High purity iron powders are produced in many different grades for varieties of applications. They are used to manufacture sintered components, soft magnetic components, brazing, iron fortification, friction products, printing, surface coating, welding, brazing, chemistry, and polymer filtrations. As iron can withstand high levels of the magnetic field without saturating, it is very suitable to make magnetic cores.
A magnetic core is a piece of magnetic material having a high magnetic permeability. The soft magnetic core is used for confining and guiding magnetic fields in various electrical, electrochemical, and magnetic devices such as electromagnets, transformers, electric motors, generators, magnetic recording heads, and magnetic assemblies.
Why iron powders are used as soft magnetic cores?
Electrolytic iron powder is widely used in the manufacturing of soft magnetic cores because of its high purity and stable physical characteristics. Due to its excellent magnetic properties, the electrolytic iron powder can also be used for making ferromagnetic cores. In soft magnetic applications, high purity iron powder is specifically used in ignition system components, electric motor components, solenoids, and inductors. The soft magnetic powder core can be transformed into various shapes, which makes it superior to magnetic steel sheets and ferrite, which have long been used for a wide range of applications.
Iron Powder is used manufacturing of Soft Magnetic Cores. These Cores are used in Radio Frequency Range from 50 kHz to 500 MHz. These cores also find application in Power Conversion Applications up to 500 kHz. These cores have important magnetic characteristics like High Permeability, High Q factor, high value of Saturation and Low Losses.
Depending on the application we can make cores of desired Permeability, Q factor, Saturation, etc. The cores finds its application in Transformers, Inductors & Toroidal cores, etc.
Depending on the design the cores can be pressed into any desired shape such as E Cores, U Cores, I cores, Toroid’s, etc.
Applications of soft iron core:
Soft iron cores have a wide range of applications in various devices that are as follows:
- Transformer: A transformer works on the principle of magnetic induction. The primary winding’s magnetic field rapidly collapses causing induction of electricity into the secondary coil. To conduct electricity, you need a good conductor. Similarly, to conduct magnetism you need something that is good at magnetizing and de-magnetizing quickly. Iron pans out as an excellent method of conduction of magnetism. The soft iron core has the ability to increase the strength of the magnetic field inside a transformer. The main reason behind using an iron corein a transformer is because it is a magnetic material and easily available everywhere. The core is laminated to reduce the Eddy current and hence Eddy current losses occur.
- Electromagnet: Soft iron is generally used for making electromagnets because it has high magnetic permeability, i.e. when the current is passed around the core it can easily gain magnetic properties and quickly lose when current is stopped. This is very crucial in case of electromagnets since they are generally used for picking up iron loads or transporting them in electric bells and speakers, where this sort of quick transformation of properties is important. As iron possesses high magnetic properties, it strengthens the field of an electromagnetvery strongly. It’s also relatively cheap as compared to other metals, which makes it an ideal metal to use as an electromagnet’s core.
- Galvanometers & Electric Motors: Electric motors are based on the basic principle of an external magnetic field exerting a force on a current carrying wire. Galvanometers are also based on the similar principle, however, with the difference in how far the device is allowed to move. A soft iron core is used in a galvanometer, which is an electrochemical instrument used for detecting and indicating an electric current. Soft iron cores have the ability to attract the magnetic lines of force and hence the strength of the magnetic field increases if we use soft iron cores in a moving coil galvanometer. It increases the sensitivity of galvanometer. Moving coil type galvanometer mechanisms are used for controlling the head positioning servos in hard disk drives and CD/DVD players.
Conclusion:
Iron-powder based nano-coated soft magnetic composites (SMC) represent the most recent innovation in materials for soft-magnetic core applications and provide among the most cost-effective and environmentally-friendly production solutions.
