Electrical steels for automotive

While the driving range of electric vehicles (EVs) can be enhanced by installing more batteries, this is costly for consumers. Another approach is to optimise the entire electric powertrain as one by considering the performance, weight, and cost of all its components and materials. Additional improvements in driving range can be achieved by utilising advanced electrical steels such as ArcelorMittal’s iCARe^® range. Now there’s a new member of the iCARe^® family: iCARe^® 420 Save which combines low losses with improved and guaranteed yield strength, resulting in an increase in the power density and energy efficiency of electric traction motors.

New iCARe^® 420 Save family released

The iCARe^® range already includes three families of electrical steels for different applications. The steels in the iCARe^® Speed family offer the highest mechanical strength, making them ideal for compact, high-speed rotors with higher power density. But to obtain these high mechanical strength values, the magnetic power losses of ArcelorMittal’s iCARe^® Speed grades are slightly impacted. For this reason, iCARe^® Speed grades are only approved for rotor applications in synchronous machines.

To overcome this limitation, a new iCARe^® family was recently launched by ArcelorMittal. Known as
iCARe^® 420 Save, the new grades are low loss electrical steels which have an improved guaranteed yield strength of
420 megapascals (MPa).