Close Menu
AM ChronicleAM Chronicle
  • Content
    • News
    • Insights
    • Case Studies
    • AM Infocast
  • Focus Regions
    • India
    • Asia Pacific
    • Middle East
    • North America
    • Europe
  • Industries
    • Automotive
    • Aerospace
    • Defence
    • Energy
    • Construction
    • Healthcare
    • Tooling
    • Engineering
  • Training
  • Magazine
    • Digital Issues
    • Print Subscription
  • Events
Facebook Instagram YouTube LinkedIn
  • About us
  • Media Kit
  • Contact us
Facebook Instagram YouTube LinkedIn
AM ChronicleAM Chronicle
  • Content
    1. News
    2. Insights
    3. Case Studies
    4. AM Infocast
    5. View All
    Velo3D enters CRADA with NAVAIR to Advance Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace and Defense Applications, Credits: Velo3d

    Velo3D enters CRADA with NAVAIR to Advance Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace and Defense Applications

    June 5, 2025
    Novel Magnetic 3D-Printed Pen

    Novel Magnetic 3D-Printed Pen Can be A Promising Diagnostic Tool for Early-Stage Parkinson’s Disease

    June 3, 2025
    Caption:Researchers have developed a resin that turns into two different kinds of solids, depending on the type of light that shines on it: Ultraviolet light cures the resin into a highly resilient solid, while visible light turns the same resin into a solid that is easily dissolvable in certain solvents. Credits:Credit: Courtesy of the researchers; MIT News

    New 3D printing method by MIT enables complex designs and creates less waste

    June 3, 2025
    NAMI Partners with Ministry to Launch Saudi Arabia’s Advanced Manufacturing Centre

    NAMI Partners with Ministry to Launch Saudi Arabia’s Advanced Manufacturing Centre

    May 30, 2025
    Revopoint Trackit Now on Kickstarter: Marker-free 3D Scans Within Everyone's Reach!

    Revopoint Trackit Now on Kickstarter: Marker-free 3D Scans Within Everyone’s Reach!

    May 28, 2025
    Credits: Outokumpu

    Outokumpu launches stainless steel metal powder in additive manufacturing for aerospace and aviation industry applications

    May 22, 2025
    Why Bioprinting Innovations can elevate healthcare and industrial AM

    Why Bioprinting Innovations can elevate healthcare and industrial AM

    May 21, 2025
    Why Additive Manufacturing Excels in Some Applications but Fails in Others?

    Why Additive Manufacturing Excels in Some Applications but Fails in Others?

    May 21, 2025
    Formlabs fuse 1+

    How Imaginarium Helped Kaash Studio Scale with the Right 3D Printing Technology

    April 12, 2025
    The Formlabs Fuse 1+ 30W

    Kaash Studio Optimized Service Bureau Operations with Formlabs 3D Printers- Case Study

    January 30, 2025
    Namthaja Unveils Worlds First 3D Printed Marine Gangway

    Worlds First 3D Printed Marine Gangway unveiled by Namthaja

    August 8, 2024
    RusselSmith Material Performance Improvement Whitepaper

    RusselSmith Whitepaper : Improving Material Performance with Microstructural Refinement

    May 9, 2024
    Sustainable Production of Metal Powder for Additive Manufacturing

    Sustainable Production of Metal Powder for Additive Manufacturing with Bruce Bradshaw

    February 15, 2024
    Meeting Evolving Customer Demands in the Additive Manufacturing Industry with Tyler Reid

    Meeting Evolving Customer Demands in the Additive Manufacturing Industry with Tyler Reid

    February 9, 2024
    Innovation is at the heart of AMUG with Diana Kalisz

    Innovation is at the heart of AMUG with Diana Kalisz

    March 7, 2023
    3D Printing Workshops at AMUG with Edward Graham

    3D Printing Workshops at AMUG with Edward Graham

    March 7, 2023
    Velo3D enters CRADA with NAVAIR to Advance Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace and Defense Applications, Credits: Velo3d

    Velo3D enters CRADA with NAVAIR to Advance Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace and Defense Applications

    June 5, 2025
    New 3D Printing Technology Enables Dual-Material Creation from Single Resin

    New 3D Printing Technology Enables Dual-Material Creation from Single Resin

    June 5, 2025
    Novel Magnetic 3D-Printed Pen

    Novel Magnetic 3D-Printed Pen Can be A Promising Diagnostic Tool for Early-Stage Parkinson’s Disease

    June 3, 2025
    Caption:Researchers have developed a resin that turns into two different kinds of solids, depending on the type of light that shines on it: Ultraviolet light cures the resin into a highly resilient solid, while visible light turns the same resin into a solid that is easily dissolvable in certain solvents. Credits:Credit: Courtesy of the researchers; MIT News

    New 3D printing method by MIT enables complex designs and creates less waste

    June 3, 2025
  • Focus Regions
    • India
    • Asia Pacific
    • Middle East
    • North America
    • Europe
  • Industries
    • Automotive
    • Aerospace
    • Defence
    • Energy
    • Construction
    • Healthcare
    • Tooling
    • Engineering
  • Training
  • Magazine
    • Digital Issues
    • Print Subscription
  • Events
Subscribe
AM ChronicleAM Chronicle
Home » News

Creating Magnetic Structures using Metal Additive Manufacturing

News By Aditya ChandavarkarJune 15, 20205 Mins Read
id55365 1
(Image Source: Empa)
LinkedIn Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Pinterest Email Copy Link

During metal processing in the 3D laser printer, temperatures of more than 2,500 degrees Celsius are reached within milliseconds, causing some components of the alloys to evaporate. While widely considered a problem inherent to the process, Empa researchers spotted an opportunity – and are now using the effect to create new alloys with novel properties and embed them in 3D-printed metallic work pieces with micrometer precision. One of the opportunities they saw is creating magnetic structures using Metal AM.

It looks quite inconspicuous to the casual beholder, hardly like groundbreaking innovation: a small metallic chessboard, four millimeters long on either side. At first glance, it shines like polished steel; at second glance, minute differences in color are visible: The tiny chessboard has 16 squares, eight appear slightly darker, the other eight a bit lighter.

Precisely Magnetized: Iron filings stick to this mini chessboard with four millimeter edge length

Precisely Magnetized: Iron filings stick to this mini chessboard with four millimeter edge length. The partially magnetic structure was produces from a single type of steel power at different temperatures. (Image: Empa)

The unassuming material sample goes to show that 3D printing with the help of laser beams and metal pow-der is not only suitable for creating new geometric shapes, but also for producing new materials with completely new functionalities.

The small chessboard is a particularly obvious example: Eight squares are magnetic, eight non-magnetic – the entire piece has been 3D-printed from a single grade of metal powder. Only the power and duration of the laser beam varied.

As a starting point, an Empa team led by Aryan Arabi-Hashemi and Christian Leinenbach used a special type of stainless steel, which was developed some 20 years ago by the company Hempel Special Metals in Dübendorf, among others. The so-called P2000 steel does not contain nickel, but around one percent of nitrogen. P2000-steel does not cause allergies and is well suited for medical applications. It is particularly hard, which makes conventional milling more difficult.

Unfortunately, at first glance it also seems unsuitable as a base material for 3D laser printing: In the melting zone of the laser beam, the temperature quickly peaks. This is why a large part of the nitrogen within the metal normally evaporates, and the P2000 steel changes its properties.

Turning a problem into an advantage

Arabi-Hashemi and Leinenbach managed to turn this drawback into an advantage. They modified the scanning speed of the laser and the intensity of the laser beam, which melts the particles in the metal powder bed, and thus varied the size and lifetime of the liquid melt pool in a specified manner. In the smallest case, the pool was 200 microns in diameter and 50 microns deep, in the largest case 350 microns wide and 200 microns deep.

The larger melt pool allows much more nitrogen to evaporate from the alloy; the solidifying steel crystallizes with a high proportion of magnetizable ferrite. In the case of the smallest melt pool, the melted steel solidifies much faster. The nitrogen remains in the alloy; the steel crystallizes mainly in the form of non-magnetic austenite.

During the experiment, the researchers had to determine the nitrogen content in tiny, millimeter-sized metal samples very precisely and measure the local magnetization to within a few micrometers, as well as the volume ratio of austenitic and ferritic steel. A number of highly developed analytical methods available at Empa were used for this purpose.

Shape Memory Alloy become smart

The experiment, which seems like a mere gimmick, could soon add a crucial tool to the methodology of metal production and processing.

“In 3D laser printing, we can easily reach temperatures of more than 2500 degrees Celsius locally,” says Leinenbach. “This allows us to vaporize various components of an alloy in a targeted manner – e.g. manganese, alumnium, zinc, carbon and many more – and thus locally change the chemical composition of the alloy.”The method is not limited to stainless steels, but can also be useful for many other alloys.

Leinenbach thinks about, for instance, certain nickel-titanium alloys known as shape memory alloys. At what temperature the alloy “remembers” its programmed shape depends on just 0.1 percent more or less nickel in the mixture. Using a 3D laser printer, structural components could be manufactured that react locally and in a staggered manner to different temperatures.

Fine structures for the electric motor of the future

The ability to produce different alloy compositions with micrometer precision in a single component could also be helpful in the design of more efficient electric motors. For the first time, it is now possible to build the stator and the rotor of the electric motor from magnetically finely structured materials and thus make better use of the geometry of the magnetic fields.

The crucial factor in the discovery of the relationship between laser power, the size of the melt pool and the material’s properties was the expertise in the field of Additive Manufacturing, which has been built up at Empa over the last nine years.

Ever since then, Christian Leinenbach and his team, as one of the world’s leading research groups in the field, have devoted themselves to materials science issues related to 3D laser printing processes. At the same time, Empa researchers have gained experience in process monitoring, especially in measuring the melt pools, whose size and lifetime are crucial for the targeted modification of alloys.

Aditya Chandavarkar
Aditya Chandavarkar
Website
Aditya Chandavarkar is a established entrepreneur with business interests in manufacturing, innovative technology, training and consulting. Among other activities he the Co-Founder of Indian 3D Printing Network and is a subject matter expert on 3D Printing/Additive Manufacturing with good grasp of Additive Manufacturing trends in the Region including India, APAC, Middleeast and Africa.
3d printing additive manufacturing Magnetic Metal AM
Aditya Chandavarkar
  • Website

Aditya Chandavarkar is a established entrepreneur with business interests in manufacturing, innovative technology, training and consulting. Among other activities he the Co-Founder of Indian 3D Printing Network and is a subject matter expert on 3D Printing/Additive Manufacturing with good grasp of Additive Manufacturing trends in the Region including India, APAC, Middleeast and Africa.

LATEST FROM AM
Velo3D enters CRADA with NAVAIR to Advance Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace and Defense Applications, Credits: Velo3d News

Velo3D enters CRADA with NAVAIR to Advance Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace and Defense Applications

June 5, 20252 Mins Read
New 3D Printing Technology Enables Dual-Material Creation from Single Resin Uncategorized

New 3D Printing Technology Enables Dual-Material Creation from Single Resin

June 5, 20251 Min Read
Novel Magnetic 3D-Printed Pen News

Novel Magnetic 3D-Printed Pen Can be A Promising Diagnostic Tool for Early-Stage Parkinson’s Disease

June 3, 20253 Mins Read

CONNECT WITH US

  • 126 A, Dhuruwadi, A. V. Nagvekar Marg, Prabhadevi, Mumbai 400025
  • [email protected]
  • +91 022 24306319
Facebook Instagram YouTube LinkedIn

Newsletter

Subscribe to the AM Chronicle mailer to receive latest tech updates and insights from global industry experts.

SUBSCRIBE NOW

Quick Links

  • News
  • Insights
  • Case Studies
  • AM Training
  • AM Infocast
  • AM Magazine
  • Events

Media

  • Advertise with us
  • Sponsored Articles
  • Media Kit

Events

  • AM Conclave 2025
    24-25 September 2025 | ADNEC, Abu Dhabi
  • AMTECH 2025
    3-4 December 2025 | KTPO, Whitefield, Bengaluru
CNT Expositions & Services LLP
© 2025 CNT Expositions & Services LLP.
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.



0 / 75