Acoustic and Soft Magnetic Properties in Amorphous Alloy-Based Distribution Transformer Cores

A new amorphous Fe-based alloy, Metglas (R) 2605 HB1M, has been developed for distribution transformer cores, modifying the chemical compositions of a conventional alloy. The distribution transformer model cores based on HB1M and conventional Metglas (R) 2605 HB1 alloy were annealed with magnetic field and then evaluated on their acoustic and soft magnetic properties. It has been found that A-weighted sound power levels and exciting power of HB1M-based cores are lower than those of HB1-based cores. These transformer performance improvements result from the magnetic anisotropy being induced more easily in HB1M than in HB1 alloy.