So turns out one of my friends has a company that makes transformers.
I was at his factory the other day and I noticed they had a lot of plastic bobbins and machines that could wind any number of turns I like in any gauge I like. But only on these square bobbins.
The only catch here the bobbins are all square plastic. It also looks like once the bobbin is wound and coated with epoxy you can cut out the plastic I don't see the plastic being different from an air core.
Is there any reason why all inductors are round ?. Can I use these square bobbins / Square inductors ?.
I was at his factory the other day and I noticed they had a lot of plastic bobbins and machines that could wind any number of turns I like in any gauge I like. But only on these square bobbins.
The only catch here the bobbins are all square plastic. It also looks like once the bobbin is wound and coated with epoxy you can cut out the plastic I don't see the plastic being different from an air core.
Is there any reason why all inductors are round ?. Can I use these square bobbins / Square inductors ?.
Lots of inductors are square. The ordinary E-I power transformer. DC filter chokes for 50/60Hz. Iron-core loudspeaker filter chokes.
Laminated iron cores are naturally square-section. At some performance level you can stamp un-equal laminations and make almost-round cores. We see this in several types of fancy-iron but it is also done for utility transformers where load-losses matter enough to incur extra expense.
For a given amount of iron (current * inductance capacity) the first layer winding-length of a square core is 1.27 times longer than a round core, so the resistance losses are 25%-30% higher. In small work we can just over-size a little and get fine performance. But whenever the core is "naturally round", like air core or winding on a stick, round is usual.