The significance of comparing Somaloy with silicon steel sheets lies in providing different selection options for different application scenarios, such as comprehensive trade-offs based on the working frequency of motors, space constraints, and cost budgets.
Definition of Somaloy
Somaloy is a soft magnetic composite (SMC) developed by Höganäs, a Swedish company. It is made of high-purity iron powder (pure iron-based powder) as the core, coated with a nano-scale electrical insulation coating on the surface.
Definition of Silicon Steel Sheets
Silicon steel sheets are a kind of iron-silicon alloy soft magnetic material containing 0.5% to 4.5% silicon content. It is an indispensable core base material in the power industry and electronic industry, mainly used for manufacturing the iron cores of various motors, generators, and transformers.
Comparison Between Somaloy and Silicon Steel Sheets
Manufacturing Process
| Somaloy: Adopts a high-pressure near-net-shape forming process. The treated powder is placed into precision molds and pressed under high pressure to directly form complex three-dimensional irregular structures. After forming, the material utilization rate is extremely high, with almost no machining waste.
| Silicon Steel Sheets: Adopts a two-dimensional stamping/shearing process. The rolled silicon steel thin plates are stamped or laser-cut into specific two-dimensional shapes. After forming, a stacking assembly is required, resulting in a relatively low material utilization rate, and making it difficult to process complex three-dimensional irregular structures.
Magnetic Properties
Iron Loss
Somaloy: Due to the use of surface-insulated soft magnetic powder pressing, it has high resistivity and extremely low eddy current loss. At high frequencies, it is 20%-30% lower than silicon steel sheets. In the medium-high frequency range, its overall iron loss is usually lower than that of silicon steel sheets.
Silicon Steel Sheets: Iron loss is low at low frequencies (such as 50-400Hz). However, at high frequencies, due to the significant increase in eddy current loss between silicon steel sheet laminations, iron loss increases noticeably.
Permeability
Somaloy: Has relatively low permeability, with a maximum permeability of around 400-700.
Silicon Steel Sheets: Have high permeability, with a relative permeability usually between 7000 and 10000.
Cost
| Somaloy: The material and forming process costs are higher, suitable for applications with high added value and high requirements for motor performance (such as efficiency and power density).
| Silicon Steel Sheets: Have low material costs and convenient processing, suitable for mass-produced traditional industrial motors, home appliance motors, and conventional applications that are extremely sensitive to cost.
Applications
| Somaloy: Suitable for compact motors with space constraints and high power density. Somaloy can form complex three-dimensional magnetic circuit structures in one pressing without lamination, significantly reducing motor volume and weight, making it suitable for scenarios with strict requirements on volume and weight.
| Silicon Steel Sheets: Due to the two-dimensional stamping and stacking structure of silicon steel sheets, limited by the two-dimensional stamping process, it is suitable for structures with traditional radial flux motors and other relatively standard structures with relatively spacious spaces.
Magnets Manufacturer
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Image Source: Bomatec & Highmagnets & Lamination-core & Nist & Yieh
