Properties of soft magnetic Fe-Co-V alloy produced by laser powder bed fusion

Tuomas Riipinen (Corresponding Author), Sini Metsä-Kortelainen, Tomi Lindroos, Janne Keränen, Aino Manninen, Jenni Pippuri-Mäkeläinen

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

    55 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on the developments in manufacturing soft magnetic materials using laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF).

    Design/methodology/approach – Ternary soft magnetic Fe-49Co-2V powder was produced by gas atomization and used in an L-PBF machine to produce samples for material characterization. The L-PBF process parameters were optimized for the material, using a design of experiments approach. The printed samples were exposed to different heat treatment cycles to improve the magnetic properties. The magnetic properties were measured with quasi-static direct current and alternating current measurements at different frequencies and magnetic flux densities. The mechanical properties were characterized with tensile tests. Electrical resistivity of the material was measured.

    Findings – The optimized L-PBF process parameters resulted in very low porosity. The magnetic properties improved greatly after the heat treatments because of changes in microstructure. Based on the quasi-static DC measurement results, one of the heat treatment cycles led to magnetic saturation, permeability and coercivity values comparable to a commercial Fe-Co-V alloy. The other heat treatments resulted in abnormal grain growth and poor magnetic performance. The AC measurement results showed that the magnetic losses were relatively high in the samples owing to formation of eddy currents.

    Research limitations/implications – The influence of L-PBF process parameters on the microstructure was not investigated; hence, understanding the relationship between process parameters, heat treatments and magnetic properties would require more research.

    Originality/value – The relationship between microstructure, chemical composition, heat treatments, resistivity and magnetic/mechanical properties of L-PBF processed Fe-Co-V alloy has not been reported previously.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)699-707
    JournalRapid Prototyping Journal
    Volume25
    Issue number4
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 13 May 2019
    MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

    Funding

    The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from Academy of Finland (funding decisions 289338 and 306236).

    Keywords

    • Additive manufacturing
    • Soft magnetic material
    • L-PBF
    • Fe-Co-V
    • Magnetic properties
    • Mechanical properties

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