Induction Heating in the Processing of Ti & Zr

Abstract

Induction heating has important applications in science and industry. The method of induction heating can be successfully used for melting and heat treatment of titanium and zirconium alloys. Different applications using induction precise heating before plastic deformation are discussed in this paper. For alloys of many metals such as titanium, zirconium, niobium, tantalum, etc., it is important to provide precision heating with a high degree of homogeneity of the temperature field and strict adherence to the condition of heating. This is explained by polymorphism of the alloys based on these metals, their chemical activity at high temperatures and the specific thermal and electrical properties. It is very important for induction heating to define the extreme achievable unevenness of the temperature field. For special alloys it is necessary to use resistance furnaces for homogenization of billets’ temperature after heating in the inductors. Optimal control can be used for massive billets to reduce significantly the heating time, energy expenses and to improve the quality of the temperature field distribution. Optimization of induction heating process can be achieved by synchronous solution of the problem of optimal control and design with specially developed models.