Efficiency Improvement of an Automotive Alternator by Heat Treatment

Recently, $CO_2$ emission standards and fuel efficiency legislation has been tightened globally. Therefore automotive alternator performance becomes increasingly important to meet the requirements. Many proposed methods have suggested adding magnets or regulation control to increase alternator efficiency and output. However, this creates a significant additional cost. During the stator lamination process, the magnetic property of the stator deteriorates mainly due to stamping and slinky process for an alternator. To maximize the alternator performance, heat treatment of the stator core was performed and magnetic properties were compared to find the optimal condition. Finally, alternator output and efficiency test were performed resulting in significant output and efficiency improvement up to 6.8% and 0.6% respectively.