Towards Fully Additively-Manufactured Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines: Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract

With the growing interest in electrification and as hybrid and pure electric powertrains are adopted in more applications, electrical machine design is facing challenges in terms of meeting very demanding performance metrics for example high specific power, harsh environments, etc. This provides clear motivation to explore the impact of advanced materials and manufacturing on the performance of electrical machines. This paper provides an overview of additive manufacturing (AM) approaches that can be used for constructing permanent magnet (PM) machines, with a specific focus on additivelymanufactured iron core, winding, insulation, PM as well as cooling systems. Since there has only been a few attempts so far to explore AM in electrical machines (especially when it comes to fully additivelymanufactured machines), the benefits and challenges of AM have not been comprehensively understood. In this regard, this paper offers a detailed comparison of multiple multi-material AM methods, showing not only the possibility of fully additively-manufactured PM machines but also the potential significant improvements in their mechanical, electromagnetic and thermal properties. The paper will provide a comprehensive discussion of opportunities and challenges of AM in the context of electrical machines.

Opportunities and Challenges of Utilizing Additive Manufacturing Approaches in Thermal Management of Electrical Machines

“…AM refers to the manufacturing of a three-dimensional component layer by layer material with printing technology. This method consists of several advantages such as fast prototyping, constructing the complex geometries or the geometries located in the hard to reach areas, building components including mixed materials, printing various components simultaneously, increasing performance, and improve the properties [6], [7]. However, due to the low manufacturing rate and high cost, the AM is implemented to build the low volume and small size components [6], [7].…”

“…Today, there are several different types of printers and printing method for AM. Overall, the AM printers can be divided into three main categories based on how the material is formed into the object [6], [7]:…”

“…This makes it suitable to print different metals in an electrical machine; it is suitable for printing conductive sections (stator, rotor, and windings). The price of a 3D printer is on rising from FFF/FDM method to SLS/SLM [6], [7]; accordingly, the cost of a printer for FFF based on the performance varies between $ 100 and $ 2,000, but for SLM, the price of printer varies from $ 5000 to $ 600 k [6], [7]. From an accuracy point of view, the SLM has the highest accuracy and manufacturing speed among the three AM methods [6], [7].…”

A Review on Additive Manufacturing Possibilities for Electrical Machines

“…TO gives optimal distribution of multi-material within a specific, more complex or application-specific design space compared to conventional optimization techniques. This gives better magnetic energy delivery with the least of material waste [48][49][50]. Figure 4 presents various design concept realizations by utilizing AM.…”

A Comprehensive Review of Additive Manufacturing in Construction of Electrical Machines

“…-material jetting, -binder jetting, -material extrusion, -powder bed fusion, -sheet lamination, -direct energy deposition. Further to the above classification various other works on standardisation and roadmapping for AM have been ongoing [4], [5]. Powder bed fusion is the most relevant in the context of AM of electrical machines.…”