3D Printing of NdFeB Nylon Polymer Bonded Magnets

The main goal of this research is to print near-net shape NdFeB polymer bonded magnets and to minimize the generated waste. One of the ways in which we can achieve this goal is by using extrusion based big area additive manufacturing technique to create complex shapes and geometries of polymer bonded magnets from a computer aided design which requires no tooling but little post-field-annealing reducing the amount of waste generated. We have successfully demonstrated the fabrication of near-net shape magnets with complex geometries and high energy product using over 65vol% of NdFeB in nylon polymer composite magnets. Several configurations of magnetic fields were used for aligning the magnets during printing. A higher energy product of 11.3 MGOe have been obtained for 65 vol% anisotropic composite bonded magnets aligned in 20 kOe with post-annealing. It is also observed at certain conditions; the post-aligned printed magnets didn’t deform and hence the original shape is preserved. We will discuss in detail about the correlation of magnetic alignment with properties.