Copper Coated Steel Wire in Motor

https://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/150874/Why-Use-Copper-Coated-Steel-Wire-in-a-Motor

Dude I love this idea of iron/steel/ferrous wire with a highly conductive coating. It is my understanding that most of the electric current in any wire is mostly a surface phenomenon. Also, the current itself is directly responsible for the magnetic field that we are trying to "conduct" the magnetic currents in a ferrous core. Why not combine the two in one insulated coil? The insulation adds capacitance to the whole core. It could be it's own band pass filter at the right frequency. That's my three beers anyway.

I was taught that at normal motor frequencies 50/60Hz or up to 400 for high speed routers the current flows throughout the wire and only at HF and above frequencies does the skin effect have an effect, but all my text books could be wrong.

I have carried out a lot of coil winding and believe me the wire needs to be malleable to have any hope of winding suitable coils. Steel not so much but the use of Aluminium wire has taken hold for increased profit.

You were taught right. I have worked on high frequency, high current devices that used copper tubing to carry cooling water and current. SCR's large as saucers on a water cooled heat sink, cooled by the tubing that carried the current.

Creating the wire is challenging. I see a brittle but magnetic silicon iron wire (already drawn and sized) dipped into a plating solution and electroplated, and then drawn through a die to resize it and then pulling it through an insulating lacquer bath, dried and spooled.

After that, conventional coil winding apparatus.

After that, hooking it up to a network analyzer and running a nice Smith chart on it and see where it is across a sweep.

Compare it to the same diameter copper wire with the same insulation and the same number of turns.

Wind the same coil with the same iron wire and the same insulation and the same number of turns.

That would be an interesting study.

GOOD IDEA. It is your idea ,so you can put the bell on the cat.

Here is an interesting twist(or untwist) in electric motor design:

Axial Flux Motor

https://yasa.com/technology/

A different way to skin a cat...?

Thoughts on this new concept are appreciated.

I have thought about this a lot, and the only possible benefit would be that when the current is removed from a stator coil an opposite polarity is induced in the steel conductor and it assists in the field strength of the next coil by holding the field a little longer than the copper would hold it, giving enough time for the rotor to advance to the next position. A copper coil holds no magnet field memory after the power is removed, and the flyback current is wasted as noise or sparks. The steel would use this residual magnetism of opposite polarity to provide a boost to the next coil. Timing and commutator spacing would be critical of course, perhaps even using a split brush* assembly.

*Split brush is a brush that is split with a thin insulating layer in the middle, but the same polarity. This would create a slight gap during rotation.

Jus' thinkin'

Copper coated steel wire for motor windings makes no sense to me. Steel is used to concentrate the magnetic flux. Magnetic flux goes around a current carrying wire on the outside. Steel can be used for HV transmission lines where it adds strength, not for its ferromagnetic properties.