Co-based nanocomposite soft magnets for energy-efficient electric motors

JOSEFINA M SILVEYRA; PATRICIA XU; VLADIMIR KEYLIN; MICHAEL MCHENRY

Pittsburgh

Congreso; Materials Science & Technology 2014 Conference & Exhibition; 2014

Integration of electric motors in military, industry, and transportation sectors and household appliances, drives efforts to improve the energy efficiency of the motors, reduce their size and increase their output power. High speed electric motors offer good output power density. A limitation to reducing their size, weight, and cost is performance of permanent and soft magnets at high speeds.Novel Co-based nanocrystalline soft magnetic materials are presented as a potential substitute for electrical steels in high speed motors for current industry applications. The low losses, high permeabilities, and good mechanical strength of these materials enable their application in more efficient high rotational speed induction machines. Here, we compare permanent magnet electric motors constructed with Si-steel and Co-based nanocomposite. In a Parallel Path Magnetic Technology topology, the Co-based motor achieved a 70% size reduction and an 83% reduction on NdFeB magnet volume with respect to a similar Si-steel design.