Motivations:

Magnetic levitation (MagLev) and additive manufacturing (AM) are both promising fields of study. However, there has been minimal overlap between the two fields. Boeing has developed a patent which focuses on the overlap between the two fields. However, the work focuses on a high-level view of the idea.	The substrate is defined as the build surface upon which the deposited melted powder layers fuse to form the part being manufactured. By bypassing the need for a substrate, a higher degree of freedom for the substrate can be achieved.	The dependence on the substrate also results in the requirement of significant post-manufacturing operations to remove the built part from the substrate, which can be time-consuming.

Objectives:

Development of a magnetic levitation system compatible with Additive Manufacturing applications. This entails achievement of stable steady state levitation within the axial and radial axes while accounting for relevant effects of AM operations like powder deposition.

Working Principle:

The Levitation System depends on the induction of eddy currents. According to Faraday's Law, time varying magnetic fields result in induction of a voltage in a conductor placed in close proximity to the source. The voltage results in the generation of currents within the conductor, known as Eddy Currents.

System Description:

The system is composed of three relevant sub-systems: The levitation System, the AM system and the controllable input to the levitation system. The levitation system is responsible for the generation of levitation forces in the axial and radial axes to achieve steady state stable levitation. The AM sub-system is responsible for carrying out the Direct Energy Deposition (DED) AM operations. The DMD-IC106 machine is available at the MSAM lab for the application. Finally, the controllable input to the coils are responsible for supplying the input current to the levitation system and facilitate adjustment of the inputs based on the need.