To bring it well within the limits of available 3D printing technology, the original MW-class specification shared by the topic manager was downscaled volumetrically by a ratio of 10:1, and a corresponding 300kW, 8kW/kg electrical machine has been designed using conventional materials for the inactive parts. To reduce the proportion of the non-active components (which is around 50% with conventional materials), different lightweight materials have been investigated and various structures were evaluated as potential candidates for the heaviest passive components. Meanwhile, the manufacturing options for the prototype have been reviewed, including standard approaches and additive manufacturing approaches. The limits of the various manufacturing processes involved have been understood via the visits to companies, which are ensuring that the ongoing designs are realizable both in terms of overall size, as well as in terms of specific geometric features. Preliminary thermo-mechanical design of the inactive parts and electromagnetic optimization has been conducted, including the proposed novel thermal management topology. Samples of lightweighted geometries are currently being manufactured to conduct tension/torsion/bending/shear tests as per ASTM standards. For thermal testing of lightweight material samples, the in-house rig for measuring the thermal conductivity has been updated to accommodate the samples which will be used within the LIFT project. The LIFT Machine has been successfully built and tested in the UNOTT labs and has performed to specification.
