NSF-MeitY: Metal Additive Manufacturing, Advanced Photon Source, In-Situ Monitoring, Rare-Earth Magnet, Materials Design

With more than half of the US electricity consumption due to electrical motors, even small gains in efficiency, especially of the emerging direct current (DC) motors, would have a profound impact on energy usage. Permanent magnets are the most essential component in DC motors, and rare earth permanent magnets are far superior to any other permanent magnet. But since supply chain issues beset rare earth materials, more efficient use of these natural resources is paramount. Additive manufacturing (AM) offers the ability to produce near-net-shape and net-shape parts, significantly decreasing waste of these materials. Additionally, AM provides unique design strategies which can revolutionize motor design, further enhancing performance. More pertinently, AM processes for magnetic materials have not received much attention. This NSF-MeitY award is an international collaboration with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology of India (MeitY). It supports research that seeks to understand crucial phenomena, namely, the material solidification and development of microstructure in the AM process for rare earth permanent magnets, which critically affect the magnetic performance. This project will achieve a comprehensive understanding of the additive manufacturing (AM) of rare earth permanent magnets through three main objectives: (1) designing alloys tailored for the solidification conditions encountered during AM; (2) conducting in situ studies of the AM process to gain insights into the processing science of complex alloy systems; and (3) fabricating part-level magnets using commercial laser powder bed fusion machines, producing both isotropic and anisotropic grain structures, from the knowledge gained in Objectives 1 and 2. The results of the project will lead to a thorough understanding of the thermokinetics of the AM process, and from that detailed processing maps to enable exact microstructural design during AM. This project will involve student and faculty exchanges between the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the India Institute of Technology-Kharagpur, and train students in magnetic materials and AM to ensure continued US leadership in these areas. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.