MIT researchers have developed a multimaterial 3D-printing platform capable of producing a working linear motor in about three hours using five functional material classes—conductors, insulators, soft and hard magnetics, and flexible components—for roughly $0.50 in raw materials. The system uses four interchangeable tools including a pellet extruder that enables higher magnetic particle loading than standard filament printing. The printed motor performed comparably or better than conventionally fabricated equivalents, requiring only a single post-print magnetization step. The team sees the platform as a path toward cheaper, faster, supply-chain-independent hardware fabrication, with next steps targeting rotary motors, though researchers caution the technology is still far from EV-scale applications.
Sort: