Influence of Coating Agent and Particle Size on the Soft Magnetic Properties of Fe Based Nano Crystalline Alloy Powder Core

This is a basic research for improving soft magnetic property of Fe based nano crystalline alloy powder core. The main study is done around characteristics of permeability, core loss, and DC bias depending on amount of insulation coating agent and particle size. First, Fe73.5Si13.5B9Nb3Cu1 amorphous alloy ribbon was fabricated by using the planar flow casting (PFC) device. Then, heat treatment and ball milling were done to obtain alloy powder. The amount of polyether imide (PEI) added to it was varied by 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 2.5 wt% to have compression molding into 16 ton/cm(2). After going through crystalline heat treatment, the made toroidal nano crystalline powder core (OD12.7 mm*ID7.62 mm*H4.75 mm) had smaller permeability as amount of insulation coating agent decreases. However, it was found out that core loss and DC bias characteristics have been improved. The reason for this results were expected to be because green density of power core decreases as amorphous alloy powder particles become smaller as amount of alloy powder insulation coating agent increases, it was determined that 1 wt% of insulation coating agent is appropriate. Also, for powder core made based on alloy powder size with amount of insulation coating agent fixed at 1 wt%, effective permeability and core loss were outstanding as particle size became bigger. However, characteristics of DC bias became worse as applied DC field increases. This is expected to be due to insulation effect, residual pores, or molding density of powder core resulting from thickness of coating on surface of alloy powder.