Performance Comparison of Conventional and Amorphous AM-built PMSM

Abstract

The performance of additively manufactured electrical machines could see improvement through the utilization of iron-based amorphous materials. These materials exhibit a notable combination of high magnetic permeability and increased specific electrical resistance, albeit with a lower saturation flux density compared to conventional electrical steel. In this study, two identical permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs) are compared, differing only in their soft-magnetic components (SMCs). While one PMSM incorporates electrical steel, the other utilizes bulk metallic glass (BMG) fabricated via selective laser melting (SLM). The BMG-based machine demonstrates a noteworthy reduction in torque output at equal current levels, yet it exhibits superior efficiency under certain operating conditions compared to its electrical steel counterpart. Moreover, the temperature of the BMG-based machine tends to be higher than that of the sheet-based machine.