Silicon steels are ferritic alloys of iron and
silicon that have
magnetic properties which make them useful in motors and transformers. The silicon additions improve magnetic softness and increase the electrical resistivity. They also have the undesirable effects of decreasing the
Curie temperature, reducing the
saturation magnetization, and of embrittling the alloy when the silicon additions exceed about 2 wt.%. The embrittling effects of silicon make it difficult to produce silicon steels with more than about 3 wt.% silicon. The silicon steels are produced in two forms, highly textured grain-oriented alloys and alloys in which the grains are not oriented. Grain orientation is carried out to align the magnetic easy axis.
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