Additive Manufacturing for Electric Motors

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Electric motors are ever increasingly becoming part of everyday life. Manufacturing and prototyping these motors are often a difficult and time-consuming process. The design of the motors must consider the manufacturing methods available from the start, limiting the design choices available.Using Additive Manufacturing (AM) to produce these windings creates opportunities to rapidly prototype these motors in the UK. Moreover, such technology could present an opportunity for new high-performance motor designs that were previously infeasible with present manufacturing methods.Creating a winding design for an AM process is complex, designing the winding to be both electrically optimal for the machine and optimal for the AM process will be investigated. This project will concentrate on manufacturing individual conductors which will then be connected to printed circuit board (PCB) end windings. High frequency motors require "litz" wire to produce low resistance windings at these high AC frequencies. This project will attempt to build "litz" wire with AM methods allowing for high copper densities within the motor whilst maintaining the benefits of using multiple small conductors to make up a larger conductor.The outcomes of this project will allow current motor designs to be rapidly prototyped using AM machine windings. These new AM structures will then be used as the base for a new generation of electric machines which are designed specifically for AM giving the potential for performance benefits and manufacturability within the UK.