iron is used in magnetic assemblies, direct current (DC) electromagnets and in some electric motors; and it can create a concentrated field that is as much as 50,000 times more intense than an air core. Iron is desirable to make magnetic cores, as it can withstand high levels of magnetic field without saturating (up to 2.16 teslas at ambient temperature.) Annealed iron is used because, unlike "hard" iron, it has low coercivity and so does not remain magnetised when the field is removed, which is often important in applications where the magnetic field is required to be repeatedly switched. Due to the electrical conductivity of the metal, when a solid one-piece metal core is used in alternating current (AC) applications such as transformers and inductors, the changing magnetic field induces large eddy currents circulating within it, closed loops of electric current in planes perpendicular to the field. The current flowing through the resistance of the metal heats it by Joule heating, causing significant power losses. Therefore, solid iron cores are not used in transformers or inductors, they are replaced by laminated or powdered iron cores, or nonconductive cores like ferrite. Laminated silicon steel In order to reduce the eddy current losses mentioned above, most low frequency power transformers and inductors use laminated cores, made of stacks of thin sheets of silicon steel: Lamination Laminated magnetic cores are made of stacks of thin iron sheets coated with an insulating layer, lying as much as possible parallel with the lines of flux. The layers of insulation serve as a barrier to eddy currents, so eddy currents can only flow in narrow loops within the thickness of each single lamination. Since the current in an eddy current loop is proportional to the area of the loop, this prevents most of the current from flowing, reducing eddy currents to a very small level. Since power dissipated is proportional to the square of the current, breaking a large core into narrow laminations reduces the power losses drastically. From this, it can be seen that the thinner the laminations, the lower the eddy current losses. Silicon alloying A small addition of silicon to iron (around 3%) results in a dramatic increase of the resistivity of the metal, up to four times higher. The higher resistivity reduces the eddy currents, so silicon steel is used in transformer cores. Further increase in silicon concentration impairs the steel's mechanical