A Zero Current Switching AC-AC Resonant Converter

Induction heating is a fast, efficient, precise and repeatable non-contact method for heating metals or other electrically-conductive materials. Induction heating is a process which is used to bond, harden or soften metals or other conductive materials. For many modern manufacturing processes, induction heating offers an attractive combination of speed, consistency and control. The induction heating power supply converts AC line power to a higher frequency alternating current delivers it to a work coil and creates an electromagnetic field within the coil. This paper proposes a new concept unlike previous method, i.e. the direct conversion of ac–ac converter for reducing the component count, reduce cost, improve reliability, and also efficiency. Generally, the proposed converter is a voltage-source based series-resonant converter used for controlling output power, and minimizing the control complexity.