Performance and Properties of an Additive Manufactured Coil for Inductive Heat Treatment in the MHz Range

In inductive heat treatment, the induction coil design plays an important role in the localization of heat generation. Therefore, the combination of an optimized coil geometry and frequency choice determines the workpiece properties and applicability of close-to-contour hardening for small parts or thin hardened layers. Additive manufacturing of copper alloys in the Selective Laser Melting (SLM) process offers a method to build coils with high design flexibility and precision. Conventional coil manufacturing methods are reaching their limitations due to the conflicting geometry specifications at the applied frequency range. In the present work, a characterization is presented and the performance of an SLM manufactured coil in MHz induction application of small surface hardened wires of steel is examined.