Additive manufacturing of soft magnetic materials

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Borrum Energy Solutions (BES) is in the business of designing, manufacturing, assembling, and selling small wind turbines. BES is interested in enhancing designs to ensure wind turbines operate reliably in harsh and cold northern Canadian environments. The design complexity of the electrical generator components can be achieved optimally via additive manufacturing (AM). This future product target is very important to the technology and business direction of BES, specifically in terms of delivering higher kW specifications required to support the needs of the target market, ensuring a cost-effective solution, and opening up a new supply chain. The project objective is to determine the applicability and method to fabricate generator components with powder bed binder jetting (PBBJ), prototyping designs, and testing their performance in collaboration with the Multi-Scale Additive Manufacturing Laboratory (MSAM) at the University of Waterloo. The material of interest is a soft magnetic material, called electrical steel or silicon steel. The research group at MSAM, have verified the ability to manufacture components using pure iron and low alloy steels via AM; soft magnetic materials would be a complementary area for MSAM to explore via PBBJ AM. The technical approach is to develop a process workflow for AM of electrical generator components via PBBJ, where design of experiments will ensure high green part densities, while de-binding and sintering studies will ensure the final part density and dimensional fidelity. The project will demonstrate a low-risk AM adoption roadmap in the context of the Canadian manufacturing sector, specifically impacting small-to-medium size enterprises. Through this project, MSAM is looking to advance the research field of AM of soft magnetic materials, while BES is actively looking to increase competitive advantage by diversifying product offerings.