Electric steel

Electric steel is a steel adapted to produce certain magnetic properties. Natural resources are limited and their efficient use is a major priority. This is also true when it comes to the transmission of electricity. When electric motors convert electricity into motion or generators convert motion into electrical energy. For these types of applications, electric steels offer extremely high efficiency.

It is a functional material that is used, in various forms, in the manufacturing process of magnetic cores for household appliances and mechanical installations.

The material is usually manufactured in the form of cold-rolled strips less than 2 mm thick. Electric steel is an alloy of iron, which can contain silicon between 0 and 6.5% (Si: 5Fe). Commercial alloys typically have a silicon content of up to 3.2% (higher concentrations usually cause brittleness during cold rolling). Manganese and aluminum up to 0.5% can also be added.

Specific segments of the applications of this product: renewable energies, manufacturing industry, electrical industry and automotive industry.

Electric steel is of two types:

1. Grain-oriented electrical steel is an iron-silicon alloy, which has been developed to provide low core loss and high permeability required for efficient and economical electrical transformers. It has superior magnetic properties in the rolling direction. The silicon level is about 3%.
2. Electrical steel with non-oriented grains is an iron-silicon alloy in which the magnetic properties are practically the same in any direction in the plane of the material. Usually the level of silicon is between 2 and 3.5%. This type of steel is used when cost is more important than efficiency and for applications where the direction of magnetic flux is not constant. For example, electric motors and generators with moving parts.

Grain-oriented electric steel is a highly specialized product. Used by energy producers and distributors, it is produced by only 16 companies worldwide.

In Europe this product is manufactured by ArcelorMittal, STALPRODUKT, Tata Steel and ThyssenKrupp.

Non-European manufacturers include AK Steel, NLMK (Russia), Posco (Korea), Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Corp (Japan), Baosteel, Wuhan Iron and Corp Steel (China).