3D Printer helps create Magnetic Field Maps

Researchers at Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University have developed a new, low-cost method of magnetic field mapping. Using 3D printers and traditional lab equipment, their team has developed an automated device that offers high resolution while not being expensive compared to analog commercial devices.

Magnetic elements are present in many modern devices, from smartphones to computers to medical equipment. Certain properties of the magnetic field, particularly intensity and spatial structure, are critical for these systems to function properly.

While Hall sensors are inexpensive and compact measuring devices for magnetic field intensity at single points, devices for mapping the spatial structure of magnetic fields are rare and expensive. Researchers at Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, the University of Genoa and the University of Oviedo have now developed an inexpensive, easy-to-build solution for this purpose.

The researchers used a 3D printer to move a Hall sensor and developed software to automate the process. The device was tested by measuring spatial structures of the magnetic fields of smartphones, floppy disks and flexible magnets, which provided three-dimensional maps of the magnetic field strength for each object tested.

“Because we used widely accessible on the market components, the suggested approach provides cheap and flexible way of mapping of magnetic fields. It can be easily adapted for various systems and usage, for example, simply by changing a Hall sensor for another one, more suitable for specific work. Going forward, we hope to use this system for testing of the samples that we produce – systems that consisting of several permanent magnets and composite magnetic materials with remnant magnetization”, – tells Alexander Omelyanchik, the head of the laboratory of nano- and micromagnetics of the Research and Educational Center “Smart Materials and Biomedical Applications” of The Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University.