Designation: A 712 – 97 An American National Standard

AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR TESTING AND MATERIALS

100 Barr Harbor Dr., West Conshohocken, PA 19428
Reprinted from the Annual Book of ASTM Standards. Copyright ASTM

Standard Test Method for

Electrical Resistivity of Soft Magnetic Alloys1
This standard is issued under the fixed designation A 712; the number immediately following the designation indicates the year of
original adoption or, in the case of revision, the year of last revision. A number in parentheses indicates the year of last reapproval. A
superscript epsilon (e) indicates an editorial change since the last revision or reapproval.

1. Scope 6.2 It shall have a minimum length of 0.25 m. Strip

1.1 This test method covers the measurement of electrical specimens preferably should have a uniform width of 0.03 m
resistivity of strip or bar specimens of soft magnetic alloys. minimum, unless not available.
1.2 This standard does not purport to address all of the 6.2.1 If width of the strip material to be sampled prevents
safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the obtaining a sample of 0.03-m minimum width, the specimen
responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appro- width to be used shall be the maximum obtainable and shall be
priate safety and health practices and determine the applica- agreed upon between the manufacturer and the purchaser.
bility of regulatory limitations prior to use. 6.2.2 Bars and wires having circular, rectangular, or other
1.3 The values are stated only in SI units and are to be sections shall be used in the sectional dimensions as produced,
regarded as standard. unless they are so large as to require cutting a representative
sample of suitable dimensions.
2. Referenced Documents 6.3 It shall be free of obvious surface defects.
2.1 ASTM Standards: 6.4 The surface shall be cleaned by wiping with a cloth. Oil
A 34 Practice for Sampling and Procurement Testing of and grease, if present on the surface, shall be removed with a
Magnetic Materials2 suitable solvent. Normal surface oxide or core plating need not
be removed except in areas in which it is necessary to make
3. Summary of Test Method satisfactory electrical contact.
3.1 The electrical resistance of a 0.25-m long (minimum)
7. Procedure
test specimen is measured with a Kelvin-type resistance bridge
or a digital multimeter or the potentiometer-ammeter method. 7.1 Measure the electrical resistance of the test specimen
The resistivity is then calculated from the resistance measure- using a Kelvin-type resistance bridge or a digital multimeter or
ment and the dimensions of the specimen and is known as the potentiometer-ammeter system having separate current and
electrical resistivity of the material. This value is equal to the potential leads.
resistance between opposite faces of a cube of unit dimensions. 7.2 The distance between each potential lead contact and the
corresponding current lead contact shall be at least twice the
4. Apparatus width of the test specimen with the two potential contacts lying
4.1 Kelvin-type resistance bridge or a digital multimeter or between the current contacts. The distance between the poten-
a d-c potentiometer and d-c ammeter providing resistance tial contacts shall be not less than 0.12 m.
measurements to an accuracy within 0.5 % of the accepted true 7.3 The dimension of each potential contact in the direction
value. of the length of the specimen shall be not more than 0.5 % of
the distance between potential contacts.
5. Sampling 7.4 The contacts to the specimen shall be located centrally
5.1 Samples shall be representative of the material in the with respect to the specimen’s width dimension, and the
physical condition as shipped or agreed upon by the manufac- current contacts shall cover more than 80 % of the width. A
turer and the purchaser. reliable contact shall be made with the specimen by both the
current and potential leads.
6. Test Specimen 7.5 Specimen temperature during test should be about 25°C.
6.1 The test specimen shall be a straight strip or bar or wire 7.6 To eliminate errors as a result of contact potential, take
of substantially uniform cross-sectional area. two readings, one direct and one with the current reversed, in
close succession.
1
This test method is under the jurisdiction of ASTM Committee A-6 on 7.7 The electrical current in the test specimen must be
Magnetic Properties and is the direct responsibility of Subcommittee A06.01on Test limited to avoid overheating but must be adequate to provide
Methods. sufficient sensitivity to show an out-of-balance condition when
Current edition approved Oct. 10, 1997. Published December 1998. Originally
the resistance reading is changed 0.5 % of the value recorded.
published as A 712 - 75. Last previous edition A 712 - 75.
2
Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Vol 03.04. If the current is too low, sensitivity is low also, and a balance

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 A 712
can be shown for a broad range of resistance. r 5 electrical resistivity of the material, V · m;
R 5 resistance of electrical path, V;
8. Calculation A 5 cross-sectional area of electrical path, m2; and
8.1 Strip Specimens: l2 5 length of electrical path between potential contacts on
8.1.1 Determine the average cross-sectional area of the test the test specimen, m.
specimen from the weight, length, and density as follows: 8.4 The resistivity units in ohm-metres shown in Eq 2 can
be converted to microhm-centimetres by multiplying the ohm-
A 5 m/ld (1)
metre figure by 108 microhm-centimetres per ohm-metre. For
where: example, if the resistivity is 0.25 3 10−6 V · m;
A 5 cross-sectional area of test specimen, m2; 0.25 3 10−6 3 108 µV · cm/V · m is equal to 25 µV · cm.
m 5 mass of test specimen, kg;
l 5 length of test specimen, m; and NOTE 1—The resistivities of commercial soft magnetic alloys are
d 5 density of test specimen, kg/m3, determined in accor- shown in Annex A1.
dance with Practice A 34.
9. Precision and Bias
8.1.2 Eq 1 assumes a negligible mass of any coating
material. 9.1 Although no rigorous interlaboratory comparisons of
8.2 Bar and Wire Specimens—The cross-sectional area of Test Method A 712 have been performed, it is estimated that
the test specimen shall be based on direct measurements with the reproducibility standard deviation is no greater than 2 % of
a micrometer or caliper. the mean.
8.3 Calculate resistivity from the measured value of electri- 9.2 The bias of Test Method A 712 is believed to be zero.
cal resistance and the cross-sectional area as follows:
r 5 RA/l2 (2) 10. Keywords
10.1 electrical resistivity; magnetic alloy; potentiometer-
where: ammeter; resistance bridge

ANNEX

(Mandatory Information)

A1. RESISTIVITIES

A1.1 This test method assumes the establishment of a points and the resistance of the four leads to the specimen are
uniform current density along the test specimen throughout the not a part of the required R and are usually negligible portions
region between the potential contacts. The current contacts of the corresponding components of the bridge system.
should be in the form of transverse clamps covering at least A1.1.3 Digital multimeters used for measuring resistance in
80 % and preferably the entire width of the specimen. The the range required for this test method will be equipped for
potential contacts can be either knife edge or point contacts. four-wire ohm measurements. In the four-wire method, a
A1.1.1 If a potentiometer is used, a suitable d-c source and controlled source current is applied to the resistance to be
ammeter are required to establish and measure the total current measured via the current leads, and the voltage drop is sensed
in the specimen, which should be limited to avoid excessive across the potential (or sense) leads. Since the input resistance
heating. The required R is then the ratio of the measured of the digital multimeter is very large (typically greater than 10
potential drop to the measured current. When the potentiometer MV), the contact resistance between the sense leads and the
is balanced, no current flows in the potential leads so that any specimen and the resistance of the leads do not affect the
contact resistance at the potential points is of no consequence. measurement.
A1.1.2 The Kelvin bridge is calibrated to read directly the
resistance between the potential points without knowledge of A1.2 Typical resistivities of iron-silicon-aluminum alloy
the current in the specimen. Contact resistance at the potential steel sheets are shown in Fig. A1.1 and other soft magnetic

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 A 712

NOTE 1—The linear equation for the graph in this figure is as follows:
r 5 0.1325 3 10−6 + 0.113 (percent silicon + percent aluminum) 3 10 −6 V · m
where r 5 electrical resistivity in ohm-metres at approximately 25°C. The equation is based on the average line drawn through many test points obtained
on commercial grades of electrical steels of various compositions. Individual tests may show departures from the average line, which is shown in equation
and graphical form for general use and guidance. The intercept constant 0.1325 applies only to steels having alloying elements over about 0.15 %. As
the percentage of alloying elements decreases to low values, the intercept constant decreases, approaching the value of about 0.107.
FIG. A1.1 Electrical Resistivities Versus Composition of Commercial Grades of Electrical Steels

carbon, silicon-iron, or silicon-aluminum-iron alloys contain-

alloys in Table A1.1. Commercial electrical steels are low- ing up to 3.5 % silicon and only a small amount of aluminum.

TABLE A1.1 Electrical Resistivity of Soft Magnetic Alloys of Nickel, Chromium, and Iron
Typical Electrical
General Composition General Name
Resistivity, V· m
36 % Nickel, balance iron 0.82 3 10−6 Invar
45 % Nickel, balance iron 0.53 45 Permalloy
48 % Nickel, balance iron 0.48 High Perm, 49; 4750
52 % Nickel, balance iron 0.43 52 Alloy
65 % Nickel, balance iron 0.22 65 Permalloy
77 % Nickel, 5 % copper, 2.6 % chromium, 0.60 Mumetal
balance iron
78.5 % Nickel, balance iron 0.16 78 Permalloy
80 % Nickel, 4 % molybdenum, balance iron 0.58 4–79 Permalloy; Hy Mu 80
80 % Nickel, 5 % molybdenum, balance iron 0.60 5–79 Permalloy; Hy Mu 800 Supermalloy
17 % Chromium, balance iron 0.61 Stainless Type 430

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