Analysis of a Powder Metallurgical Production Route for Nanocrystalline Soft Magnetic Components

Within the public founded project "NanoKompakt", the powder of initial amorphous soft magnetic alloy Vitroperm (Fe73.6Si15.5B6.9Cu1.0Nb3.0) is compacted to nanocrystalline components by FAST/SPS. The aim is to manufacture industrially relevant components such as E-cores that cannot be produced from wounded ribbon. The increased mechanical stability allows for omitting a polymer case, which increases the possible application temperature. Firstly, small toroidal cores were compacted. A high permeability of 20 000 and a low coercivity of 3 A/m are achieved. Based on the thermal and electrical properties of the compacted toroidal cores, a larger pressing tool is also designed and optimized by simulation. The simulation is necessary because the temperature range for compaction is only a few Kelvin wide and the precipitation of hard magnetic phases must be prevented. In the second step, E-cores are cut from compacted slices and analyzed.