Ohio-based AK Steel has won an award of up to $1.8 million from the DOE to develop a new generation of non-oriented electrical steels (NOES) for motors used in a variety of industrial and automotive applications, including hybrid and electric vehicles.

The three-year project will be conducted in collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Regal Beloit, a manufacturer of electric motors. The objective is to develop an innovative motor design with high-alloy NOES that will achieve an efficiency improvement of more than 30% compared to existing NOES motor designs.

“For the past several years, we have been working closely with several worldwide leaders in the development of hybrid electric vehicles,” said Eric Petersen, AK Steel’s VP of Research and Innovation. “The reaction to prototype samples of our DI-MAX HF-10X NOES product has been outstanding, and we are currently providing these OEMs with additional material for qualification. The upcoming DOE project will build upon this strong foundation, allowing for the most efficient motor designs available in the world.”

Source: AK Steel