FeSiBCCr amorphous powders were produced by a novel gas–water combined atomization process, and the corresponding MPCs (magnetic powder cores) were subsequently fabricated by phosphating treatment (0.4~1.6 wt.%), cold pressing (550~2350 MPa), and annealing (423~773 K), respectively. The results showed that the powders had high circularity, excellent thermal stability (ΔT = 59 K), and high saturation magnetization (0.83 T), which could provide raw powders for high-performance MPCs. With increasing phosphoric acid concentrations, despite the increase in DC-bias%, the uniformity of the insulation layers deteriorated, which led to a decrease in permeability and an increase in core loss. With increasing compaction pressures, the core loss increased continuously, and the permeability and DC-bias% first increased and then decreased. When annealing below the crystallization temperature, with increasing annealing temperatures, the permeability increased, and the core loss and DC-bias% decreased continuously. Under the optimized process of 0.4 wt.% phosphating concentration, 550 MPa pressure, and 773 K annealing temperature, the MPCs had a permeability of 21.54 ± 1.21, DC-bias% of 90.3 ± 0.2, and a core loss (B_m = 50 mT, f = 100 kHz) of 103.0 ± 26.3 mW cm⁻³. The MPCs had excellent high-frequency low-loss characteristics and showed great application potential under the development trends of high current, high power, and high frequency of electronic components.

FeSiAl is a commonly used soft magnetic material because of its high resistivity, low core loss, and low cost. In order to systematically study the effect of epoxy resin (EP) on the insulated coating and pressing effect of FeSiAl magnetic powders, six groups of composite powders and their corresponding soft magnetic powder cores (SMPCs) were prepared by changing the content of EP, and the soft magnetic properties of the powders and SMPCs were characterized. The results showed that FeSiAl powders exhibited good sphericity and morphology. The M_s of FeSiAl/EP composite powders was between 117.4–124.8 emu·g⁻¹ after adding (0.3, 0.5, 0.7, 1, 1.5, and 2 wt. %) EP. The permeability μ_e of SMPCs increased first and then decreased with the increase in EP content. Among them, when the EP content was 1 wt. %, the corresponding SMPCs had the highest μ_e and excellent DC bias performance (63%, 100 Oe). In the whole test frequency range (50~1000 kHz), SMPCs with 1 wt. % EP content had the lowest core loss (1733.9 mW·cm⁻³ at 20 mT and 1000 kHz). After that, the loss separation study in the low-frequency range (50~250 kHz) was conducted, and the hysteresis loss and eddy current loss of SMPCs with 1 wt. % EP content were also the lowest. In addition, SMPCs also exhibited the best overall performance when the EP content was 1 wt. %. The results of this study can guide the design of composite insulation coating schemes and promote the development of soft magnetic materials for medium and high frequency applications.

A three-dimensional numerical model combining electromagnetic field, fluid flow, heat transfer, and solidification has been established to study the effect of nozzle injection mode and mold electromagnetic stirring (M-EMS) on the internal quality of a continuously cast bloom. The model is validated by measured data of the magnetic flux density along the stirrer center line. According to the simulation and experimental results, M-EMS can introduce a horizontal swirling flow ahead of the solidification front, promoting the superheat dissipation of molten steel and columnar to equiaxed transition (CET). As the stirring current increases from 0 to 800 A, the superheat at the mold exit in the bloom center decreases by 1.9 K for the single-port nozzle case and 3.8 K for the five-port nozzle case. The resulting increase in the equiaxed crystal ratio is about 5.65% and 4.06%, respectively. In comparison, the injection mode shows a more significant influence on the heat transfer and solidification structure in the bloom under the present casting conditions. The superheat at the mold exit in the bloom center decreases by 5.1–7.7 K as the injection mode changes from a single-port nozzle to a five-port nozzle, and the increase in the equiaxed crystal ratio ranges between 14.8% and 17%. It is found that the flow velocity of the molten steel in front of the solidification interface for the five-port nozzle is higher than that for the single-port nozzle regardless of the M-EMS power. The washing effect here reinforces both the heat exchange through the solidification interface and the dendrite re-melting or fragmenting, stimulating the formation of an equiaxed crystal at the bloom center. In addition, it is observed that both the central shrinkage and carbon segregation have decreased with the five-port nozzle plus M-EMS. This suggests that the combined application of a five-port nozzle and M-EMS can effectively improve the internal quality of large bloom castings.

The new generation of high-frequency and high-efficiency motors has high demands on the soft magnetic properties, mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of its core materials. Bulk amorphous and nanocrystalline alloys not only meet its performance requirements but also conform to the current technical concept of integrated forming. At present, spark plasma sintering (SPS) is expected to break through the cooling-capacity limitation of traditional casting technology with high possibility to fabricate bulk metallic glasses (BMGs). In this study, Fe₈₄Si₇B₅C₂Cr₂ soft magnetic amorphous powders with high sphericity were prepared by a new atomization technology, and its characteristic temperature was measured by DSC to determine the SPS temperature. The SEM, XRD, VSM and universal testing machine were used to analyze the compacts at different sintering temperatures. The results show that the powders cannot be consolidated by cold pressing (50 and 500 MPa) or SPS temperature below 753 K (glass transition temperature T_g = 767 K), and the tap density is only 4.46 g·cm⁻³. When SPS temperature reached above 773 K, however, the compact could be prepared smoothly, and the density, saturation magnetization, coercivity and compressive strength of the compacts increased with the elevated sintering temperature. In addition, due to superheating, crystallization occurred even when the sintering temperature was lower than 829 K (with the first crystallization onset temperature being T_x1 = 829 K). The compact was almost completely crystallized at 813 K, resulting in a sharp increase in the coercivity of the compact from 55.55 A·m⁻¹ at 793 K to 443.17 A·m⁻¹. It is noted that the nanocrystals kept growing in size as the temperature increased to 833 K, which increased the coercivity remarkably but showed an enhanced saturation magnetization.