Effects of the Powder Preparation Method on the Magnetic Properties of Fe-based Amorphous Alloy Powder Cores

In the fabrication process of Fe-based amorphous alloy powder cores by pulverization of the melt-spun ribbons and cold compaction, the effects of powder preparation method on the, magnetic & electric properties, powder shapes and microstructure of cores have been investigated. The powder cores made by using rotor mill showed low effective permeability as compared to the cores prepared by ball milling. However the frequency dependence and quality factor properties were superior in the case of rotor-milling. Further the powders prepared by rotor mill had homogeneous and round shapes through strong shearing in the sieve ring, while the ball milled powders were inhomogeneous and relatively small. The lower permeability of the powder cores fabricated with rotor mill was considered to be due to the high internal stress occurred by very intensive shearing. Moreover the powder cores produced by rotor-milling showed lower core loss and good frequency dependence of effective permeability possibly due to the higher electrical insulation between magnetic particles. The dc bias property of the powder cores made by rotor-milling was better than the one by ballmilling.