Innovative Soft Magnetic Composite Materials: Evaluation of magnetic and mechanical properties

Electrical machines cover a very wide range of applications in many industrials sectors and the research to improve the performance of those applications is recently leading to the development of new solutions. Those devices are generally equipped with magnetic circuits made of laminated ferromagnetic steel, but in the last decade, new magnetic materials have been developed to realise magnetic circuits: Soft Magnetic Composites (SMC). The Authors have investigated SMCs with organic layer obtained through the adoption of phenolic and epoxy resins; in previous research activities several mixture compositions have been produced and analysed with different percentages of binder and compacting pressures. Promising results regarding magnetic and mechanical performances have been obtained using a very low binder content. The paper aims to investigate the lower limit of the binder to be used, still keeping good mechanical properties. Appropriate magnetic tests have been performed on toroidal specimens: good magnetic characteristics have been obtained, maintaining on the other side proper mechanical strength.