Advances in powder metallurgy of soft magnetic materials

This paper discusses two new powder metallurgy processes that provide increased soft magnetic performance over conventional techniques. The first is a process involving elevated compaction temperatures which enable sintered densities of 7.59 g/cm/sup 3/ for iron containing 0.35% by weight of phosphorus. Maximum permeabilities exceeding 6,000 with saturation inductions of 19,730 G are typical results utilizing this process. The second process involves producing a thin plastic coating on discrete iron particles. Upon compaction, the plastic coating between particles provides a material with constant permeability up to 100,000 Hz and mechanical strength of 250 MPa. Plastic coated iron compacts provide a moldable material with isotropic high frequency soft magnetic properties.