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Iron core chokes (instead of ferrite & iron powder)
From: Adam[SMTP:absmith-at-tiac-dot-net]
Sent: Thursday, November 27, 1997 4:58 PM
To: tesla list
Subject: Iron core chokes (instead of ferrite & iron powder)
I know a lot of people are using ferrite and iron powder for chokes, but
why not iron? I understand that ferrite and iron powder are used in RF
applications because they are less conductive than iron (by many orders
of magnitude) so that eddy current losses are kept to a minimum.
The question is, are these eddy current losses relevant in our particular
application (RF chokes)? We are not trying to make highly efficient RF
transformers here, so shouldn't laminated iron cores be acceptable? They
would need to be very well insulated, of course, but this is fairly easy
to do with just polyethylene. Will the eddy currents be severe enough at
100-200kHz or so that the core would be heated or otherwise compromised?
In short, what's wrong with insulated iron laminate cores for the tesla
choke application?
I ask because I have very little ferrite and iron powder materials at
hand (except TV flyback U cores), but loads of E and I laminations from
regular 60Hz transformers, some quite large.
-Adam
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absmith-at-tiac-dot-net
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