Powder Core and Silicon Steel Core Comparison

Magnetics' Kool Mu offers the benefits of soft saturation, significantly lower core losses, good temperature stability and a lower cost than similar size silicon steel blocks. Powder Core Shapes (E cores, U cores and blocks) in Kool Mu or XFlux can also be configured for large inductor applications.   

In comparison, the silicon steel has the advantage of high saturation flux density. Using special grades of silicon steel laminations, in a block or bar geometry, is one approach to realizing large inductors (see below).

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.Advantages of Powder Cores compared with silicon steel are:

  • Soft Saturation: Silicon blocks have discrete gaps, unlike the distributed gaps of powder cores; therefore, the onset of saturation with increasing current is much sharper.
  • Core Losses: Kool Mu is much lower in core losses than the silicon steel laminations. The difference generally becomes more dramatic as the frequency increases.
  • Cost: Kool Mu cores have a lower cost than similar size silicon steel blocks.