Silicon steel, also known as electrical steel, silicon electrical steel, or transformer steel is specialty steel with silicon added to it, which improves its electrical resistivity and magnetic properties, and reduces hysteresis loss. This steel is ideal for various electrical applications where electromagnetic fields are important, such as transformers, magnetic coils, and electrical motors.

Electrical steel usually referred to as cold-rolled electrical steel, can be divided into two major categories including grain-oriented electrical steel and non-oriented electrical steel. Grain-oriented electrical steel, with its easy magnetization direction parallel to the rolling direction, has excellent magnetic properties in this direction including low core loss, high permeability, and low magnetostriction, and is widely used in the transformer industry. Further, it can obtain lower core loss by domain refinement treatment. Meanwhile, non-oriented electrical steel, featured by a random distribution of grain orientation and magnetic isotropy, is widely applicable to the motor industry.

Grain-oriented electrical steel usually contains a level of 3% silicon and is processed in a way to develop ideal properties in the rolling direction. Non-oriented electrical steel usually contains a level of 2%-3.5% silicon. It has similar magnetic properties in all directions, the so-called isotropy. Cold-rolled non-grain-oriented steel (CRNGO) is less expensive than cold-rolled grain-oriented steel (CRGO). CRNGO can be used in cost-oriented applications with the inconstant direction of magnetic flux, such as electric motors and generators. CRGO is usually in coil form and has to be cut into laminations further, being used in transformer core applications, such as certain internal parts in audio output transformers.

Professional Silicon Steel/Electrical Steel Manufacturer From China ——Jiangsu Taigang Puxin

Silicon Steels and Their Applications

Silicon steel is the most important magnetic material in industrial applications. The general applications include volt relays or pulse transformers from the generator, automotive, and transformer sectors.

Silicon steel is undoubtedly the most important soft magnetic material in use today. Applications vary in quantities from the few ounces used in small relays or pulse transformers to tons used in generators, motors, and transformers. Continued growth in electrical power generation has required development of better steels to decrease wasteful dissipation of energy (as heat) in electrical apparatus and to minimize the physical dimensions of the increasingly powerful equipment now demanded.

Applications for oriented silicon steel include transformers (power, distribution, ballast, instrument, audio, and specialty), and generators for steam turbine and water wheels.

Fields of Application

-Material Selection

Grain-oriented electrical steel

Mechanical Property

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