SBIR Phase I: Spray-Formed Soft Magnetic Material for Efficient Hybrid-Field Electric Machines

这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目旨在开发一种用于电动机磁芯的新型软磁材料，一种利用该材料制造组件的制造工艺，以及一种利用该材料和制造工艺优势的电动机配置。该方法是利用一种新的单步网状制造技术，该技术基于反应气氛中的均匀液滴喷涂沉积，以生产各向同性金属微观结构，其特征是高磁导率和低矫矫力的小区域，并控制绝缘边界的形成，限制相邻区域之间的导电性。这种设计有望提供优越的磁路，同时最大限度地减少涡流造成的损耗，并消除传统电机各向异性层压铁芯的设计限制。该项目更广泛的商业影响将是为混合动力电机提供喷雾成型绕组芯，以增加产量，提高效率，减少制造过程中的材料废料，从而降低电机的成本。考虑到电动机在众多应用中的广泛使用，包括工业机械和自动化，机器人，加热，通风和空调系统，电器，电动工具，医疗设备，汽车应用，电动汽车，军事装备等，对性能更好，效率更高，成本更低的电动机的需求越来越大。该项目预计将通过提供低成本、高效率的电机磁芯，对商业和环境产生重大影响。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to develop a novel soft magnetic material for electric motor cores, a fabrication process to make components from the material, and an electric motor configuration leveraging the benefits of the material and fabrication process. The approach is to utilize a new single-step net-shape fabrication technique based on uniform-droplet spray deposition in a reactive atmosphere to produce an isotropic metal microstructure characterized by small domains of high permeability and low coercivity with a controlled formation of insulation boundaries that limit electrical conductivity between neighboring domains. This design is expected to provide a superior magnetic path while minimizing losses due to eddy currents, and eliminating design constraints associated with anisotropic laminated cores of conventional motors.The broader/commercial impact of this project will be the potential to provide spray-formed winding cores for hybrid-field motors to increase output, improve efficiency and reduce material scrap during fabrication, thus lowering the cost of electric motors. Considering the extensive use of electric motors in numerous applications, including industrial machinery and automation, robotics, heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, appliances, power tools, medical devices, automotive applications, electric vehicles, military equipment etc., there is an increasing need for electric motors with improved performance, higher efficiency, and lower cost. This project is expected to have a significant commercial and environmental impact by providing low-cost and high-efficiency electric motor cores.