Characterization Methods along the Process Chain of Electrical Steel Sheet—From Best Practices to Advanced Characterization

Abstract

Non-oriented (NO) electrical steel sheets find their application in rotating electrical machines, ranging from generators for wind turbines to motors for the transportation sector and small motors for kitchen appliances. With the current trend of moving away from fossil fuel-based energy conversion towards an electricity-based one, these machines become more and more important and, as a consequence, the leverage effect in saving energy by improving efficiency is huge. It is already well established that different applications of an electrical machine have individual requirements for the properties of the NO electrical steel sheets, which in turn result from the microstructures and textures thereof. However, designing and producing tailor-made NO electrical steel sheet is still challenging, because the complex interdependence between processing steps, the different phenomena taking place and the resulting material properties are still not sufficiently understood. This work shows how established, as well as advanced and newly developed characterization methods, can be used to unfold these intricate connections. In this context, the respective characterization methods are explained and applied to NO electrical steel as well as to the typical processing steps. In addition, several experimental results are reviewed to show the strengths of the different methods, as well as their (dis)advantages, typical applications and obtainable data.

Correction: Heller et al. Characterization Methods along the Process Chain of Electrical Steel Sheet—From Best Practices to Advanced Characterization. Materials 2022, 15, 32

“…In the original publication [ 1 ], there was a mistake in Figure 16 as published. The corrected Figure 16 appears below.…”

“…There was an error in the original publication [ 1 ]. In the course of further Recrystallization Scratch Experiments, we found a unit error in one of our Matlab scripts used to calculate the grain boundary mobility.…”

“…At one point, the Vickers Hardness value (kgf/mm 2 ) was not correctly transformed into SI units (1 kgf/mm 2 = 9.80665 N/mm 2 ). This affects one result of the paper [ 1 ] published with you. Please find attached a corrected version of Section 4.7, which is the only section affected.…”

2023 Critical Materials Strategy

“…Typically, the generators found in wind turbines require nongrain-oriented electrical steel (NOES) (ArcelorMittal, n.d.-a;Heller et al, 2022). NOES is found in rotating electrical machines such as electrical motors and generators.…”