SBIR Phase I: High-speed, precision wire plotting for electromechanical sensors and actuators

这个SBIR第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是提高性能和简化电机的开发。该项目开发了用于商业航空等应用的新型高性能电机所需的电磁和电子部件的附加制造技术。2017年，全球电动马达市场估计为1000亿美元。拟议的技术可以更有效地利用稀土材料，并可以消除电机效率和成本之间的传统权衡，使供暖、通风和空调(HVAC)等成本驱动型应用能够降低能源强度，从而显著降低能源强度。拟议的SBIR第一阶段项目将探索一种新的制造工艺的转换，使高密度绕组的印刷具有与当今印刷电路板相同的设计自由度和简化的制造。由于上游的导线制造和涂层工艺具有如此严格的公差，一台相对普通的绘图机可以以每秒几米的速度生产电磁设备。此外，通过将电子设备直接结合到绘制的绕组中，传统上需要集成多个制造工艺的器件可以在单个步骤中制造出来。在这个项目中，我们将推进这一制造过程的端到端工作流的开发，并使用它来设计一种新型的高性能电机。这种方法有可能实现超过20千瓦/公斤的重力功率密度，这比100kW级别的最先进水平提高了4倍，并有可能实现电动航空。在这个项目中，我们将推进和验证一种新的汽车原型的性能。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this SBIR Phase I project is to increase performance and simplify the development of electric motors. This project develops additive manufacturing technology for the electromagnetic and electronic components necessary for new high-performance motors for applications such as commercial aviation. The global electric motor market was estimated at $100 B in 2017. The proposed technology allows more efficient utilization of rare earth materials, and could eliminate the conventional trade-offs between motor efficiency and cost, enabling reduced energy intensity by cost-driven applications, like heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), to significantly reduce their energy intensity. The proposed SBIR Phase I project will explore translation of a novel manufacturing process allowing printing of high-density wire windings with the same design freedom and streamlined manufacturing associated with printed circuit boards today. Because the upstream wire manufacturing and coating processes have such tight tolerances, a relatively modest plotting machine can produce electromagnetic devices at speeds of several meters per second. Further, by incorporating electronics directly into the plotted windings, devices which would conventionally require integrating multiple manufacturing processes can be made in a single step. In this project, we will advance the development of an end-to-end workflow for this manufacturing process and use it to prototype a novel high-performance electric motor design. Gravimetric power densities of over 20 kW/kg may be possible with this approach, representing a 4X improvement over state-of-the-art in the 100kW class and potentially enabling electric aviation. In this project, we will advance and validate the performance of a new motor prototype.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.