Additive manufacturing and energy-harvesting performance of honeycomb-structured magnetostrictive Fe52–Co48 alloys

Energy harvesting using magnetostrictive materials is currently attracting significant attention. The additive manufacturing process can produce such materials with excellent energy-harvesting performance and various required properties, including mechanical properties—by optimizing the lattice structure of the material. This study optimized the manufacturing parameters of a laser powder bed fusion process to produce a magnetostrictive Fe52–Co48 alloy. We evaluated the energy-harvesting performance of a Fe52–Co48 alloy plate with a honeycomb structure subjected to vibrations and impacts. We compared the results with a fully dense structure and found that the honeycomb structure resulted in a lower resonant frequency. In addition, the honeycomb structure exhibited a power density 4.7 times higher than that of the fully dense structure in a vibration test and 4.9 times higher than that in an impact test. The honeycomb structure is thus an attractive structure for obtaining power efficiently. Furthermore, honeycomb structures and other designs can reduce the weight of a Fe52–Co48 alloy plate and improve its sensitivity for use as a particulate-matter sensor.