• MIT-developed 3D printer can output a fully functional electric motor in a single process - team only needed to magnetize the linear motor after printing, motors cost just 50 cents each Are we going to be able to 3D print completed engines in the future? • Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. • You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful A team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a 3D printer that is capable of printing a fully functional linear motor in just a few hours. • According to the paper published on Virtual and Physical Prototyping, the device is equipped with four different extruders - a filament extruder, a pellet extruder, an ink extruder, and a heater - and outputted five different materials - dielectric, electrically conductive, soft magnetic, hard magnetic, and flexible. • The team aimed to build a multi-model, multi-material extrusion 3D printer that can build an electric motor with as few steps as possible. • Most existing extrusion 3D printers can only switch between two different materials, so MIT News reported that the team built their own system and retrofitted to an existing printer.
Article Summaries:
- MIT researchers have built a multi‑material 3D printer that can fabricate a fully functional linear electric motor in just a few hours. The printer uses four extruders to deposit dielectric, conductive, soft magnetic, hard magnetic, and flexible materials, producing a motor that only requires post‑printing magnetization. The resulting device performs as well as or better than traditionally manufactured motors, with material costs around 50 cents. Compared to conventional prototyping, which can take weeks or months, this method cuts production time to a single day and enables on‑site, on‑demand replacement parts, potentially reducing reliance on global supply chains.
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