Use of soft magnetic composite materials in industrial applications

Insulated iron powders are alternative materials to conventional soft magnetic materials such as steel sheet laminations used in electrical machines. Most of the magnetic structures of existing electrical machines with AC excitation were optimized during the 20th century for 2D flux circulation in laminated yokes. Now with the isotropic composite materials new designs can be used to optimize the materials in terms of technical and economic performance. The 3D design optimization permits to meet the application specifications taking into account the magnetic, thermal and mechanical properties of the materials as well as the cost of the production and assembly process. In this paper, the characteristics and properties of typical composite powders are presented together with a design optimization methodology. This methodology was successfully adopted for investigating the potential applications of composite powders in several sectors such as automotive, electro-domestic and lighting industry.