Industrialization of nanocrystalline Fe-Si-B-P-Cu alloys for high magnetic flux density cores

Nanocrystalline Fe-Si-B-P-Cu alloys exhibit high saturation magnetic flux density (B-s) and extremely low magnetic core loss (W), simultaneously. Low amorphous-forming ability of these alloys hinders their application potential in power transformers and motors. Here we report a solution to this problem. Minor addition of C is found to be effective in increasing the amorphous-forming ability of Fe-Si-B-P-Cu alloys. It allows fabrication of 120 mm wide ribbons (which was limited to less than 40 mm) without noticeable degradation in magnetic properties. The nanocrystalline (Fe85.7Si0.5B9.5P3.5Cu0.8)(99)C-1 ribbons exhibit low coercivity (H-c)similar to 4.5 A/m, high B-s similar to 1.83 T and low W similar to 0.27 W/kg (@ 1.5 T and 50 Hz). Success in fabrication of long (60-100 m) and wide (similar to 120 mm) ribbons, which are made up of low cost elements is promising for mass production of energy efficient high power transformers and motors (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.