Use of the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) technique for determination of the composition of final phosphate coatings on grain-oriented electrical steel

Abstract Electrical steels are highly specialised, magnetically soft materials, used to form the cores that carry the magnetic flux in electrical machines such as motors, generators and transformers. The steel strip is coated with a phosphate-based solution, which, on curing, provides an electrically insulating layer that also imparts a tension onto the strip. It has previously been shown that the magnetic losses of the material are affected by the ratio of phosphate and silica within the coating solution [O. Tanaka, H. Kobayashi, E. Minematsu, New insulating coating for grain-oriented electrical steel, J. Mater. Eng. 13 (1991) 161–168.]. It would therefore be highly beneficial to possess an analytical technique that can be used to accurately and rapidly determine the composition of this coating. This paper details the evaluation of the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) technique for this purpose. Analysing each of the important constituents separately enabled their specific absorption bands to be identified, and laboratory trials produced spectra that exhibited a good agreement with theoretical predictions. Analysis of samples coated under production conditions was found to be more challenging due to the detection of an underlying forsterite layer. However, there is potential for FTIR analysis when using regions of the spectra that were unaffected by this compound.