The Ames Laboratory, a national laboratory with the US Department of Energy’s Office of Science and operated by Iowa State University, works to solve our world’s pressing issues with innovative energy materials, solutions, and technologies. While the laboratory spent a lot of time in 2017 focusing on its metal 3D printing powder technology and 3D printed chemically active catalytic objects, now researchers are taking a closer look at magnetocaloric cooling.
Scientists have been working to develop new technologies, such as solid-state systems with up to 30% more energy efficiency, to replace gas compression refrigeration technology that’s 100 years old. The magnetocaloric effect is a phenomenon in which a suitable material goes through a temperature change caused by exposure to a changing magnetic field.
Researchers at Ames Laboratory designed and built an advanced model system, with the help of 3D printing technology, that can successfully achieve refrigeration-level cooling using very small quantities of magnetocaloric materials.
The system is called CaloriSMART, or Small Modular Advanced Research-scale Test-station, and is a research thrust of CaloriCool – The Caloric Materials Consortium.
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