High Power Factor Induction Heating Power Supply for Forging Applications Using Three-Phase Three-Switch PWM Current Source Rectifier

Induction heating can convert electrical energy to thermal energy with high conversion efficiency and quick heating. Currently, a current source rectifier/inverter-fed parallel resonant circuit is widely used as an induction heating power supply for forging applications. However, the conventional induction heating power supplies composed of phase-controlled rectifier and SCR inverter have low efficiency and low power factor at input side, and require additional starting circuitry. Thus, many topologies have been studied for high power factor and low current THD characteristics. This paper proposes the new high power factor induction heating power supply using 3-phase, 3-switch PWM rectifier with power factor control and low cost and simple control. Also, this paper proposes a design method for the proposed power supply and verifies the validity of the proposed power supply through simulation.