Interviews

Camille Pineau is a research engineer at IRT-M2P (Institute for Technological Research on Materials, Metallurgy and Processes). He works full time on ESSIAL to deliver electrical steel sheets in order to optimize the implementation of a laser treatment; and samples characterizations in order to have a better understanding of the relationship between the metallographic and magnetic structure.

Camille, could you present the IRT-M2P and its tasks within ESSIAL?

The IRT M2P accelerates innovation processes and optimizes the maturity of key shared technologies between major industrial sectors (aeronautics, automotive, naval, energy, general industry) in the domains of materials, metallurgy and related processes. The IRT's activities are structured around 3 main areas: Elaboration, Surface treatments, Composites & Assembly. Within the ESSIAL project, the main missions of IRT M2P are to emulate the electrical steel processes and to produce metal sheets. The idea is to control the whole process and therefore be more flexible concerning the implementation of the laser treatment compared to industrial lines. We also try to bring our metallurgical point of view in the project concerning the effects of the laser on the sheets.

How do you share the work with the CRM (Center for Metallurgical Research), which is also involved in the definition of the metallurgical processes?

With CRM, we defined different steel compositions and different metallurgical routes in order to produce both Non-oriented and grain-oriented steels. As the metallurgical processes for electrical steels are quite complex, the processes steps have been distributed among us to be more effective. Same for the sample characterizations.

What are the main obstacles to overcome when producing an electrical steel and trying to implement a surface laser treatment?

Within the ESSIAL project, the main obstacle when producing an electrical steel is to emulate such a complex process of production at a laboratory scale while achieving industrial quality material. Moreover, as metallurgist, we need to understand the relationships between the metallographic structure (grain-size, texture, presence of defects) and the magnetic structure which is very peculiar.

What are the different options and strategies to implement a surface laser treatment within a metallurgical process?

There are several strategies to implement a surface laser within the metallurgical process. The first one is to implement the laser treatment at the end of the process line, as it is already carried-out industrially but with different types of laser treatments. Within the ESSIAL project, it is also desired to implement the laser treatment upstream of the end of the process in order to have a better control of the magnetic structure.

What gain can be expected if the global process for producing electrical steel is optimized?

If the global process for producing electrical steel is optimized, we can expect very good benefits due to the magnetic loss reduction. This loss reduction will lead to more efficient material thus more efficient electromagnetic machines. Plus, an optimization could also lead to great economical benefits due to the weight reduction of the machines for example.

What are the main achievements so far in this ESSIAL Work-Package?

So far, we have been able to cast ingots of metal with different compositions in order to produce both non-grain oriented and grain-oriented steel. These ingots were hot rolled, annealed and some of them were cold rolled. We also carried out analysis to see the influence of the laser treatments on the metal. These analyses are still ongoing.

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Yves is the Head of the Applied Photonics Department at MULTITEL. He tells us about the crucial role of lasers in ESSIAL, and what challenges he has to tackle.

Yves, can you tell us a little more about Multitel and its role in ESSIAL?

Multitel is a private research institute of about 70 persons. The Applied Photonics department is active in lasers, sensors, terahertz and micromachining. Within the  ESSIAL project, our role is to develop the laser process for an optimal magnetic domains refinement. Thanks to our versatile platform we explore all the possibilities from femtosecond pulses to continuous wave.

Multitel is one of the laser expert of the consortium, along with Lasea. How de you cooperate with this SME and the other partners?

We have been collaborating with LASEA for many years, more than a decade. It is an important and complementary partner for us. Besides the process development we can also develop and prototype fibre laser sources that for instance LASEA can implement into their system. Despite the exciting aspects, proper to EU projects, like meeting new partners, discovering new fields and new ways of working, it can be sometimes also helpful to have within the consortium a partner that you know well and with whom you will be able to proceed rapidly to the goals of the project.

Besides this collaboration, the interactions with partners regarding application needs and functional tests like ESIEE, CRM, IRT M2P, Jeumont, Andaltec… are very interesting and rewarding as they give us the possibility to learn about new applications of lasers in material science that we would probably not have explored by ourselves without ESSIAL.

Finally, what would you say is the main challenge of the project regarding lasers?

From the point of view of lasers, the most challenging in the project will certainly be related with up-scaling of the process. Depending on the final choice for the laser technology, the technical challenges for transferring the process to large surfaces in an efficient way will be different but will have to be overcome in any case.  This is why it will be important for MULTITEL to collaborate closely with LASEA to deal efficiently with this aspect.

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Olivier Maloberti is the scientific coordinator of ESSIAL. He explains here what ESSIAL is all about and what impact is expected for the European industry.

Q: Olivier, what are the main goals of ESSIAL?

ESSIAL stands for Electrical Steel Structuring, Insulating, and Assembling by means of the Laser technologies. The ambition of the project is to  reduce  the energy losses, the acoustic noise and the global cost of products composed of electrical steels (such as motors, transformers or inductors that are ubiquitous in the manufacturing industry). Moreover, we want the improved electrical steels to be eco-friendly (no emission of pollutant during their working life and fulfillment of the REACH regulation) and made of materials that are easy to recycle.

Q: But why is it important to improve electrical steels?

The metallurgy industry uses more and more soft magnetic materials to manufacture electrical steels. These soft magnetic materials maximize power density but they also cause energy losses (called iron losses in addition to copper and mechanical losses) and noise (due to induced stresses and vibrations).

According to a report issued by Market & Markets (http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/soft-magnetic-material-market-206182334.html), the global soft magnetic material market was valued at 18.02 billion US dollars in 2015 and is projected to reach 28.15 billion dollars by 2021 at an annual growth rate of 7.8%. This important growth in the demand of soft magnetic materials calls for a quick improvement of the performance and functionalities of laminated soft magnetic circuits to reach the objectives of the energy transition agenda.

The ESSIAL technology has thus the potential to provide a significant economic impact at world level. We have calculated that a single % of iron loss corresponds to more than 18.7 k€ per hour (calculation done with approximately 5M tons, i.e. less than 20% of materials used all the time). It is approximately the electricity bill of 11 000 households and the turnover per year of an entire economical sector (164 M€). The whole excess loss costs more than 280 k€ per hour. It corresponds to the electricity bill of at least 170 000 households.

Q: How are you going to proceed?

To achieve this, we need to define the optimal parameters for the steel manufacturing process including the laser texturization process, and also for the insulating coating and assembling parts. This will be done in the first three years of ESSIAL thanks to a collaboration between academic partners (ESIEE Amiens, Université Picardie Jules Verne, Universidad Carlos 3 de Madrid) and four research centres specialized in metallurgy (CRM group and IRT M2P), in laser technology (Multitel) and plastics (Andaltec).

When these parameters are defined, we will be able to test their performances on several prototypes (two power inductors, one transformer, one rotating electrical machine) to be developed in collaboration with two end-users companies: SEPSA (Spain) and Jeumont Electric (France).

But the project is even more ambitious than that. The possibility to scale-up the ESSIAL technology is taken into account from the very beginning. A specific task of the project is to demonstrate that the laser processes and associated monitoring solutions developed in ESSIAL can be economically scaled up for mass production into existing production lines, with a cost increase limited to 10% of the cost of conventional products. This task will be carried out mainly by the Fraunhofer institute and Lasea, a Belgian company specialized in Lasers and texturization processes.

Q: What will be the added value for the European industry?

The companies in the consortium will be the first beneficiaries of the project. SEPSA and Jeumont, the end-users companies in the project will benefit from a better efficiency of their products, giving them an advantage on the most competitive markets. The LASEA company, which is specialized in the manufacturing of laser industrial systems will have the possibility to commercialize new machines with the ESSIAL technology embedded. Moreover, large metallurgy groups will gain knowledge in this particular area of electrical steels.

But we also expect to promote our technology to other European companies. The partner MATIKEM (a cluster based in France) is carrying out a continuous market survey to determine what companies could be interested by our findings (taking into account the necessary adaptation of the technology to their specific needs).  In addition, several workshops are already planned to engage with industrial partners for the exploitation of the results.