ferrite series

When you hear “ferrite series”, many people immediately imagine just conveyor stamping of identical products. But in reality, especially in our segment - mining equipment - the serialization of ferrite components is always a balance between strict standards and constant adjustment to the actual conditions at the site. A common mistake is to assume that once a ferrite product has gone into production, all problems are solved. Quite the opposite: this is where the fun begins.

What actually lies behind the ?serial? ferrite

Let's take, for example, the magnetic separators that we assemble for processing plants. The core is not just a piece of hardware. Its magnetic permeability, temperature stability, losses - all this should not only be within the GOST tolerance, but should behave predictably after 5000 hours of continuous vibration in a dusty workshop. Whenferrite seriesstarts, we always set at least three control points during production. Not for show, but because the raw material, the same iron oxide, may have microvariations from batch to batch. And if this is not tracked, the entire series may end up with a slightly shifted Curie point. The client will then wonder why the separator in Siberia and Kazakhstan behaves differently at the same temperature.

At our site in Fushun, which is 140 thousand square meters, underferrite seriesNot just lines, but entire technological corridors are allocated. Why? Because after sintering, the cores must cool down not just anyhow, but according to a certain schedule. Previously, they tried to speed up the process by forced cooling - it would seem logical. But in the series this led to microcracks, which were revealed only at the stage of assembly into units. The losses were colossal. We returned to the old, “slow” method. Sometimes progress is just a well-forgotten but controlled old thing.

And here it is important to mentionLONGI Corporation. In thirty years, since 1993, the company has gone from development to the largest manufacturer. And when they talk about serial production, for example, 4000 units of equipment per year, this means that everyferrite seriesfor their separators or drives, this is not an abstract figure. These are specific molds, annealing schedules, and selective destructive testing protocols. On their websiteljmagnet.ruYou can find technical bulletins, but they do not convey the main thing - the smell of machine oil in the workshop where these cores are packed in boxes with a rigid coupling so that they do not break during transportation to the quarries.

Practical pitfalls when moving from a pilot batch to a series

One of the key pitfalls is scaling the sintering regime. In the laboratory, you fire ten samples in a furnace with an ideal thermocouple. In the workshop, you load the oven with several cubic meters. Temperature distribution throughout the volume is never ideal. We once received a batch where the cores from the edge of the pallet had 10% lower density than those from the center. In laboratory tests, the difference was within the margin of error, but in engine operation this resulted in heating and premature failure. We had to completely revise the loading configuration of the furnaces for this standard size. Now for everyone newferrite seriesWe make not only technical specifications, but also thermal profile cards for industrial furnaces.

Another point is the human factor. We have more than 1,200 people, and over 60% are educated specialists. But even the assembly line technician who places the cores on the belt before glazing can orient them differently. It would seem nonsense. But if the sharp edges are directed in one direction, the layer of insulating glaze does not apply evenly. Then interturn breakdowns are possible in the winding. The solution was found to be simple but effective: calibration templates-cassettes, into which the operator simply pours the batch, and the cores themselves take the desired position. Trifle? That's all for the series.

Interaction with metallurgists: raw materials as the basis for stability

Not a single serious conversation aboutferrite seriesThe topic of raw materials cannot be avoided. We do not buy powders “from the market”. The work is based on long-term contracts with factories, where we can influence the technological chain. It is necessary that the cobalt or nickel content is not “about 25%,” but in a very narrow range. Any expansion of this corridor and the magnetic properties of the entire series will float.

There was a case where the supplier, in an attempt to save money, changed the way the original oxide was purified. The chemical composition according to the passport has not changed, but the morphology of the particles has changed - their shape and size. In the press powder this led to a change in fluidity. Automatic presses began to malfunction in terms of pressure, and the density of the workpieces “jumped”. They stopped the line and spent a week sorting it out. Now we specify in the specifications not only the chemistry, but also the fractional composition, and even the parameters for SEM analysis for control batches. Stable without itferrite seriesimpossible in principle.

Quality control: not protocols, but principles

Many people think that Quality Control is a department that rejects finished products. In our understanding, quality control is built into every stage. For example, after sintering, we selectively (!) do not just measure magnetic parameters on a coercimeter, but send samples for microsections. We look at the grain structure. Overburning, underburning, the presence of foreign phases - this is the only way to see it. And if an anomaly is detected in a sample of a thousand pieces, we don’t just reject these pieces, but look for the reason in the batch of raw materials or in the furnace logs for the last 48 hours. It's expensive and slow, but it's the only way to guarantee thatferrite seriesfor critical equipmentLONGI Corporationwill not fail in extreme quarry conditions.

Another principle is end-to-end identification. Each box of cores has not only a batch number, but also a subbatch number (raw material melting, shift, furnace). This allows, in the event of a claim from the end customer, the same mining and processing plant, to make a point analysis and understand whether this is a systemic error or an isolated case. Often it is this feedback from the field that allows us to refine the technology for the next series.

Conclusion: seriality as a living process

So, back to the beginning.Ferrit series- this is not a point, but a long, winding line. This is a constant dialogue between technologists, production workers, suppliers of raw materials and final installers. This is when out of 1200 peopleLONGI Corporationa significant part is in one way or another thinking about how to make sure that this particular core, which is now coming out of the furnace, in a year will work in tandem with a powerful crushing rotor somewhere in Kuzbass. And this work never ends, because each new episode is a new challenge, a new fine-tuning. And this, perhaps, is the whole point.

Information about the company, its scale and approach, which can be found onljmagnet.ru, is only an official reflection of this complex, sometimes “dirty”, but absolutely necessary work. Without such a fundamental, down-to-earth approach, all talk about high technologies in magnetic materials remains just talk.