Construction of Transformer

There are two basic parts of a transformer i) Magnetic Core ii) Winding or Coils.

The core of the transformer is either square or rectangular in size. It is further divided into tow parts. The vertical position on which coils are wound is called limb while the top and bottom horizontal portion is called yoke of the core. These parts are shown in the Fig.1(a).

Core is made up of lamination. Because of laminated type of construction, eddy current losses get minimised. Generally high grade silicon steel laminations (0.3 to 0.5 mm thick) are used. These laminations are insulated from each other by using insulation like varnish. All laminations are varnished. Laminations are overlapped so that to avoid the air gap at joints. For this generally 'L' shaped or 'I' shaped laminations are used which are shown in the Fig 1(b).

Fig. 1 Construction of transformer

The cross-section of the limb depends on the type of coil to be used either circular or rectangular. The different cross-section of limbs, practically used are shown in the Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 Different cross-sections

Types of Windings

The coils used are wound on the limbs and are insulated from each other. In the basic transformer shown in the Fig 1.2 (see post : Working Principle of 1-Phase Transformer ) the two windings wound are shown on two different limbs i.e. primary on one limb while secondary on other limb. But due to this leakage flux increases which effects the transformer performance badly. Similarly it is necessary that the windings should be very closes to each other to have high mutual inductance. To achieve this, the tow windings are split into number of coils and are wound adjacent to each other on the same limb. A very common arrangement is cylindrical coils as shown in the Fig. 3.

Fig. 3 Cylindrical concentric coils

Such cylindrical coils are used in the core type transformer. Theses coils are mechanically strong. These are wound in the helical layers. The different layers are insulated from each other by paper, cloth or mica. The low voltage winding is placed near the core from ease of insulating it from the core. The high voltage is placed after it.

The other type of coils which is very commonly used for the shell type of transformer is sandwiching coils. Each high voltage portion lies between the two low voltage portion sandwiching the high voltage portion. Such subdivision of windings into small portion reduces the leakage flux. Higher the degree of subdivision, smaller is the reactance. The sandwich coil is shown in the Fig. 4. The top and bottom coils are low voltage coils. All the portion are insulated from each other by paper.