EFINEA stocks the Hiperco® 50 family of iron-cobalt soft magnetic alloys in plate, round bar, and strip or coil, with mill certification on every order and no minimum order size. Design teams specify Hiperco® alloy when a magnetic circuit must carry more flux through less metal, which is why it is used in generator rotors and stators, transformer laminations, tape-wound toroids, and magnetic bearing components.
Hiperco® Forms Available From EFINEA
Grade availability varies by form, so each listing below shows the sizes EFINEA holds in stock and the specifications the material ships against.
Hiperco® 50A Plate
Hiperco® 50A plate is stocked in thicknesses from 0.500″ through 7.000″, covering the heavy sections that strip cannot serve. Plate is the starting point for machined pole pieces, solid magnetic circuit components, flux return paths, and prototype parts cut from billet before a lamination tool exists.
Material conforms to ASTM A801 Alloy Type 1 and MIL-A-47182. Our in-house waterjet and cutting equipment can bring plate down to your drawing dimensions before it ships, which saves a machining setup on your end. Keep in mind that bulk sections behave differently from thin strip magnetically, with lower permeability and higher coercivity, so design to the bar and plate figures rather than the strip figures.
Hiperco® 50A Round Bar | Rod
Round bar and rod is stocked in ten diameters from 0.510″ through 2.750″, supplied in 12-foot random lengths. Typical uses include machined pole pieces, solenoid and relay cores, rotor hubs, and any turned component that needs a high-saturation magnetic path.
Bars ship with certification to ASTM A801 Alloy Type 1 and MIL-A-47182. Stock items are available to ship within 24 hours of order confirmation, and our fabrication team can cut bar to length so you receive usable blanks instead of full sticks.
Hiperco® 50, 50A & 50 HS Strip | Coil
Strip and coil is the only form in which all three grades are stocked, and it is the form in which most Hiperco® ends up. Hiperco® 50 is stocked from 0.004″ through 0.020″. Hiperco® 50A and Hiperco® 50 HS are stocked from 0.006″ through 0.014″.
Thickness selection follows operating frequency. A thinner strip suppresses eddy currents and sharply reduces core loss as frequency rises, which is why 400 Hz aerospace generators and higher-frequency machines favor 0.006″ material over 0.014″. Our fabrication team slits coil to your required width in-house.
Why Choose EFINEA Among Hiperco® Suppliers
Specialty alloy purchasing runs on different rules than commodity steel. Mill runs are infrequent, and certification paperwork follows the part for the life of the program, so the supplier you choose affects your schedule as much as your material cost.
- Stock on the shelf: Hiperco® is a specialty alloy with long mill lead times when ordered from scratch. Unlike Hiperco® 50 suppliers who order against each request, we carry plate, bar, and all three strip grades in inventory, and standard stock items ship within 24 hours of order confirmation. That difference can be weeks on a program schedule.
- Documentation that survives an audit: Every order ships with material traceable to the original mill, including heat and lot numbers, chemical analysis, mechanical properties, and the governing specification. Our facilities hold ISO 9001:2015 and AS9100D certification.
- Fabrication in-house: Waterjet cutting, slitting, and cut-to-length are handled by our own team on our own equipment. You can receive plate at finished dimensions or coil slit to your lamination width rather than paying a second vendor to do it.
- People who know the material: Our sales team is trained on the alloys we sell. If you are weighing Hiperco® 50A against Hiperco® 50 HS for a rotor lamination, or trying to work out whether a Permendur callout on a legacy drawing can be filled from stock, you can talk it through with someone who understands the question.
- No minimum order: Prototype quantities and production programs both get quoted.
- Fifty years of supply experience: EFINEA operates four certified locations across New Jersey and California, serving aircraft manufacturers, electrical equipment builders, defense contractors, and medical device manufacturers along with universities and research labs.
The Hiperco® 50 Family of Alloys
The Hiperco® 50 family of alloys {Hiperco 50, 50A, 50 HS) are iron-cobalt soft magnetic alloys comprised of 49% cobalt, 2% vanadium, balance Iron. In contrast, Hiperco 50 and Hiperco 50 HS both contain varying amounts of niobium for grain refinement during processing and final heat treating for higher yield strength.
These three unique soft magnetic alloys exhibit high magnetic saturation of 24 kilogauss and excel in applications where this attribute is needed. Hiperco® 50 maintains its strength after heat treating making it your best choice for applications that experience high forces {e.g. rotating parts).
The Hiperco® family of alloys comply to the following specifications: ASTM A801 Alloy Type 1.
Hiperco® 50 Alloy
Hiperco® 50 Alloy is an iron-cobalt soft magnetic alloy which exhibits high magnetic saturation (24 kilogauss), high D.C. maximum permeability, low D.C. coercive force and low A.C. core loss. This alloy is produced in strip form only and contains the addition of niobium to its chemistry for grain refinement during mill processing and final heat treatment.
Hiperco® 50A Alloy
Hiperco® 50A is a high-magnetic-saturation alloy which has been used for transformer laminations and tape toroids. In comparison, Hiperco 50A has slightly better magnetic properties than Hiperco® 50 alloy. Available from EFINEA in bar, plate and strip for your next application.
Hiperco 50 HS Alloy
Hiperco® 50 HS is a high-magnetic-saturation alloy which possesses a unique combination of high yield strength and moderate core loss. It has been used primarily in laminations for high-speed generators and magnetic bearings. This alloy is produced with the addition of niobium to its chemistry for added strength and is sold in strip form.
EFINEA is a leading supplier of Hiperco 50, Hiperco 50 A and Hiperco 50 HS, as well as other special purpose metals and alloys. Above you will find links for the forms and sizes we supply coupled with the links below providing informative data on applications, properties, including machining and annealing guides. Please contact the sales team at 855-422-9660 to place your order or if you have any questions.
What Is Hiperco®?
Hiperco® is a group of soft magnetic alloys made from roughly 49% cobalt and 2% vanadium with a balance of iron. What sets Hiperco® alloy apart from other soft magnetic materials is its saturation. The alloys reach a magnetic saturation of 24 kilogauss, or about 2.3 Tesla, the highest of any commercially produced soft magnetic material. Silicon steel tops out closer to 20 kilogauss, and high-permeability nickel-iron alloys saturate far lower.
All three grades conform to ASTM A801 Alloy Type 1.
Other Names for Hiperco®
Hiperco® is a trade name, so the same class of material appears in drawings and specifications under several labels. Buyers searching for any of the following are usually looking for an iron-cobalt-vanadium alloy in the Hiperco® 50 class:
| Name | Notes |
| Hiperco® 50, 50A, 50 HS | Carpenter Electrification® trade names |
| ASTM A801 Alloy Type 1 | Governing industry standard for all three grades |
| UNS R30005 | Unified numbering designation |
| MIL-A-47182 | Defense specification met by Hiperco® 50 and 50A |
| Permendur / Vanadium Permendur | Historic generic name for 49% Co iron-cobalt alloy |
| Iron-cobalt-vanadium, Fe-Co-V, FeCoV | Generic chemistry descriptions |
| 49% cobalt alloy | Common shorthand in procurement |
Comparable grades from other mills, such as Vacoflux 50 and Rotelloy, occupy the same space. Chemistry and property targets vary between producers, so confirm the specification called out on your drawing before treating any of them as a drop-in substitute.
Our team can help you cross-reference a callout.
Why Aircraft and Electrical Equipment Manufacturers Specify Hiperco®
Saturation sets a hard ceiling on the amount of magnetic flux that a given cross-section of material can carry. Once a core saturates, adding current stops producing useful output. A material with higher saturation lets a designer carry the same flux with less metal.
For aircraft manufacturers, that translates into a lighter generator for the same electrical output, and every pound removed pays back over the airframe’s service life.
More-electric aircraft architectures have steadily pushed the electrical load per airframe upward, which puts a premium on power density in ram-air turbine generators, auxiliary power units, starter-generators, and engine-driven machines. On a spinning rotor, less mass also means lower centrifugal load at speed, raising the ceiling on rotational velocity.
For the electrical equipment industry, the same property shrinks the envelope of transformers, inductors, tape-wound toroids, servo and torque motors, solenoids, and current sensors. Cobalt is expensive, so Hiperco® 50 alloy earns its place where weight or volume carries a real cost, and less often in ground-based equipment where mass is cheap, and silicon steel will do the job.
Properties, Specifications & Applications
Looking for the technical data?
Magnetic, physical, mechanical, and chemical property tables for all three grades, along with specifications and a full breakdown of where Hiperco® is used.
Ferromagnetic Annealing Guide, Machining Hiperco® 50A, and the DC & AC Magnetic Properties Table, which compares Hiperco® with the other soft magnetic alloys we stock.
Data sheets are available for Hiperco® 50, Hiperco® 50A, and Hiperco® 50 HS.
Frequently Asked Questions
Plate and round bar are stocked in Hiperco® 50A only, so buyers comparing Hiperco® 50A suppliers should confirm which forms each source actually holds rather than assuming the full grade range is available in every shape. Strip and coil are stocked in all three grades, with Hiperco® 50 offered across the widest thickness range at 0.004″ to 0.020″. If your design calls for Hiperco® 50 or 50 HS in a heavy section, contact us, and we will review what the mill can produce and the lead time.
Iron-cobalt alloys contain no chromium and will rust on the surface in humid conditions, so keep the material dry and in its original packaging until it goes into production. Thin strip is also easy to kink or crease, and a deformed area carries residual stress that shows up later as degraded magnetic performance. Handle coil by the core rather than the edge.
Grade, form, dimensions, and quantity cover most requests. For strip, include the width you need after slitting. For plate and bar, a drawing helps us quote cutting alongside the material. Knowing your operating frequency and whether the part is static or rotating also lets us flag if a different grade would serve you better.
