Toward Additively Manufactured Electrical Machines: Opportunities and Challenges

With the growing interest in electrification and as hybrid and pure electric powertrains are adopted in more applications, electrical machine design is facing challenges in terms of meeting very demanding performance metrics, for example, high specific power, and harsh environments. This provides clear motivation to explore the impact of advanced materials and manufacturing on the performance of electrical machines. This article provides an overview of additive manufacturing (AM) approaches that can be used for constructing electrical machines, with a specific focus on additively manufactured iron core, winding, insulation, and permanent magnet, as well as cooling systems. Since there has only been a few attempts so far to explore AM in electrical machines (especially when it comes to fully additively manufactured machines), the benefits and challenges of AM have not been comprehensively understood. In this regard, this article offers a detailed comparison of multiple multimaterial AM methods, showing not only the possibility of fully additively manufactured electrical machines but also the potential significant improvements in their mechanical, electromagnetic, and thermal properties. The articles will provide a comprehensive discussion of opportunities and challenges of AM in the context of electrical machines.