Inductors:

Coils which are used for their opposition to current change in a circuit are known as inductors or chokes.

CONSTRUCTION

Inductors with an air core have small inductance values and are used at high frequencies within radio tuning circuits, or as r.f. chokes to stop radio frequency currents taking certain paths in circuits. Coils for use at high frequency are made of Litz wire which consists of several thin copper wires insulated from each other.

Materials based on iron are used where a large inductance is required. Iron increases the strength of the magnetic field several hundred times. Silicon steel and nickel iron are used at frequencies up to 20kHz.

Iron cores are laminated. The laminations reduce the conversion of electrical energy to heat by making it difficult for currents in the coil to induce currents in the core. These induced currents are called ‘eddy currents' because they flow in circles through the iron core. If the laminations are at right angles to the plane of the coil windings, the core offers a large resistance to the eddy currents.

Iron based cores can be used at high frequencies if the material is in the form of a powder which has been coated with an insulator and pressed together.

Ferrite cores consist of ferric oxide combined with other oxides such as nickel oxide and may also be used at high frequencies.

Iron dust and ferrite cores increase the inductance of a coil considerably. For example, an air cored inductor of 1mH could be increased to 400mH by fitting a ferrite core. These cores also have a high resistance, thereby reducing eddy currents.