Description
The use of Neodymium-Iron-Boron (NdFeB) magnets in electrical machines enables the realization of powerful wind power generators or drives of modern electric vehicles with high efficiency and thus lays the foundation for the energy and mobility transition. But NdFeB is also used in speakers, smartphones or sensors to ensure the functionality of the application with minimal packaging space. High-performance NdFeB magnets are manufactured industrially using powder metallurgy processes such as sintering or bonded with plastics. The shaping of the magnets is limited with regard to the removal from the mold and the production is associated with a high lead time for the tooling. This thesis deals with laser powder bed fusion of metals (PBF-LB/M) as an alternative manufacturing process, in which the magnets can be produced directly from powder material without tools and with a very high degree of geometric design freedom. Thanks to the results obtained, it is already possible to reproduce the magnetic properties of certain plastic-bonded NdFeB magnets by additive manufacturing. The research results also contribute to extending the geometric design freedom of additive manufacturing processes by a magnetic dimension. This will enable developers of magnetic circuits to conceive completely new design variants that are not restricted by the design guidelines of existing manufacturing processes and to turn them into reality within a very short time. Due to the short-term availability of NdFeB magnets that can be realized in PBF-LB/M, the point in the product development cycle at which the magnet geometry is fixed and no more changes are possible can be moved to a late point in time. This makes it possible to react to short-term changes in the requirements of the machine's running properties or to compensate for tolerances in the magnet circuit.
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