The file 'Electromagnet 2 3D Printer Model' is (AD_PRT,stl) file type, size is 495.8KB.
This is a follow-on to http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:904
It is a cylinder with a helical channel. The channel is designed so that the part can be printed without any internal support material. This was printed on a Dimension uPrint with zero internal support material.
The hollow channel can then be filled with low-melting-temperature metal alloy to form an electromagnet.
Due to the low number of turns, the performance of the electromagnet is poor. This is really just a proof-of-principle of the fabrication method, not much of a practical electromagnet.
Malone and Lipson report better results using similar materials with a layer-by-layer approach in the paper "Multi-material Freeform Fabrication of Active Systems" which can be found here: http://creativemachines.cornell.edu/publications
The SpoolHead is another promising approach for making embedded conductors. Info here: http://reprap.org/wiki/SpoolHead
UPDATE June 27 2011 - Also be sure to check out Rhys Jones' new results on the RepRap page here: http://blog.reprap.org/2011/06/new-approach-to-printing-metals.html
coilBlockRev2.AD_PRT | 685.5KB | |
coilBlockRev2.stl | 1.2MB | |
coilChannelRev2.AD_PRT | 663.0KB | |
coilChannelRev2.stl | 867.2KB |