Project Brief
General Competition (December 1992)Thick Ductile Metallic Glass for Electric Power ApplicationsDevelop new rapid-solidification casting technology to produce thick ribbons of metallic glass sufficiently ductile to be used in high-power electric transformers and motors to reduce wasteful power loss. Sponsor: Honeywell, Inc. (formerly AlliedSignal, Inc.)P.O. Box 1021Morristown, NJ 07962
Electric utility transformers and motors are perhaps even more ubiquitous in modern life than microcomputers, so any technology which improves their efficiency has the potential for major savings in lower energy costs, reducing environmental impact, and reducing dependence on foreign energy sources. Various estimates place the annual energy loss in transformers and motors from $5.7 to $10 billion per year in the United States. One advanced technology that can significantly improve transformer and motor efficiency is the use of metallic glass ribbon for the core material. One of the new advanced materials, metallic glasses are formed by cooling molten metals so quickly -- at rates approaching 1,000,000 degrees per second -- that they solidify before they can form the characteristic crystalline structure of metals, and so have an amorphous structure similar to window glass. This amorphous structure accounts for a number of electrical and magnetic characteristics that greatly improve the efficiency of motors and transformers. Unfortunately, at the state-of-the-art, metallic glass thicker than about 25 micrometers becomes too brittle to be fabricated into large motors and transformer cores. This restricts the use to relatively low-power distribution transformers. The brittleness of thicker metallic glass ribbons is thought to be related to the solidification process. AlliedSignal proposes a detailed study of the solidification kinetics of thick ribbons to determine how the cooling profile could be altered to produce more ductile material. Planar flow casting and quenching techniques, surface modification treatments, and possibly new alloys will then be developed to produce the required properties. Metallic glass samples will be produced for testing, and a prototype section of a power transformer will be constructed.
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