
The heating depth therefore
depends not only on the con-
ducted heat, but also on the
supply frequency due to the
skin-effect. Diagrams help to
gain a better understanding of
the relationship between time,
frequency and power density,
even if numerical processes
are used today for designing
hardening processes. A nomo-
gram [3] (Fig. 6) shows – for a
given supply frequency (here:

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 Induction Technology REPORTS

10 kHz) and a desired heating

depth (here: 2 mm at 830 °C) –
the necessary power density in
the workpiece and the heating
time (680 W/cm² and 5 s). The
surface temperature is then
approx. 890  °C and therefore
does not result in a homogene-
ous transformation. Increasing
the frequency to 30 kHz (Fig. 7)
allows the surface temperature
to be raised. Through the choice
of frequency, heating time
and power, induction surface
hardening allows an optimum
setting of the transformation
temperature.

WORKPIECES AND
INDUCTORS
Real parts and their hardening
zones are generally not smooth.
They have varying hardening
depths and wall thicknesses as
well as teeth, splines, undercuts Fig. 6: Nomogram of the heating depth for 10 kHz
and changes in diameter.
The inductors are adapted to
these contours and in combina-
tion with a relative movement
of inductor and workpiece gen-
erally allow the desired harden-
ing zone to be created. Due to
the contact-free transmission of
energy from the inductor to the
workpiece, the gap between
the two is of particular impor-
tance. Small gaps intensify the
transmission (or “coupling”)
while larger gaps weaken it. In
addition to the geometric guid-
ance and shape of the copper
conductor and the localised use
of magnetic concentrators, this
is a further means to setting the
hardening zone. Without further
measures, the induced current
flows first in the workpiece
directly to the side opposite
the copper conductor. If indi-
vidual areas of the workpiece Fig. 7: Nomogram of the heating depth for 30 kHz
are to be heated less intensively
(outside corners, e.g. at the end
of the workpiece, at undercuts/

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grooves, at changes in diameter) or more intensively (inside

corners, e.g. radius hardening of crankshafts, lower axle
a) journals), the inductor can be adapted accordingly. As a
result, the inductor generally becomes electrically less effi-
cient (greater losses) and is therefore subjected to a higher
thermal load. Fig. 8 shows as an example the hardening
zone on an outside corner. It can be seen that the hard-
ening zone runs round the corner (Fig. 8a), which in this
b) case is undesirable. This can be avoided by changing the
gap of the last few windings with a slight increase in the
losses (Fig. 8b). There is an interrelationship between the
hardening zone, microstructure and efficiency (Fig. 9). With
increasing complexity of the hardening demands (hard-
ening zone and microstructure), the efficiency generally
Fig. 8: Hardening zone at an outside corner decreases and the need for cooling increases.
The inductor as the tool for power transmission is a cru-
cial element in the hardening machine, not least because it
is where the highest currents flow. Further it is exposed to
the heat radiation from the workpiece being hardened. The
efficiency of the inductor depends on the following factors:
■■ Hardening zone specifications,
■■ Design of the heating conductor,
■■ Cooling of the heating conductor,
■■ Stability of the coupling distance,
■■ Design of the inductor housing.

Apart from design engineering and technological measures

Fig. 9: Relationship between hardening zone, efficiency and
microstructure
to ensure the highest possible efficiency and service life of
the inductor, SMS Elotherm utilizes milled heating conduc-
tors for certain applications. Here the areas of the inductor
subject to the highest current loads are no longer soldered
together from individual parts, but manufactured as a unit
on a CNC machine using a CAD/CAM model. This method
of production increases not only the reproducibility of
the components in question, but also the efficiency of
the inductor, as the current no longer has to pass critical
soldered joints. As a result, increases in efficiency of approx.
10 % are achieved. The increased efficiency, in turn, allows
a reduction in the power input and has a positive influence
on the service life of the inductor.

Fig. 10: Microstructure at a gearing
PROCESS CONTROL
Example 1: Gear/ Tooth hardening
In this example the inductor is at right-angles to the work-
piece and surrounds it. This creates different clearances to
the tip of the teeth and its root during scan hardening. The
better coupling at the tooth tip results in a slightly coarser
grain (ASTM 6) and nevertheless a fine, homogeneous
martensite at the tooth root (Fig. 10). A higher temperature
is generally recognisable from the microstructure. With
fine structures, overheating near the surface can generally
also be examined using a scanning electron microscope.

64     heat processing 4-2015

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Fig. 11: Influencing of an inside corner (colour graduation = power density) Fig. 12: Hardening zone of an inside corner

Example 2: Hardening of an inside corner
When hardening an inside corner (Fig. 11, item 1) at a
change in diameter, attention has to be paid to not only
the poorer mechanical accessibility but also the increased
heat flow into the workpiece. Here the inductor requires a
longer arc in circumferential direction and is equipped with
a magnetic concentrator (3). By tilting the copper conductor
(2), for example, it is possible to change the heating variably
along the radius (Fig. 11, left and right).
Fig. 12 shows as an example the hardened microstruc-
ture of an inside corner. With a radius hardening depth
of 3 mm, a microstructure of at least ASTM 7 is achieved
for the most part. ASTM 6 occurs only in the area of the
collar (item 5). The position of the highest power density
is of particular interest when it is a question of avoiding
coarser grain sizes in the workpiece. The combination of
complex hardening zones, short heating times, large hard-
ening depths and fine-grain microstructures demands a
special inductor design for which numerical methods are
also used today. Special hardening demands are calcu-
lated using the ANSYS simulation software with a coupled
electromagnetic-thermal model, allowing for the relative
movement of inductor and workpiece. For the quenching,
heat transfer coefficients were determined from trials. The
adequate martensite transformation can be considered in
simplified form: It is sufficient here to check the minimum

Fig. 13: Numerical hardening zone calculation

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Fig. 14: EloFresh – quality assurance for cooling and quenching media
temperatures achieved in the previously austenitised zone
after quenching. After the quenching process, a thermal
compensation generally occurs within the workpiece.
Reheating can occur, hence leading to the – possibly
undesirable – residual heat tempering of the hardening
zone and must therefore also be checked. Fig. 13 shows
66     heat processing
the recalculation (left, coloured area) of a bearing
hardening by comparison with the measurement
(left, grey area). The figures on the right show the
temperature curve at the start of quenching (top)
and the austenitised zone (bottom).
Cooling and quenching
The service life of an inductor depends to a great
extent on the mechanical stress and the electrical
load, but also on optimum cooling of the heating
circuit. This in turn is influenced by the quality of
the cooling water in the electrical cooling circuit.
Use of the EloFresh™ monitoring and control system
(Fig.  4) from SMS Elotherm for cooling and quench-
ing systems ensures optimum cooling and hence
maximum service life of the inductors and prevents
corrosion pitting and algae formation. The system
is configured as standard for monitoring the water
quality over a corrosion measuring section and for
the display of pH- and conductivity values of the
system cooling water.
Further modules offer:
■■ Water consumption monitoring over time and
signalling of inductor leaks,
■■ Topping up of biocide and copper inhibitor,
■■ Increased process reliability of the harden-
ing process through the continuous and fully
automated monitoring of the concentration of
the quenching medium and topping up, when
necessary. That eliminates the need for manual
measurements and laboratory analyses for deter-
mining the concentration. The quenching agent
concentration thus remains constant. Optimum
hardening results are assured.
This holistic monitoring and control of the cool-
ing and quenching systems by EloFresh™ means
a significant increase in the reliability of hardening
processes possible to date.
CONCLUSION
The high demands on process stability common
in series production today in combination with
short to very short cycle times on the one hand,
and the demanding specifications for the hard-
ening zones on the other, necessitate a sound
empirical and/or numerical design of the process
in relation to the material and the hardening demands.
Numerical simulations are used here for the respective
applications whose results reflect the temperature distri-
bution in the workpiece with given process parameters.
On the basis of these simulations, the process data and
the design of the inductor are optimised as far as physi-
4-2015
 Induction Technology REPORTS

cally possible. During the process evaluation, questions [3] Geisel, H.: Die Berechnung der Einwärmtiefe bei der Ober-
concerning the relationships between microstructure, flächen-Induktionshärtung. Werkstattechnik und Maschinen-
formation of the hardening zone and the design of the bau, Heft 10, 1956
inductor have to be considered. Furthermore, appro-
priate measures – e.g. with regard to the actual power AUTHORS
level required, inductor design, cooling and quenching
circuits – must ensure that the highest possible avail- Dr. Stefan Dappen
abilities can be achieved. SMS Elotherm GmbH
Remscheid, Germany
Tel.: +49 (0) 2191 / 891-204
LITERATURE s.dappen@sms-elotherm.com

[1] Orlich, J.; Rose, A.; West, P.: Atlas zur Wärmebehandlung der Dipl. Ing. Farsad Amiri
Stähle, Band 3. Verlag Stahleisen, 1973 Evoprojekt / SMS Elotherm GmbH
Remscheid, Germany
[2] Thomas, G. A.; et al.: LANL. Time-Temperature Equivalence in Tel.: +49 (0) 160 / 7037647
Martensite Tempering, 2008 f.amiri@sms-elotherm.com

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