3D-printed Magnetic Iron Material Modeling for High Speed Actuators

This paper presents the modeling procedure of a particular 3D printed iron material appropriate for low cost production of cores of actuators, a trend which is recently popular in the research community, with direct interest for the relevant industry. The characteristics of cores manufactured by a commercially available magnetic iron polylactic acid filament with low mass and cost are determined by considering a magnetic circuit of toroidal core geometry. A permanent magnet actuator prototype is then constructed by using equally 3D printing procedure to manufacture also the machine's casing and other individual parts by using a polyethylene terephthalate material. The motor's behavior is evaluated through finite element analysis in conjunction with equivalent surface impedance technique to account for the supply higher harmonic losses and the obtained results are validated by measurements.