Additive Manufacturing of Amorphous Metals for Soft Magnetics

AM2SoftMag is working toward the vision that, one day, 3D printing will become the de facto standard technology for the manufacturing of high-performance amorphous soft-magnetic components for highly efficient electrical machines and passive electrical components. To prove the viability of the approach, the partners expect to demonstrate superior operating efficiency of an electric motor comprised of soft-magnetic stator and rotor components created by means of selective laser melting (SLM) of soft-magnetic bulk metallic glass (BMG) alloys and powders specially designed and optimized for the additive manufacturing (AM) process.

Adding to the already outstanding magnetic and mechanical properties of BMGs, this incremental casting process overcomes the wall thickness limitations of conventional metallic glass casting processes, enables the energy-efficient near net-shape production of complex geometries not achievable by other means and opens up avenues for the digital design of micro-localized properties throughout the components. Furthermore, the method will expand the spectrum of manufacturable and recyclable amorphous metals thereby increasing the availability of alloys with unique magnetic and mechanical properties while reducing or eliminating the need for environmentally critical elements such as cobalt.

We establish a long overdue cooperation among academic and industrial leaders in the fields of metallic glass design and processing, mechanical and magnetic testing, quality control and certification as well as design and testing of electrical machines. Through the design of powdered amorphous soft-magnetic alloys, optimization of SLM process parameters and verification of resulting electromagnetic devices, we will achieve major breakthroughs in the flexible and energy-efficient production of superior soft-magnetic components thereby enhancing the energy efficiency of electrical devices and thus substantially contributing to the European Green Deal.