β-Fe and the A critical temperature are important in induction heating of steel, such as for surface-hardening heat treatments. Steel is typically austenitized at 900–1000 °C before it is quenched and tempered. The high-frequency alternating magnetic field of induction heating heats the steel by two mechanisms below the Curie temperature: resistance or Joule heating and ferromagnetic hysteresis losses. Above the A boundary, the hysteresis mechanism disappears and the required amount of energy per degree of temperature increase is thus substantially larger than below A. Load-matching circuits may be needed to vary the impedance in the induction power source to compensate for the change.