Axial-flux motor concept

Prototype of a 3D-printed,carbon-reinforced, light-weight, axial-flux machine.

The goal of this project was to:

1-Evaluate the feasability of 3D-printing a brushless motor prototype, as opposed to earlier prototypes built at VUB that are built from aluminium CNC-machined parts. A 3D-printed motor would allow for faster prototyping and allow for more complex geometry such as internal cooling channels.

2-Create a power/efficiency benchmark for a light-weight, coreless axial-flux motor. A coreless air-cooled axial-flux motor would need to be larger than a similar motor with steel cores for the same power output. However, the coreless version could potentially be lighter per kilowatt than the steel-core version, if you can build a light-weight, large-diameter frame.

3-Get experience in the practical prototyping aspects of axial-flux motors.

Interest/possible applications are:

-Use as a motor for an electric one-off vehicle.

-Use as a light-weight, no-gear generator for a small wind turbine.

Test setup, black machine is driven with a VESC-driver, white machine has a triangular 3-phase resistive load. Both machines have encoders, and a temperature sensor embedded in the stator. The white machine is mounted on rotating mount so the resulting torque cqn be measured with a load cell. Output current and voltage is measured with multimeters.