Optimization of the In-line Induction Heating Process for Hot Forging in Terms of Saving Operating Energy

Energy-savings considerations in manufacturing processes have been drawing a great attention to the designers and manufactures because of the ecological issues, cost-saving pressure, and new environmental legislations. Manufacturing companies have been trying to “produce more with less”, so the improvement of machining and process efficiency for manufacturing is one of the promising solutions. Induction heating process has been considered as a high productivity, repeatable quality, and green heating technology compared to fuel-fired furnaces. This is the reason why the induction heating, a best available heating technology, is preferred in the forging industry. Induction heating prior to hot forging, namely induction through heating, requires a huge amount of electrical energy for heating a steel workpiece with large volume from the ambient temperature to approximate 1150~1250°C. Therefore, the increase in the electrical efficiency of the heating system significantly saves the consumed energy. Similar to other manufacturing technologies, energy-saving solutions for induction heating are important issues that the manufacturers and researchers always pay their attention. Solutions for saving energy for industrial induction heating may include the energy management, innovative components of induction devices, energy recovery, and adaptive control. One of the effective ways to resolve the energy-savings problem in induction heating is carrying out the optimization process through parameter studies. Diverse published works devoted to the optimization of induction heating, but most of them focused on how to minimize the temperature deviation at the end of the heating process. Studies on minimizing the energy consumption for particular manufacturing processes have been still dimmed although the producers of induction heaters are trying to increase the efficiency of their products. In addition, issues related to the billet’s temperature distribution and power distribution along the heating line is a controversial problem that is rarely discussed in the literature. Therefore, studying the influence of process parameters on the energy consumption and finding the potential optimization of the in-line induction heating system are the purposes of this research.