Influence of the Welding Process on the Performance of Slotless PM Motors With SiFe and NiFe Stator Laminations

The influence of the welding process during the manufacturing of small slotless permanent-magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs) is studied in this paper. The focus lies on the change of the magnetic properties in high-quality silicon-iron (SiFe) and nickel-iron (NiFe) electrical steel sheets with thicknesses of 0.1 and 0.2 mm. It is shown that the welding process changes the magnetic material properties significantly and increases the specific iron losses. Experimental results are provided for magnetic flux densities up to 1.5 T and frequencies from quasi-static to 200 Hz. The obtained measurement data is afterward used in finite-element method (FEM) simulations to investigate the influence of the magnetic property changes on the motor performance, particularly with regard to stator core losses.