Grant: Alliance Grants

The aviation industry must electrify in order to reduce its carbon footprint. This electrification requires electric motors and generators with high-power density that must operate at high-speed and high-temperature, which disqualifies conventional materials such as Neodinium-Iron-Boron (NdFeB), as well as conventional electrical machine architectures. New materials and/or types of electric motors must be explored, which also requires reviewing traditional manufacturing processes. This project aims to push the limits of the cold spray process to manufacture rotors of electrical machines of innovative architecture from materials that can operate at high-temperature (~300 degrees Celcius) without loss of performance or rapid degradation (composites of samarium-cobalt + aluminum and/or copper alloys). Cold spraying is therefore expected to be a manufacturing technique capable of removing the technological obstacles to a new generation of high-power density engines for aeronautics. The project will strengthen Quebec and Canada's expertise in additive manufacturing by cold spraying. The new knowledge acquired will allow Canada to better position itself in the growing market of transport electrification, either by marketing of new products (engines for aeronautics), by developing new fabrication processes, or by improving the capabilities of electric motor design software tools, with direct feedback of a multi-disciplinary team.