Foreword

Heating and heat treatment by electromagnetic induction is a long-standing area of major interest of Heat Treating Society members, engineers, and manufacturers. From its initial applications in the latter half of the 19th Century for melting, induction heating technology continues to grow in applications that seem limited only by physics and our imaginations. The breadth and depth of thermal processing by electromagnetic induction technology are certainly deserving of a dedicated Volume to the ASM Handbook.

As such, this Volume marks the important milestone of an ASM Handbook devoted to practical and comprehensive coverage on many aspects of induction heating and heat treatment. ASM Handbook, Volume 4C, Induction Heating and Heat Treatment, also is a fitting expansion of handbook coverage on heat treatment. Given the roots of ASM International from its origin as the Steel Treaters Club in Detroit, heat treatment is a core constituency of ASM International and the Heat Treating Society (An Affiliate Society of ASM International).

This publication would not have been possible without the dedication and commitment by many volunteers around the globe and within the membership of ASM International and the Heat Treating Society. We are enormously grateful to them and their families for their devoted time and effort. We also are especially indebted to Valery Rudnev and George E. Totten as Volume Editors. This publication, quite simply, would have never occurred without them.