Magnet Assisted Granular Iron Control
Our project holds each layer of iron powder on the printing surface by inducing a uniform magnetic field through the printing volume.
Laser Powder Bed Fusion
The result of this project is an adaptation of LPBF that solves the challenges of additive manufacturing in a microgravity environment.
Helmholtz Coil
A mechanism of two parallel Helmholtz coils were employed to control the iron powder because of its scalability and uniform magnetic field properties.
Other Systems Considered
The coil mechanism was designed to integrate into a custom-built LPBF machine to be used on the surface of Psyche.
Powder Control
The system holds iron powder on the printing surface, counteracting the negative effects of microgravity.
Scalability
The coil system can be scaled to any size by adjusting the radius, number of turns, wire diameter, and operating current.
Uniform Magnetic Field
The coil system produces a uniform magnetic field throughout the print bed. This holds each layer of powder level, ideal for LPBF.
