This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been

fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI
10.1109/TMAG.2015.2435817, IEEE Transactions on Magnetics

AU-14

3D Printing Based Design of Axial Flux Magnetic Gear

for High Torque Density
Mi-Ching TSAI and Li-Hsing KU
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan
This paper investigates a novel design of the axial flux type magnetic gears that adopts L-type ferromagnetic pole pieces and spoketype ferrite magnet arrangement. This design not only decreases flux leakage, but also improves torque density. Three-dimensional
(3D) finite element analysis is employed to compute the magnetic and torque characteristics of the three-dimensional design. Moreover,
a newly developed 3D printing process is introduced to overcome the fabrication difficulty and expedite the manufacturing process. A
prototype of this novel magnetic gear design approach is given to verify the simulation result and the feasibility of the proposed 3D
printing approach.

Index Terms Magnetic gears, contactless coupling, ferromagnetic pole pieces, 3D printing.
I. INTRODUCTION
It is known that magnetic gears have been widely
developed due to their contactless property and potential
benefits, such as low acoustic noise, low vibration, and
overload protection [1]-[5]. The vast majority of literature
about magnetic gears was presented in the last decade and
primarily focused on the radial-field topology of magnetic
gears (RFMGs). In 2005, Mezani proposed an axial-field
topology for magnetic gears (AFMGs) that is suitable for
hermetically isolated systems [6]. In order to improve AFMG
performance, Acharya investigated an AFMG design with
magnets arranged in a flux focusing configuration [7]. For the
application of contactless coupling, AFMGs are more
applicable than RFMGs because of the assembly difficulty
[8]-[9]. However, AFMG design faces the challenges of high
cost resulting from the magnetic material and the
complications in the assembly process of the 3D pole-piece
shapes. This paper investigates a novel AFMG design that
uses L-type ferromagnetic pole pieces and ferrite magnets
with spoke-type magnet arrangement to reduce the flux
leakage as well as increase the flux in the air gap. The AFMG
structure is composed of numerous parts with configurations
that will be difficult to fabricate using traditional methods.
Therefore, a newly developed 3D printing process is employed
to overcome the fabrication difficulty of the proposed model,
reduce the waste material from machining, and assemble parts
precisely without screws.
II. MODEL DESIGN
The proposed AFMG is illustrated in Fig.1, and the
structure includes a high-speed rotor, a low-speed rotor, and a
stationary ring. The high-speed rotor and the stationary ring
are comprised of permanent magnets, while the low-speed
rotor is composed of ferromagnetic pole-pieces. The pole
directions of the magnets and the L-type ferromagnetic polepieces used to reduce the flux leakage are indicated in Fig.2.
The design criterion of the magnetic gear, which can also
function as a mechanical gear, is based on the total number of
P1 pole-pair permanent magnets (PMs) on Rotor 1 rotating at
1, P3 pole-pairs PMs on Rotor 3 rotating at 3, and N2

ferromagnetic pole-pieces on Rotor 2 rotating at 2. Thus, this

criterion is governed by the relation below:
N2 = P1 + P3 .
(1)
Then, the relationship between the angular velocity of the
rotors is given as

P3
N2
2
3 .
N2 P3
P3 N2

(2)

Let Rotors 1, 2, and 3 be the input rotor, output rotor, and

stationary ring, respectively, such that the higher gear ratio
and torque density can be achieved. The speed of the
corresponding relationship between two rotors is

Gr
where

N2
,
N2 P3

(3)

Gr is defined as the gear ratio.

stationary ring
(Rotor 3)

low-speed rotor
(Rotor 2)

high-speed rotor
(Rotor 1)

Fig.1 Proposed axial flux type of magnetic gear

steel poles
L-type
ferromagnetic
pole-pieces

stationary
ring

magnets

high-speed
rotor
magnets
steel poles

low-speed
rotor

Fig.2 AFMG with L-type ferromagnetic pole-pieces

0018-9464 (c) 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See
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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI
10.1109/TMAG.2015.2435817, IEEE Transactions on Magnetics

AU-14

Since Rotor 2 is combined with ferromagnetic pole-pieces

and non-ferromagnetic air, cogging torque exists. The cogging
factor is defined as

Cf

2 PN2
,
Ns

(4)

where Ns is the lowest common multiple [10]. The smaller

cogging factor could induce smaller cogging torque; therefore,
the choice of a smaller pole-pair P and a bigger Ns is justified
in this study. In this paper, the spoke-type axial flux magnetic
gear with pole-pairs P1=6, P3=19 and pole-pieces N2=25 is
chosen to demonstrate the ripple-free torque transmission.
Since the remanence of ferrite magnets is often lower, the
spoke-type magnet arrangement is used to increase the flux.
Note that the magnet span and steel span are assumed to be
equal in the proposed model. The flux density of the pole-steel
in the spoke-type magnet arrangement may be saturated;
hence, the flux focusing ratio should be properly defined by
the pole-steel area facing the air gap over the area of the
magnet [7]. The flux focusing ratio of Rotor 1 can be
expressed as

8l1s P1
,
C1
( Rout Rin )

The flux leakage is especially serious on the inner radius, as

illustrated in Fig.4. Moreover, the operation point of the
spoke-type ferrite magnet used in the axial type magnetic gear
is different from the radius position shown in Fig.5. The
operation point of Position 1 on the inner radius is relatively
lower than other positions. Therefore, the L-type
ferromagnetic pole-pieces shown in Fig.6 are used to increase
the effective area of the pole-steel, including the axial side
(Ag1) and radial side (Ag2) on Rotor 3, as shown in Fig.7.
Further, this design cannot only reduce the flux leakage, but
can also improve the operation point of the ferrite magnets.
The specifications of the proposed AFMG are shown in Table
I.

flux leakage

(5)

where Rout, Rin, l1s, and P1 are the outer radius, inner radius,
thickness of Rotor 1, and pole pairs on Rotor 1, respectively.
Similarly, the flux focusing ratio of Rotor 3 is given by

C3

8l3s P3
,
( Rout Rin )

Rotor 3

Fig.4 Flux leakage on Rotor 3

(6)

where l3s and P3 are the thickness of Rotor 3 and pole pairs on
Rotor 3, respectively.
Thus, the flux density of pole-steels on both Rotors 1 and 3 are
expressed respectively as

Bg1 C1 Bm1

(7)

Bg3 C3 Bm3 ,

(8)

and
where Bm1 and Bm3 are the flux density of magnets on both
Rotors 1 and 3, respectively. From (7) and (8), the parameters
of the magnet rings can be designed based on the material
characteristics of pole-steels to prevent saturation.

Position 1
Fig.5 Operation point along radius position

III. COMPUTER SIMULATIONS

L-type ferromagnetic
pole-pieces

The axial type magnetic gear without L-type ferromagnetic

pole-pieces is shown in Fig.3, which is composed of several
pole-pairs on Rotor 3. The north and south poles are so close
to each other that they cause much flux leakage.

axial
flux

axial
flux

Rout
Rin

rotor 3 3
Rotor

Rotor 2
Rotor 1

Rotor 3

Fig.3 Axial type magnetic gear without L-type ferromagnetic pole-pieces

radial
flux
Fig.6 L-type ferromagnetic pole-pieces

0018-9464 (c) 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See
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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI
10.1109/TMAG.2015.2435817, IEEE Transactions on Magnetics

AU-14

3
TABLE I
AFMG SPECIFICATIONS

Index
PM material
Pole-steel material
Pole-piece material
Pole pairs on Rotor 1 (P1)
Pole pairs on Rotor3 (P3)
Number of pole-pieces on Rotor 2 (Ns)
Outer radius (Rout)
Inner radius (Rin)
Thickness of Rotor 1 (l1s)
Thickness of Rotor 3 (l3s)
Thickness of Rotor 2 (l2s)
Air gap between Rotor 1 and 2
Air gap between Rotor 2 and 3

Quantity
Ferrite (Y30)
low carbon steel
low carbon steel
6
19
25
100
40
22
15
8
4
3

Unit

mm
mm
mm
mm
mm
mm
mm

Note that the solid low carbon steel used in this prototype will
cause eddy current losses according to the 3D FEM analysis
result as shown in Fig.10. The lamination steels or soft
magnetic composite can be adopted to improve the
performance of the proposed AFMG, but the manufacturing
process would become complex. Currently, a high
permeability soft magnetic composite powder dedicated to 3D
printing has been developed in our study to achieve the needed
3D structure.

pole-steel

Fig.10 Simulated eddy current losses of proposed AFMG

Ag1
Ag 2

IV. RESULTS

Rotor 3
rotor

Fig.7 Effective area of pole-steel on Rotor 3

The range of the operation points on Position 1 with and

without L-type ferromagnetic pole-pieces is shown in Fig.8.
The operation point with the L-type design increases
significantly such that the magnet cannot demagnetize. The
maximum torque of the AFPM obtained from the ANSYS 3D
finite element analysis (FEM) design tool is around 4.7 N-m,
as shown in Fig.9, which is higher than the AFPM without Ltype ferromagnetic pole-pieces (4.25N-m), but has the same
volume.

A prototype of this design was made to verify the

simulation result and the feasibility of the proposed 3D
printing approach. The 3D printing technology is mainly
employed to construct props which are difficult to be made
with traditional fabrication methods. The props with threedimensional slots shown in Fig.11 can fix the pole-steels on
both Rotors 1 and 3. All pole-steels inserted into the slots, as
shown in Fig.12, will accurately affix to certain positions
without the need for a screw.

0.5
Pc Bmin(without L-type)
Pc Bmax(without L-type)
Pc Bmin(with L-type)
Pc Bmax(with L-type)
demagnetize curve

0.45
0.4
0.35

Fig.11 Props for pole-steels

Rotor 3

Rotor 1

0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
-0.45

-0.4

-0.35

-0.3

-0.25
-0.2
u0H (T)

-0.15

-0.1

-0.05

Fig.8 Operation point on Position 1

6

high speed
rotor
high speed
rotor
low speed
rotor
low speed
rotor
4

Torque (Nm)

B (T)

0.3
0.25

pole-steel
ferrite
magnet

3D printed prop

Fig.12 Props with inserted pole-steels and ferrite magnets

-2

-4

-6
0

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

Mechanical Angular Position (rad)

Fig.9 Torque characteristic

0.25

The ferrite magnets in this prototype shown in Fig.13 are

manufactured by a grinding machine and a water jet cutter,
which are cheaper than molding, to obtain the required
trapezoid shape.

0018-9464 (c) 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See
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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI
10.1109/TMAG.2015.2435817, IEEE Transactions on Magnetics

AU-14

4
structure, making the fabrication a huge challenge. To remedy
this, this study employed a 3D printing technology. The
prototype is fabricated to demonstrate the feasibility of the 3D
printing approach. Due to the simplicity of experiment, we
only adopted the ferrite magnets to verify the feasibility and
compare the experimental result with that of its simulation.
magnet on Rotor 3

magnet on Rotor 1

Fig.13 Trapezoid ferrite magnets

All L-type ferromagnetic pole-pieces are separated to be

fixed on the accurate axial, radial, and circumferential
positions. The 3D printed prop with the slot design shown in
Fig.14 would solve the positioning problem. Moreover, no
screw is required, and the pole-pieces can be assembled
together and coupled to the shaft easily. The prototype of the
proposed AFMG with 3D printing technology was
successfully built, as shown in Fig.15. The feasibility is
verified and the pull-out torque for low-speed rotor measured
with a linked bar is around 4.9N-m. The torque measurement
from the experiment has increased 4.5% relative to the
simulation result, which is primarily due to the mechanical
friction and the aligned error from fabrication.

The experimental results showed that the novel AFMG

implemented by ferrite magnets can provide the torque density
of 3kNm/m3 in this study. It is known that the torque density
of axial magnetic gears using NdFeB can be up to 70kNm/m3
while the air gap being 2mm [6]. This could be a challenge for
a 3D printing prop to sustain the axial force. In this work,
however, we have also simulated the proposed design with
NdFeB N42 and found that the simulated torque transmission
capacity can be improved significantly, for which the
simulation torque density of the same air gap can reach to
74kNm/m3.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work is mainly supported by Ministry of Science and
Technology (MOST) of Taiwan, under project MOST-1032218-E-006-015.
REFERENCES

shaft

[1]

[2]

[3]
3D printed prop
L-type ferromagnetic pole-pieces

[4]

Fig.14 Props for L-type ferromagnetic pole-pieces

[5]

[6]

[7]

bar
(linked Rotor 2)

fixed bar
(linked Rotor 1)

[8]

Rotor 3
(stationary permanent magnet ring)

Rotor 1
(high speed rotor)
Rotor 2
(low speed rotor)

[9]

Fig.15 Prototype of proposed AFMG with 3D printing technology

V. CONCLUSIONS
This paper has proposed a novel AFMG design with L-type
ferromagnetic pole-pieces, which cannot only decrease the
flux leakage, but also improve the torque density. However,
the proposed AFMG is inherently a three-dimensional

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