Additive manufacturing of soft magnetic materials

博朗能源解决方案公司（BES）从事小型风力涡轮机的设计、制造、组装和销售。BES有兴趣加强设计，以确保风力涡轮机在恶劣和寒冷的加拿大北部环境中可靠地运行。通过增材制造（AM）可以实现发电机部件的优化设计复杂度。这个未来的产品目标对BES的技术和业务方向非常重要，特别是在提供更高的kW规格以支持目标市场的需求方面，确保具有成本效益的解决方案，并开辟新的供应链。该项目的目标是确定使用粉末床粘结剂喷射（PBBJ）制造发电机部件的适用性和方法，进行原型设计，并与滑铁卢大学的多尺度增材制造实验室（MSAM）合作测试其性能。感兴趣的材料是一种软磁材料，称为电工钢或硅钢。MSAM的研究小组已经验证了通过增材制造使用纯铁和低合金钢制造部件的能力；软磁材料将是MSAM通过PBBJ AM探索的补充领域。技术方法是通过PBBJ开发发电机部件增材制造的工艺流程，其中实验设计将确保高绿色部件密度，而解绑定和烧结研究将确保最终部件密度和尺寸保真度。该项目将展示在加拿大制造业背景下的低风险增材制造采用路线图，特别是对中小型企业的影响。通过这个项目，MSAM希望推进软磁材料增材制造的研究领域，而BES则积极寻求通过多样化的产品供应来增加竞争优势。

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.