Silicon Steel Wire With Low Magnetic Losses

The aim of this paper is to develop a process to produce silicon steel wire with the lowest possible magnetic losses, allowing its use as magnetic core material in a new type of transformer. The technical feasibility of a recent patent strongly depends on the production of steel wires with magnetic losses similar to that of grain oriented (GO) silicon steel sheets used in conventional transformers. The starting material was a FeSi wire with a diameter of 7.2 mm that was drawn down to 0.4 mm, in several steps. Heat treatments were performed in order to promote stress relief and the recrystallization of the deformed material. Magnetic losses can be reduced by increasing the grain size and by improving the crystallographic texture. Our aim is to obtain a wire with a strong (100) texture component parallel to its axis. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) were performed for monitoring the evolution of texture.