Basic knowledge of silicon steel
Silicon steel is a kind of steel containing silicon and a soft magnetic material widely used in the electrical field. Silicon steel for electrical purposes is often rolled into large sheets or strips of standard sizes, commonly known as silicon steel sheets. It is widely used in motors, generators, transformers, electromagnetic mechanisms, relay electronic devices and measuring instruments.
Silicon is a good deoxidizer for steel. It combines with oxygen to convert oxygen into stable SiO2 that is not reduced by carbon, avoiding the lattice distortion of iron due to oxygen atom doping.
Silicon becomes a solid solution in α-iron, which increases the resistivity and helps separate harmful impurities, carbon. Therefore, generally, adding silicon to iron containing impurities can
increase the magnetic permeability, reduce coercive force and iron loss. However, increasing the silicon content will make the material hard and brittle, and the thermal conductivity and
toughness will decrease, which is detrimental to heat dissipation and mechanical processing. Therefore, the silicon content of silicon steel sheets generally does not exceed 4.5%.
