With growing interest in electrification from clean energy technologies, such as wind power, and the use of pure electric powertrains in various applications, the demand for next-generation, high-performance magnetic materials has risen significantly. Electrical machine design for these applications is facing challenges in terms of meeting very demanding metrics for power densities and conversion efficiencies, thereby motivating the exploration of advanced materials and manufacturing for the next generation of lightweight ultra-efficient electric machines. The main goal of our research is to fabricate near-net shape high-performance permanent magnets, reduce the criticality of Nd, Dy, etc. by minimizing the waste generation associated with magnet manufacturing, and reduce the overall cost. Extrusion based big area additive manufacturing (AM) process is utilized for fabrication of dense anisotropic bonded magnets. High loading fraction (70 vol.%) of magnequench anisotropic Nd-Fe-B powder in nylon was used for preparing anisotropic bonded magnets. A higher energy product of ~143.2 kJ/m3 is obtained for the post printed magnetic field aligned at 1-3 Tesla. These findings make an important step towards the fabrication of gap magnets with energy product excelling current commercial Nd-Fe-B bonded magnets and approaching the performance of Sm-Co sintered magnets. I will highlight the current status of AM of large electrical machines, AM process selection guidelines, hybrid printing technologies, and the associated opportunities and challenges.

Dr. Parans Paranthaman, Ph.D. is a corporate fellow in the Chemical Sciences Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). He earned his Ph.D. in materials science and solid-state chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow with 2019 Chemistry Nobel Prize winner John Goodenough at the University of Texas, Austin and a Research Associate with Allen Hermann at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He joined the Chemistry Department at ORNL in May 1993. His present research interests center on the development of additive manufacturing of N95 fabrics and antiviral coatings, fabrication of wide bandgap semiconductor devices, quantum materials synthesis and characterizations, additive manufacturing of rare earth permanent magnets for motors and generators, lithium separation from geothermal brine, clay minerals, recycled lithium-ion batteries, recovery of carbon from recycled tires for clean energy applications, and development of electrode materials for energy storage applications. Dr. Paranthaman is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, Materials Research Society, AAAS, American Physical Society, American Ceramic Society, ASM International, and the Institute of Physics. He was named the “Top Scientist of the Year” at ORNL in 2019 and has won several more awards including many DOE “Outstanding Mentor” awards, eight “R&D 100” awards, and three national and two regional “Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC)” awards. He was named the Lockheed-Martin (ORNL) “Scientist of the Year” in 1997. He was also named ORNL “Inventor of the Year” in 2016. Since 2004, he is one of the associate editors for the Journal of American Ceramic Society. He is also starting as the editor for Journal of Alloys and Compounds. Dr. Paranthaman has authored or co-authored more than 450 journal publications with over 22,260 citations and an “h-index” of 73. He holds 56 issued U.S. patents spanning more than 90 inventions related to his research. He has licensed his technologies to more than ten industries for commercialization. Between 1999 and 2009, he was ranked #2 in worldwide citations in high temperature superconductivity research. He has also coedited several books and co-organized several conferences and workshops. He has mentored over 100 students, visitors, postdoctoral researchers, and early career researchers. In addition, he has presented several invited talks and keynote speeches. He leads the ORNL Corporate Fellow Council, several internal and external committees, and previously participated in the National Academy of Inventors Fellow Selection Committee member.