Additive Manufacturing of Electrical Machines–A Comprehensive Review of Recent Advancements

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a promising technology for the design and fabrication of electric machines (EMs), enabling the development of customized structures, complex geometries, and unique material compositions that are difficult to achieve utilizing conventional manufacturing processes. AM provides opportunities to improve the multi-physics performance of EMs through lightweight designs, advanced thermal management strategies, and novel electromagnetic architectures. This paper presents a detailed review of AM concepts to improve the electromagnetic and thermal performance of EMs. Recent developments in different machine topologies with a focus on weight reduction, magnetic performance improvement, loss reduction, efficiency increase, hotspot reduction, and thermal management are examined. Emerging research opportunities, practical applications, and current challenges and limitations related to manufacturing, material selection, scalability, sustainability, and industrialization are discussed as well. This work provides a detailed synthesis of recent literature and a comprehensive assessment of the opportunities and challenges of AM for next-generation high-performance EMs.