Research Projects

soft Magnetic Nano Composites (sMNC) are a novel material that can replace conventional laminated sheets in electric motor cores. The research aims to identify suitable ferromagnetic alloy systems and insulating materials, optimize process parameters to obtain composite powders with required characteristics, and identify suitable polymers/additives for consolidation. The additive manufacturing of a toroidal core of required size is also done. Repressing/heat treatment of the additive manufactured toroidal core is done to achieve nano precipitations with reduced defects. The process optimization aims to obtain benchmark properties (saturation magnetization ≈1.75 Tesla with low core loss at low and medium frequencies) in the produced toroid. After selecting the significant constituents of the soft magnetic composite, the appropriate amount of each powder is ball milled to obtain homogeneous distributions and uniform coating of insulating material over the individual ferromagnetic particles. The morphology and topography of the milled sMC powders are characterized using Transmission Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive spectroscopy (TEM/EDs) and Laser Particle size Analyzer. Compaction of the powders is done using selective laser melting to get the required shape and size of the toroid. The produced toroids are characterized for their electromagnetic properties, metallurgical characteristics, and repressing. The process parameters are optimized to achieve the required flux density with reduced core loss for high power density and high torque applications.