Modeling of Coil Design for Induction Hardening in an Automotive Spindle Axle

Automotive components are expected to have good wear resistance during service. Spindle axles are components that are subjected to induction hardening process. This process offers good industrial advantages since heating is done at specific regions during very shot times without heating all volume. However, it is difficult to heat components that have lots of discontinuities. Therefore, coil design becomes a very important tool to handle this problem. The objective of this work is to simulate induction hardening process using Finite Element Method for coil design, reducing trial and error testing to obtain a better control of final hardness profile. A coupled electromagnetic-thermal-structural model was created in ANSYS program to design the coil geometry. Then DEFORM software was used to model heating and quenching stages considering phase transformation. The results were validated with experiments. This methodology will help to reduce heating times resulting in less energy consumption.