SBIR-STTR Award

In 2008, Larry Fullerton made a fundamental discovery in magnetism. That discovery has led to the development of permanent magnets with programmed spatial force curves, tuned field-propagation characteristics, higher attachment forces and lower cost fabrication of magnet assemblies. The opportunity is to apply this discovery and its related technologies to magnetic couple and gear devices. Specifically, this proposal outlines a study to characterize the performance gains that result from incorporating this new set of technologies into current magnetic gear architecture.

Benefit:
1) Higher torque density and higher torsional stiffness magnetic gears, 2) Lower cost manufacturing of complex, multipole magnetic devices, 3) Broader application of low-noise and low maintenance magnetic devices within the Navy, 4) Improved magnetic gear devices for wind power to address the critical industry need for higher gearbox reliability.

Keywords:
maxels, maxels, Magnetic gears, shear force, programmable magnets

During the Phase I project, 40% improvements in magnetic shear force and 200 to 500% increases in magnetic coupling torque-density were demonstrated by applying the Correlated Magnetics Research’s (CMR) domain engineering and magnetization technologies to commercially available materials. The Phase II builds on this previous work in four important ways. 1) CMR will seek greater shear force improvements from domain optimization and creating low-tensile force magnetic structures that retain shear force capabilities, 2) CMR will scale its novel magnetization machines to support volume production for industrial devices, 3) CMR will work with at least one magnetic coupling company to develop a commercialization plan that identifies the best first coupling product, subsequent coupling product opportunities and subsequent opportunities related to magnetic gears, and 4) CMR, again with at least one industry partner, will design, build and test a fully functional magnetic coupling to a TRL 5. The improvements in magnetic couplings developed and demonstrated during the proposed work can be applied directly to many magnetic gear architectures during concurrent or subsequent research and development efforts. Magnetic couplings are 1-to-1 magnetic gears and represent the largest number of applications and highest volume of individual units of any magnetic gear market segment.

Keywords:
Magnetic Coupling, High Torque Density, Magnetic Gears, Manufacturing