Moldable Iron Powder

--Hey speaking of doing stuff with metal powders have you seen Bathsheba's process description yet?

Many years ago, the ferrite factory for which I worked used oxide from the steel mills as a raw material. I was told there were mountains of the stuff in West Virginia. To be usable for magnetics, the oxide would have to be fired in a cycle that included high temperatures and witchcraft.

Kevin Gallimore

Zone refine. Melted in a magnetic field and the field is moved slowly towards an end - moving impurities with it.

Expensive refining but quality product. Similar to that of a semiconductor process. Likely from the ferrite business.

Mart> Wild_Bill wrote:

and a further reply - iron powders are used in spray-metal applications but at a price

I've often wished that someone would make enameled soft iron "winding" wire. Then I could reverse the process - make up an arbitrarily complex winding on a simple bobbin, then wind the iron onto the copper "toroid" (all in a single pass of course). Tony

Then I could

bobbin, then wind

Why enameled? The black oxide on soft-annealed iron wire is usually sufficient insulation to suppress eddy currents.

Jerry

Annealed oxide-coated iron wire is used by jewelers to hold assemblies together for soldering. Solder won't flow on it.