New Magnetic Materials for Electrical Machines and Power Converters

The last decade has been characterized by a continuous demand for high-efficiency electrical machines and power, which have to be designed to obtain high power density with high efficiency and at the same time reduced costs. Among the several design approaches typically used to achieve these targets, the adoption of high-quality magnetic materials is one of the most common ones. For this reason, the magnetic steel manufacturers have improved the performances of their materials by increasing the permeability and the saturation levels while at the same time reducing the specific iron losses. Magnetic materials characterized by new metallurgical technological processes and different compositions have been introduced in the market, enlarging the possible choices available to the electromagnetic device producers. As a consequence, the year after year increasing typology of magnetic materials with new compositions, material processing techniques, and supplied forms makes it challenging to choose the most suitable material for a specific machine design.