Moldable Iron Powder

Tim Wescott · 2009-11-23T18:41:46+00:00

A long-term back-burner project just got my attention when I found out that Home Depot sells magnetic paint.The project is a levitating globe thingie, designed as a control systems trainer that lets the student program the control rules in C and see how different control strategies lead to different sorts of system performance.The paint got me thinking -- if they can make latex paint with iron powder in it, can I buy some sort of plastic resin with iron powder in it and make my own custom magnetics on the cheap?So: does anyone know of an iron-powder/epoxy (or whatever) mix out there that you can buy, or an iron powder material that you can mix with your own resin to mold soft magnetic materials out of?I'm looking to build some cores, and maybe have some made at a low volume if the prototypes work. I do _not_ need super high permeability -- the air gap in this is so big that according to the FEA program I'm using there's not much difference between core material with a relative permeability in the hundreds vs. iron (with relative permeability in the thousands).Thanks.--

Nov 23, 2009 41 Replies

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Jerry Avins 16 years ago

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

Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get. ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

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Jerry Avins 16 years ago

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

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Jerry

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