MAGNETIC AMPLIFIER

The magnetic amplifier (colloquially known as a "mag amp") is an electromagnetic device for amplifying electrical signals. The magnetic amplifier was invented early in the 20th century, and was used as an alternative to vacuum tube amplifiers. The magnetic amplifier was most prominent in power control and low-frequency signal applications .The magnetic amplifier has now been largely superseded by the transistor-based amplifier, except in a few safety critical, high reliability or extremely demanding applications. Combinations of transistor and mag-amp techniques are still used.

Principle of operation
A saturable reactor, illustrating the principle of a magnetic amplifier

Visually a mag amp device may resemble a transformer but the operating principle is quite different from a transformer - essentially the mag amp is a saturable reactor. It makes use of magnetic saturation of the core, a non-linear property of a certain class of transformer cores. For controlled saturation characteristics the magnetic amplifier employs core materials that have been designed to have a specific B-H curve shape that is highly rectangular, in contrast to the slowly-tapering B-H curve of softly saturating core materials that are often used in normal transformers.
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The typical magnetic amplifier consists of two physically separate but similar transformer magnetic cores, each of which has two windings - a control winding and an AC winding. A small DC current from a low impedance source is fed into the series-connected control windings. The AC windings may be connected either in series or in parallel, the configurations resulting in different types of mag amps. The amount of control current fed into the control winding sets the point in the AC winding waveform at which either core will saturate. In saturation, the AC winding on the saturated core will go from a high impedance state ("off") into a very low impedance state ("on") - that is, the control current controls at which voltage the mag amp switches "on". A relatively small DC current on the control winding is able to control or switch large AC currents on the AC windings. This results in current amplification.

Applications
Magnetic amplifiers are used as follows; It is used as voice modulator It is used in the keying circuits of large high frequency alternators used for radio communications It is used to regulate the speed of Alexanderson alternators to maintain the accuracy of the transmitted radio frequency It is useful for control of lighting circuits, for stage lighting and for advertising signs It is used for control of power to industrial furnaces It is used for radio tuning indicators, control of small motor and cooling fan speed, control of battery chargers These are extensively used as the switching element and in some arc welders It can be used for measuring high DC-voltages without direct connection to the high voltage and are therefore still used in the HVDC-technique These are used by locomotives to detect wheel slip, until replaced by Hall Effect current transducers.