NIPPON STEEL TECHNICAL REPORT No.

122 November 2019

UDC 629 . 113 . 6 : 669 . 14 . 018 : 583

Technical Report

Non-oriented Electrical Steel Sheet and Its Application

Technology for the Traction Motors of Hybrid/Electrical Vehicles
Hiroshi FUJIMURA* Ryu HIRAYAMA
Kiyoshi WAJIMA Shuichi YAMAZAKI

Abstract
Non-oriented electrical steel (NO) is widely used as a motor core material since, economi-
cally, it meets requirements for high-efficiency, high-power motors. The market for hybrid elec-
trical vehicles (HEV) and electrical vehicles (EV) has been expanding and the models of HEV/
EV have been increasing; thus, performance requirements of NO for traction motor cores have
diversified. In this paper, we introduce newly developed NOs and its application technology.

1. Introduction cient compared to other types of motors for other applications (refer
Vehicles in the 21st century need to be environment friendly. To to Fig. 1).
reduce gas emissions that contribute to global warming and improve In order to increase the torque of a motor, it is important to pass
fuel efficiency, the hybrid technology to combine an engine and a larger driving current through the motor windings and increase the
electric motor was developed, and, in 1997, the world-first mass- magnetic flux that interlinks with the windings. The electrical steel
produced hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) were put on the market. sheet used needs to have high magnetic flux density for a given
The mass production of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) magnetic field intensity, that is to say, high permeability. An effec-
and electric vehicles (EVs) whose percentage of electricity use was tive way to increase the magnetic flux is to narrow the clearance be-
higher began. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates 1) tween the rotor and stator to reduce the magnetic resistance. Thus,
that approximately 10% of passenger vehicles and other types of ve- electrical steel sheets need to have excellent workability.
hicles will be EVs in 2030.
Traction motors for electric vehicles such as HEVs, PHEVs, and
EVs (hereinafter EV traction motors) are the key parts of the drive
mechanism that takes the place of engines. Electrical steel sheets are
an important functional material type that significantly improve the
EVs’ drive performance and fuel efficiency as iron core materials.
This paper describes the latest electrical steel sheets (materials) that
support higher performance of EV traction motors along with tech-
nologies for using them.

2. Requirements for Electrical Steel Sheets for EV

Traction Motors
EV traction motors, unlike general motors, need to have high
torque performance for start-up and climbing hills and high-speed
rotation characteristics in driving at maximum speed. They also
need to be highly efficient in the speed range in which the vehicles
are most frequently driven. In addition, for HEVs, it is important
that a motor can be installed in a limited space, so EV traction mo- Fig. 1 Performance requirements for electrical steel sheet for drive mo-
tors need to be smaller and lighter and they need to be highly effi- tors of EV/HEV

* Chief Researcher, Dr. Engineering, Electrical Steel Sheet Research Lab., Steel Research Laboratories
20-1 Shintomi, Futtsu City, Chiba Pref. 293-8511

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 NIPPON STEEL TECHNICAL REPORT No. 122 November 2019

The output of a motor is expressed as the product of the torque B50 (the flux density under a magnetizing force of 5 000 A/m) has
and rotational speed of the motor. Therefore, to reduce the motor been improved at the same level of iron loss for higher motor torque.
size, it is effective to increase the rotational speed. As the rotational Figure 3 shows example analysis results of the iron loss of motors
speed increases, the frequency of the driving current rises. There- using thin NO developed for EV traction motors. This analysis model
fore, the iron loss of an electrical steel sheet under high-frequency is a benchmark of interior permanent magnet (IPM) motors deter-
excitation must be low. In addition, motors are excited by inverters, mined by the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. 6) Figure 3
so the iron loss at carrier frequency (high frequency) needs to be clearly shows that, for the thin NO, the higher the motor’s rotational
low. When a motor is run at a high speed, large centrifugal force speed is, the higher the iron loss reduction effect is as compared with
works, so electrical steel sheets used for rotors need to be highly conventional materials.
strong. Figure 4 shows the magnetic and mechanical properties of the
To improve fuel efficiency in an effective way, it is important to high-tensile electrical steel sheet series (HIGH TENSILE
reduce the iron loss and improve the magnetizing properties in the STRENGTH HILITECORE ™ HXT) suitable for use in high-speed
most frequently used drive range (intermediate-level magnetic flux rotors. Although the iron loss at high frequency (W10/400) (iron loss
density and frequency). On the traction motor of an HEV, if the mo- under excitation of 1.0 T and 400 Hz) is inferior to that of general-
tor runs idle without drive current while the vehicle is driven by the purpose steel materials, the tensile strength is 1.5 times that of gen-
internal combustion engine, low iron loss is more important for eral-purpose steel materials. They are used for commercially avail-
minimizing the power loss during idle running. able EV traction motors. Nippon Steel has also been developing
high-tensile NO whose iron loss is reduced to the level of general-
3. Electrical Steel Sheets Suitable for EV Traction purpose steel materials. 7) The developed high-tensile NO is suitable
Motors for the rotor cores of IPM motors although its iron loss is somewhat
Besides electrical steel sheets, sheets of 6.5%Si steel, a Co-Fe inferior. It is difficult to narrow the width of a rotor bridge that re-
alloy, and a Ni-Fe alloy are also used as the materials for motor tains a permanent magnet from the perspective of durability at high-
cores. However, few of them satisfy the technical characteristics re- speed rotation. Using high-tensile NO can make design with nar-
quired for EV traction motors more economically and in a better- rower bridge width possible, which improves the efficiency of mo-
balanced way than electrical steel sheets do. Therefore, non-oriented tors 8) (see Table 1). This is mainly because, among magnetic flux,
electrical steel sheets (NO) are actually used for motors. Grain-ori- leakage flux to the bridge section is reduced, which increases the
ented electrical steel sheets (GO) may be used, but special meas­ motor torque constant, which reduces copper loss.
ures 2) have to be taken depending on the properties of the materials.
Usually, to reduce the iron loss of NO, the contents of alloying
elements (e.g., Si) are increased and the thickness is reduced to sup-
press eddy currents in steel sheets. However, a higher alloying con-
tent reduces the saturation magnetic flux density at the same time
and thinner sheets reduce the productivity of cores. Therefore, prod-
ucts need to be developed while these effects are balanced. For ex-
ample, to satisfy both low iron loss and high magnetic flux density,
it is effective to adjust the alloying contents and to control the crys-
tal orientations 3, 4) and grain size. 5)
Nippon Steel Corporation has been developing a new series of
non-oriented electrical steel sheets that satisfy requirements as elec-
trical sheets for HEV/EV traction motors. Figure 2 shows example
magnetic properties of the developed product series of high-efficien-
cy non-oriented electrical steel sheets (HIEXCORE ™ and THIN- Fig. 3 Iron loss analysis of the model motor in load operation
NER GAUGE HIEXCORE ™ HX) in which magnetic flux density

Fig. 2 Magnetic properties of THINNER GAUGE HIEXCORE ™ for Fig. 4 Magnetic and mechanical strength properties of HIGH TEN-
high efficiency motor SILE STRENGTH HILITECORE ™ HXT

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NIPPON STEEL TECHNICAL REPORT No. 122 November 2019

Table 1 Plastic deformation limit rotational speed and motor efficiency

as a bridge width of rotor core

Rotor core YS Brige width Speed* Efficiency**

material (MPa) (mm) (rpm) (%)
320 0.5 17 000 91.8
35A300
320 1.0 25 000 91.1
35HXT680T 659 0.5 25 000 91.6
*
Result of deformation analysis by 3D-
FEM
**
Result of motor load experiment at
5 400 rpm
Fig. 6 Factors in real motor core to increase iron loss

Fig. 7 Iron loss deterioration in motor manufacturing process

Fig. 5 Punching workability of electrical steel sheet

L coating is chromite based insulating coating with organic resin.
G coating is phosphate based insulating coating with organic resin.

4. Environment-friendly Insulating Coatings for

Electrical Steel Sheets with Excellent Punching
Workability
A non-oriented electrical steel sheet used for motor cores has an
insulating coating with a thickness of 1 to 2 μm formed on the sur-
face to make punching easier and to prevent inter-laminar short cir-
cuiting. To that end, organic/inorganic coatings (named L coating by
Nippon Steel) containing trivalent chromium compounds and or-
ganic resin have been used for more than 40 years around the
world. 9) Meanwhile, in recent years, awareness of the environment Fig. 8 Effect of punching processing on motor core loss
has been growing as represented by the RoHS in Europe. Therefore,
Nippon Steel has developed new environment-friendly insulating iron loss work on an electric steel sheet as shown in Fig. 6. These
coating, G coating, that does not contain chromium compounds. G factors are: (1) uneven magnetic flux originating in the core struc-
coating provides higher insulation resistance than conventional coat- ture; (2) rotational magnetic flux; (3) compressive stress due to de-
ings containing chromium compounds. They have various other ad- formation by punching and shrink-fitting of the core; (4) space har-
vantages, for example, excellent punching workability as shown in monics; (5) time harmonics caused by the power supply or other
Fig. 5. In addition to this, they resist heat and solvents well since factors; (6) superposition of the magnetic flux due to the magnet or
coatings sometimes need to have resistance in actual service envi- the magnetic field from the windings; (7) uneven temperatures, and
ronments. (8) inter-laminar short circuits at the clumped section. 10–24)
Among the aforementioned iron-loss-increasing factors, plastic
5. Electrical Steel Sheet Application Technologies to deformation and compressive stress are unavoidably introduced to
Support the Performance of EV Traction Motors the motor core during the motor core manufacturing processes
In accordance with international standard measurement method shown in Fig. 7 and they significantly increase iron loss. We fabri-
IEC 60404-2, the magnetic properties of an electrical steel sheet are cated a stator core with an outer diameter of 120 mm and 24 slots by
measured under ideal conditions of a uniform alternating magnetic punching and wirecut electrical discharge machining that would not
field in a prescribed one direction, no stress, and a sinusoidal mag- cause deformation as a result of processing. Figure 8 shows iron
netic flux density. However, in reality, various factors that increase loss 11) measured by our unique rotating iron loss simulator. 12) The

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 NIPPON STEEL TECHNICAL REPORT No. 122 November 2019

figure shows that, although the increase in iron loss differs depend- magnetic field analysis can be used to find an appropriate combina-
ing on the type of steel sheet, the core iron loss increases as a result tion of the shape of a core and magnetic anisotropy.
of deformation by punching. In addition, EV traction motors and high-efficiency air condi-
tioner motors are driven by power supplied from inverters. It is im-
6. Electromagnetic Field Analysis Considering Fac- portant in motor electromagnetic field analysis under actual service
tors That Increase Iron Loss 20) conditions to consider influence of excitation by complicated mag-
In recent high-efficiency motor design, models using complicat- netic flux density when harmonics from an inverter superpose on
ed magnetic circuits are mainstream (e.g., interior permanent mag- space harmonics from the motor. Ring samples (outer diameter: 47
net), so the finite element method and other electromagnetic field mm, inner diameter: 33 mm, and core thickness: 7 mm) for which
analysis methods are generally used. Considering the aforemen- electrical steel sheets in four steel grades (35A210, 35A300,
tioned factors that increase iron loss in such motor analysis, the mo- 50A470, and 50A1300) were used as iron cores were made. They
tor performance can be estimated at high accuracy and factors that were excited by complicated magnetic flux density that was equiva-
deteriorate loss of motors and other properties can be efficiently lent to that in the actual service state of motor cores to measure iron
identified along with effects of countermeasures. loss. The values were compared with those calculated using Nippon
Table 2 compares the iron loss measurement result when a stator Steel’s electromagnetic field analysis technique. Figure 10 is a scat-
core that was made by punching a 50H270 material was tested with ter diagram showing the comparison results when the pulse width
a rotating iron loss simulator 12) with the core iron loss value calcu- modulation of the inverter when many harmonics contents are con-
lated by an electromagnetic field analysis technique of Nippon tained is 0.4. 21) Regardless of the steel grade and waveform originat-
Steel. 14) They match well, showing that the analysis technique is ap- ing in the space harmonics, the calculated results match the meas­
propriate. Next, this analysis technique was applied to calculate iron ured values at a high accuracy of 5%, showing that the technique is
loss considering all of the following: the influence of magnetic an- accurate in practice. This technique may contribute, in addition to
isotropy of an electrical steel sheet; 22, 23) deformation due to process- adoption of a model that can evaluate the influence of eddy currents
ing; 24) and space harmonics. Each influential factor was excluded that harmonics induce in an electrical steel sheet, to achieving high
one by one to calculate the core iron loss in a state simulating the accuracy of iron loss analysis and high measurement accuracy of
ideal state.
Figure 9 14) shows the increase in iron loss (%) caused by each of
the analysis conditions when assuming that the difference in iron
loss between the ideal state and the case where all of the three iron-
loss-increasing factors are considered is 100%. The figure shows
that the influence of deformation due to processing is the largest,
which indicates that annealing to remove deformation of a core can
significantly improve iron loss. The influence of the harmonics
comes second. The influence of the anisotropy of the material is
rather small at approximately 10% for this motor core. However, for
a stator core for an EV/HEV, a segment core may sometimes be
used. In such a case, the influence on the iron loss value may be
larger depending on the relationship between the main flux of the
core and the magnetic anisotropy of the electric steel sheet. Electro-

Table 2 Calculated value and an experimental value of motor core loss

Experimental Calculation
Fig. 10 Measured and calculated iron losses excited by PWM voltage
Motor core loss (W/kg) 0.24 0.25 waveform, modulation ratio 0.4

Fig. 9 Analysis for iron loss in motor core with various conditions

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magnetic properties input to the electromagnetic field analysis. 8. Conclusions

This paper introduced the development of non-oriented electrical
7. Improvement of the Traceability of Magnetic Prop- steel sheets for traction motors for HEVs and EVs along with stud-
erty Measurement of Electrical Steel Sheets Aiming ies on technologies for using such sheets. To realize high-efficiency
at the Global Market motors with high power density, thinning electrical steel sheets, in-
Energy saving through motorized vehicles and spread of high- creasing their tension, and applying insulating coatings with excel-
efficiency air conditioners is a global movement, so the percentage lent workability are effective measures. In addition, the performance
of high-performance non-oriented electrical steel sheets traded on of motors is affected by the service environment. Therefore, it is im-
the global market may rise. Typical magnetic properties of electrical portant in technologies for using electrical steel sheets to consider
steel sheets are iron loss (W/kg) and magnetic polarization (T) eval- measures to improve the performance of equipment by clarifying
uated by measurement methods specified in the IEC standards. De- types of loss of motors and their causes using various analysis and
signers in motor manufactures select NO materials suitable for the evaluation techniques.
development of high-efficiency motors while referring to magnetic
properties listed in catalogs issued by electrical steel sheet manufac- References
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Hiroshi FUJIMURA Kiyoshi WAJIMA

Chief Researcher, Dr. Engineering Chief Researcher
Electrical Steel Sheet Research Lab. Instrumentation & Control Research Lab.
Steel Research Laboratories Process Research Laboratories
20-1 Shintomi, Futtsu City, Chiba Pref. 293-8511

Ryu HIRAYAMA Shuichi YAMAZAKI

Chief Researcher, Dr. Environmental Studies Specialized Senior Manager
Instrumentation & Control Research Lab. Material Properties Evaluation Div.
Process Research Laboratories Nippon Steel Technology Co., Ltd.

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