Company
Four decades of magnetic flux control, research and induction education.
Fluxtrol, Inc. is a world leader in soft magnetic composites for induction heating and a provider of induction engineering services. Founded in 1981 by Robert S. Ruffini, it combines Fluxtrol Manufacturing with the Centre for Induction Technology (CIT).
Fluxtrol, Inc., a merger of Fluxtrol Manufacturing and the Centre for Induction Technology, partners with manufacturers to reach optimal induction heating solutions using proprietary magnetic materials, scientific knowledge, engineering experience and innovative solutions.
Fluxtrol Manufacturing was founded in 1981 by Robert S. Ruffini, an inventor, entrepreneur and induction heating enthusiast who specialized in developing and manufacturing soft magnetic composites for magnetic flux control in induction systems.
In 1993 he founded the Centre for Induction Technology (CIT) to educate and promote induction technology, and invited Professor Dr. Valentin Nemkov, one of the world’s foremost experts in induction heating technique, to lead CIT’s technical efforts: practical solutions for productivity, enhancing the Fluxtrol product portfolio, and educating user-professionals.
Fluxtrol, Inc. and CIT have advanced induction heating technology for more than three decades and have become a world leader in the manufacture and supply of soft magnetic composites. We also provide a wide range of induction engineering services to global industries.
We have a team of 20 induction heating experts, including ten engineers with deep industry experience, serving customers through a global distribution network. Together with our customers’ specialists, our engineers have developed solutions now used in thousands of applications, from automotive to aerospace, oil and gas, special metallurgy, biomedical and the food industry. Fluxtrol is proud to serve companies and research centers such as NASA, Boeing, GE, Caterpillar, Pratt & Whitney, Tetra Pak, GKN and GM.
Download the company sales deck (PDF) →
History
Selected milestones from four decades of magnetic flux control, research and induction education.
An inventor, entrepreneur and induction heating enthusiast, Ruffini sets out to develop and manufacture soft magnetic composites for magnetic flux control. The same year, a Russian course book on induction heating installations, co-written by Valentin Nemkov, is published in Leningrad.
US 4,486,641 is the earliest dated patent in the record, and a sign of the founder's hands-on engineering roots.
Ruffini founds CIT to educate and promote induction technology, and invites Prof. Dr. Valentin Nemkov, “one of the world's foremost experts in induction heating technique”, to lead its technical work.
Patents from Armco, Inland Steel, Avco and Borg-Warner cite Fluxtrol: from molten-metal containment to brake densification and clutch assemblies. Early evidence of SMCs in demanding industrial work.
Now Executive Director of Strategic Planning and Product Development, he has co-authored more than 100 papers and presentations on induction heating.
High-frequency induction fusing (US 6,162,509) and heat treating of metal parts with varying aspect ratios (US 6,166,360): the first joint patents in the record.
The earliest paper in Fluxtrol's technical library applies computer simulation to aluminum brazing. The approach is still the core of how the team designs coils.
Papers on high-amplitude alternating magnetic fields for cancer research appear, along with a patent on targeted delivery of nanoscale particles (WO 2004071370).
Fluxtrol experts lecture in Luoyang, China, and run seminars at customer sites including GKN, Caterpillar, Dow Corning and Mack Truck.
A Baker Hughes patent cites Fluxtrol as an antenna core material for measurement-while-drilling resistivity and NMR sensors.
Nemkov is a named inventor on Tetra Pak sealing-device patents for packaging pourable food products, the start of a long collaboration.
A November 2008 demo kicks off a library of flux-concentrator videos. In 2009 a video follows comparing Fluxtrol LRM against laminations.
Nemkov writes the induction-hardening modeling chapter of CRC's Handbook of Thermal Process Modeling of Steels (2009) and edits a design chapter in History of Induction Heating and Melting (2008).
Goldstein co-authors “Design and Fabrication of Inductors for Induction Heat Treating” and writes “Magnetic Flux Controllers in Induction Heating and Melting”.
Read the chapter →
With the ASM Heat Treating Society, Fluxtrol starts recognizing student and academic research in thermal processing, including a $2,000 student award.
The academic award is named for Fluxtrol's longtime scientific lead and presented at HEAT TREAT 2019.
Because “many of our application case studies are confidential”, Fluxtrol works with a Marvel artist to tell its story through a comic-book superhero.
In March 2020, Fluxtrol tells customers it will continue safe, uninterrupted manufacturing and supply during COVID-19. The awards program reaches IMAT 2020.
“The Adventures of Fluxtrol Man” launches as an animated series. Episode one begins: “Fluxtrol Man came to Earth in 1981…”
Fluxtrol sponsors the poster competition at the first in-person IFHTSE event in two and a half years.
Recognized as a Fellow of the Society (FASM) for seminal work on induction heat treating applications touching human health, space exploration and materials processing.
Launched with the HES-23 conference in Padua, Italy, to encourage young innovators in electrotechnology, and named for the founder.
New research on SMC impeder cores for high-frequency tube welding, shown at Fabtech and Heat Treat, and a sponsor of the 3rd Quenching and Distortion Engineering conference.
See the impeder research →New demonstrations compare five inductor geometries with and without Fluxtrol 25, and show Alpha-form boosting coil efficiency. Fluxtrol also exhibits at Tube 2026 in Düsseldorf.
Watch the videos →“We at Trueflaw have been using Fluxtrol’s concentrators for many years. The high efficiency and control over the induction process that we get with these concentrators simply wouldn’t be possible without them.”
Iikka Virkkunen, Dr. Sc. (Tech.), Managing Director, Trueflaw Ltd.
Start Your Career with Us Fluxtrol Inc. (est. 1981) focuses on research, development & production of composite materials for magnetic flux …
Learn more →What engineers and researchers say about Fluxtrol's concentrators, design assistance and education.
Learn more →Talk with a Fluxtrol engineer about your coil, material or heat pattern challenge.
