Study of the Compositions of Hybrid Magnetic Composite (HMC) Materials for Sensor Applications

Sensor applications normally adopt cheap ferrites or more expensive AlNiCo as Permanent Magnets (PM); if a critical issue can be found it lies in the poor performance of the first and in the cost of the latter. The driver of the work presented in the paper is the research of a material that could replace the above mentioned PM. Hybrid Magnetic Composites (HMC) can represent a reliable solution; they are obtained mixing hard and soft magnetic materials together with a polymeric binder. The experience of previous research activities has been helpful in the selection of the materials, both soft and hard, and of the binder to be adopted. The mix of different components percentages has been deeply investigated, with specimen magnetic characterization, in order to find out the most promising composition. The final part of the activity has been devoted to apply the obtained HMC to practical cases; in particular, the applications that have been selected to experience the new materials are guitar pickups and encoder wheels. The obtained preliminary results are satisfactory and encouraging the prosecution of the work; the obtained HMC can represent a viable solution to replace ferrites and AlNiCo materials