Design aspects and experimental results of a high power factor induction heating system

In this paper, a design method and some experimental results of a high power factor induction heating system is presented, which is formed by a non-controlled rectifier, a DC-DC buck converter and a resonant inverter using IGBTs. The design method considers the load parameters, the load power and the frequency as input data. Then, electric variables and parameters are calculated according to a theoretic group of relations. Digital simulations of the main electric variables are developed and finally a 15 kW prototype is tested at the laboratory to validate the simulation results. Conclusions and comments about the application of this method for a high power level are presented.