Electrical steel

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Electrical steel (E-steel, lamination steel, silicon electrical steel, silicon steel, relay steel, transformer steel) is speciality steel used in the cores of electromagnetic devices such as motors, generators, and transformers because it reduces power loss. It is an iron alloy with silicon as the main additive element (instead of carbon). The exact formulation is tailored to produce specific magnetic properties: small hysteresis area resulting in low power loss per cycle, low core loss, and high permeability.

Electrical steel is usually manufactured in cold-rolled strips less than 2 mm thick. These strips are cut to shape to make laminations which are stacked together to form the laminated cores of transformers, and the stator and rotor of electric motors. Laminations may be cut to their finished shape by a punch and die or, in smaller quantities, may be cut by a laser, or by wire electrical discharge machining.