3D-Printed Magnets

How can you produce a magnet with exactly the right magnetic field? TU Wien has a solution: for the first time, magnets can be made with a 3D printer. Today, manufacturing strong magnets is no problem from a technical perspective. It is, however, difficult to produce a permanent magnet with a magnetic field of a specific pre-determined shape. That is, until now, thanks to the new solution devised at TU Wien: for the first time ever, permanent magnets can be produced using a 3D printer. This allows magnets to be produced in complex forms and precisely customised magnetic fields, required, for example, in magnetic sensors. Designed on a computer - 'The strength of a magnetic field is not the only factor,' says Dieter Süss, Head of the Christian-Doppler Advanced Magnetic Sensing and Materials laboratory at TU Wien. 'We often require special magnetic fields, with field lines arranged in a very specific way - such as a magnetic field that is relatively constant in one direction, but which varies in strength in another direction.' - In order to achieve such requirements, magnets must be produced with a sophisticated geometric form.