Acoustic and Soft Magnetic Properties in Amorphous Alloy-Based Distribution Transformer Cores

A new amorphous Fe-based alloy, Metglas®2605 HB1M, has been developed for distribution transformer cores, modifying the chemical compositions of a conventional alloy. The distribution transformer model cores based on HB1M and conventional Metglas®2605 HB1 alloy were annealed with magnetic field and then evaluated on their acoustic and soft magnetic properties. It has been found that A-weighted sound power levels and exciting power of HB1M-based cores are lower than those of HB1-based cores. These transformer performance improvements result from the magnetic anisotropy being induced more easily in HB1M than in HB1 alloy.