Lossless inductive snubber-assisted soft switching PFM series resonant high frequency inverter for electromagnetic induction eddy current-heated fixing roller

This paper presents a novel prototype of ZCS-PFM high frequency series capacitor compensated load resonant inverter using IGBT power module for electromagnetic induction eddy current-heated fixing roller in copy and printing machines including scanner and facsimile. The operating principle and unique features of this voltage source type half bridge series load resonant inverter with two additional soft commutation inductor snubbers in series with each switch are presented including the transformer modeling of induction heated fixing rolling drum. This soft switching PFM inverter using IGBTs can achieve stable zero current soft commutation under a condition of discontinuous or continuous resonant load current transition for a widely specified power regulation processing. The experimental results and computer-aided simulation analysis of this series load resonant inverter arc evaluated and discussed from a practical point of view