A new technology implementing electric head commutators

Using a minor quantity of copper is a possible thanks to the development of a new manufacturing technology, based on cold moulding.

Reference partner in the production of hook-type electric commutators for A.C. and D.C. motors, Cagnoni operates on the market with a very broad range of products (diameters starting from 15 up to 30 mm), suitable for small appliances, automatic door-opening systems, automotive, power-tools, and so on. Such products are implemented starting from a continuous element (copper tube of 5 m) exploiting a unique up-to-date technology, which provides for obtaining the internal grips of the commutator bars from that part of semi-finished product that would be then removed by the successive milling phase.
In that way, no copper is added to create the gripping itself.
That process, developed by Osimo (AN) company itself, will enable a minor waste of raw materials, without affecting the product quality and granting total reliability and extreme flexibility to its customers.
Concerning the sector of electric head commutators, the last decade has been characterized by more and more articulated and interacting competitive factors, summarized in the following points: reduction of sale prices, decrease of component costs, rise of the contents and of the performances of electric motors, increase of the reliability and duration demands.
The offer excess compared to the demand, together with the appearance of unbranded products on the market and, especially, of big low cost producers, have determined a price fall and a standardization “towards the middle” of the functional characteristics of products. In this context, the sector companies’ challenge consists in enhancing the quality and the variety of the offered services by seizing, for instance, the potentialities made available by new technologies.

Increase performances and tear the costs down

The primary manufacturers of electric head commutators use a consolidated technology that provides for the assembly of copper bars (manufactured through cold drawing, successive parting-off and eventual removal of material in excess) around opportune positioning cages. Then they proceed to the moulding of the thermosetting resin to fix the position of bars, to the milling to create voids on the head, the undercutting to eliminate insulating material present between one bar and the other, to turning to achieve the final geometry and, finally, to finishing operations. A technology that certainly allows implementing components that feature good performances and quality but nevertheless, still today, affected by a series of problems and criticalities among which the main ones concern: the use of a big quantity of raw material (copper) connected with the fact that the piece geometry is obtained by stock removal.

Complete motor.

The need of removing the insulating material from the sliding surface of the brush (undercutting) which implies quite long machining times, due to the particular product geometry (accentuated head overhang), it is necessary to use cutters with very small diameter (about Ø 10mm) that perform a very low feed speed (scarce product productivity).
Moreover, the undercutting needs a very precise cut positioning, with the result of calling for level electronics (tracking mode cutting) and of producing anyway a certain quantity of non-compliant products.
The inner gripping of the commutator bar, realized through a big T-shaped protuberance, it too of copper, which notably increases the mass to be held while rotating.
Dealing with the current above-described survey, it is therefore obvious that the development guidelines of the reference market precisely converge towards an ever-growing demand for new technologies, for increasingly performing products at low costs. Research and development, strongly pursued by Cagnoni itself, over the last few years was aimed at studying, experimenting and developing an alternative technology to the conventional ones used by competitors today.
Such technology, which provides for cold moulding (instead of the traditional stock removal machining), will permit to manufacture copper head commutators (therefore optimizing the use of raw materials) with better final characteristics, lower industrial costs than those applied on the market today and with both economic-productive and environmental benefits.
Therefore, the company’s R&D department intends to create a different product/process from the present state-of-the-art.

Crisis of microchips, what repercussions for automotive and industry?

Editorial Staff

Everyone deemed it as official news: the shortage of semiconductors is triggering serious problems in the European and United States automotive sector, with consequent delays or even production stops in some factories, including the manufacturing lines of electric vehicles.
Moreover, it seems that in recent months costs have risen for the producers of smartphones and satisfying the demand for even common household appliances, such as refrigerators and microwave ovens, has become difficult.
Let us take a step backward: currently, microchips are fundamental components for manifold products, not only computers, smartphones and electronic devices in general, but also for automotive and the household appliance industry (which, through innovation, have added new sensors, internet connections and other “smart” functions).
The shortage started last December because, owing to the pandemic, a production slowdown and a tiring of global provisioning chains occurred, while simultaneously the demand for electronic appliances (then of microchips) increased, to overcome the forced lockdown at best.
First the automotive industry was struck and it is still the most damaged because necessary microchips are less sophisticated and expensive than those equipping appliances such as smartphones and computers, which benefit from higher margins, too.
In April, Ford shut down six factories in the United States for several weeks owing to the microchip shortage, and also General Motors, Nissan and Stellantis slowed down or interrupted the production. In the household appliance world, the President of Whirlpool in China revealed that in March the company could satisfy 90% of the demand and there is the great fear that the chip famine, with the strict gain margins, the long lifecycles of white goods and the stagnant estate market make the appliance prices soar. A great doubt shared by the automotive industry, too.

A solution to power motor control

Editorial Staff

Through the completion of the distribution system for MSFS motor starters for automation boards, Eaton makes available for its customers a solution to power motor control and protection circuits enriched with numerous novelties, including a 125 A power supply module, new adapters for modular and box-type switches and a 5 A /24 VDC power supply.
The distribution system has been designed to offer a safe solution for the distribution inside the automation board and it is now equipped with a 125 A power supply module, hence the nominal capacity of the bus bars of the system itself. This allows using MSFS at its highest use current, permitting its full exploitation, while the previous limit was 80 A.
The system is positioned between the base solution, constituted by three-pole bus bar blocks, and the higher-level solution characterized by SASY60i distribution bus bar system, therefore defining a new intermediate standard in terms of cost, versatility and current values for automation systems.
Eaton, in the context of the widening of MSFS system, now proposes new adapters that extend the MSFS use also to utilities not strictly connected with the motor starter. This is possible because they allow connecting to the system both modular FAZ switches up to 63 A and the box-type NZM1 switch up to 125 A.
Meanwhile, in the suitable version (ROSF), also the new hybrid EMS2 starters (Electronic Motor Starter) can be coupled to the MSFS system.
Moreover, among the novelties the system completion provides for, there is also a three-phase 5 A /24 VDC power supply that, in most of automation applications, allows powering 24 VDC auxiliary circuits of the electric equipment of a machine without providing for further power supplies. Finally, the adapters offered until now for «PKZM0/PKE + soft-starter DS7» combinations extend their use possibility also to variable-speed DE1(1) starters up to 1.5 kW.

Battery EV second life

Editorial Staff

Man charging electric car. Man holding in hand power cable supply ready to plugged in into charging port. — Man holding in hand power cable supply ready to plugged in into charging port.

One of the outstanding challenges in the electric mobility sector is the recycling of the lithium-ion batteries that power the motors of Ev and hybrid cars. In this scenario, Pioneer project, stemmed from the collaboration between Enel X and Rome Airports, establishes that the worn-out batteries of electric cars will be still used in the storage system of the photovoltaic plant in Fiumicino airport.
It is a 30 MW solar park, which will be accomplished by 2024, whose 10 MWh storage system will be used to absorb the excess of energy produced by the plant and to satisfy the eventual evening peaks of the airport’s energy demand. «For the first time – affirmed Francesco Venturini, managing director of Enel X – a large industrial site like Airport of Fiumicino will avail itself of an energy storage system that will use second life batteries coming from electric cars. We will exploit an innovative modular design to optimize integration costs and to make the use of batteries of automotive derivation flexible».
The combination of this accumulation system with the photovoltaic plant will bring benefits to the whole electric mobility chain, sharing in extending batteries’ service life, according to circular economy principles that allow further reducing batteries’ carbon dioxide footprint with the same storage capacity, due to their bigger use.

The innovation of printed circuit board stator motor

Redazione

The innovation promised by Infinitum Electric, Texan start-up, concerns the stator. It is implemented in printed circuit board on plastic support instead of with conventional iron. In this solution, the copper circuit is integrated in a single printed circuit board, to reduce the energy dispersions associated to the core, thus proving to be 60% lighter, up to 10% more efficient, more compact and even 25% cheaper than a standard electric motor. Moreover, the electric unit can reduce the torque ripple, minimizing noise while used, can integrate drives in the motor and install all sensors in the printed circuit board stator.

These novelties are expected to make the motor sturdier and more durable because the stator, which contains the entire coil, can boast a thermal expansion coefficient that remains homogeneous in all points. Technologies are protected by 5 patents already registered and other 11 under certification; recently, Infinitum Electric has accomplished the funding of 12.5 million dollars to produce the new motor on a world scale.

The charging cable without control box

Editorial Staff

Recently, the Bosch giant has stated generating a turnover exceeding one billion Euros with electromobility and they expect to reach 5 billions within 2025, with the related driving assistance business growing by 40%. «Within 2035 – declared Stefan Hartung, member of the Board and president of the Mobility Solutions sector of Bosch – we foresee that 60% of all vehicles of new registration worldwide will be electric cars.
The company’s good ranking in the sectors of electro-mobility and of autonomous driving is helping the company to stand out successfully in this market context, where Bosch is investing not only in electric battery propulsion systems but also in fuel cell propulsion systems and is involved in projects by customers in Europe, China and United States. The latest technological novelty it has presented concerns a new flexible recharge cable for electric cars, provided with integrated control and safety technology and type-2 and household plug adapters. When you recharge with a 230-volt socket, too, you can give up the standard control box, which means it weighs less than three kilos, about 40% less than conventional charging cables. Besides, to free drivers from the task of looking for a place where recharging the vehicle while travelling, Bosch web-based recharge service offers the access to more than 200,000 recharging spots in Europe, including the problem-free payment and invoicing.

Dynex Integrated Power Unit (IPU)

Corrado Luca Franchini

Dynex Semiconductor has developed a range of power inverters for automotive applications. With the units being suitable for use with both hybrid and fully electric vehicles driving multiple types of AC motor, Dynex Semiconductor inverters are of compact design with high efficiency and leading power to weight ratio.

The Features of the seminconductors of Dynex are severals. They are optimised for EV and HEV application, the bespoke IGBT power module is designed specifically for HEV/EV application, the double-sided cooling package for IGBT module increasing thermal performance and power density, there is the active gate driver technology with di/dt control. Moreover, there is wide input voltage range up to DC470V, very wide range high system efficiency, advanced and reliable motor control, selection of optimised motor control algorithms for different motor technologies, AUTOSAR compliant software development and emphasis on functional safety according to ISO26262.

Wires for electric motors: a new standard for the coating

Editorial Staff

It is called Tau, it is a Turin start-up in electric mobility and advanced materials and it collected 6.75 million Euros of funding for its innovative wire for electric motors, with the target of developing and implementing state-of-the-art technologies starting from 2022, able to accelerate the transition to the Factory of the Future for e-mobility chain manufacturers.
The round involved a variety of international investors, including a consortium of two Middle-Eastern sovereign wealth funds, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and a German investment manager.
The start-up is specialized in wires and components for electric motors, with applications in the automotive, energy and agriculture sectors, and it has developed the DryCycle technology, which defines a new standard of wire coating. Through the strict use of solvent-free polymers, the solution eliminates the release of noxious VOC and greenhouse gases, whereas a simplified production process minimizes the use of resources, decreasing the energy consumption and wastes. LILIT technology by Tau provides the quality control to assure the reliability of the polymeric insulation in the magnetic wire and in electric steel.
The vision of Tau consists in doubling the power of electric motors in a determinate size and the funds of the recent capital increase will be used precisely to accelerate the development of new products, to enlarge the range of high-performance wires and to increase the industrial production, to provide global manufacturers of electrical cars, buses, trucks, aircrafts and ships starting from the beginning of 2022.

Ride Dc brush motors with permanent magnets

Corrado Luca Franchini

The Ride DC electric motors catalog divides into subcategories, identified by the external stator diameter, by the rotor length, in mm and by the presence of the Encoder.
In the subcategories there are different construction options. To support the choice of the best DC electric brushed motor, Ride shows interactive configurable data sheets.

Ride thinks in this way to the customers who need personalized DC electric motors, which can be anyway assembled trough consolidated and automatized processes, which guarantee competitive production costs and the reliability, indispensable in each application.
Between the offered permanent magnet DC motors, for each diameter it is possible to decide for the “standard” or for the “stronger” version: the difference comes from the rotor length. Longer is the rotor higher is the stall torque and the power that the DC brushed motor can reach. Among these products there is M77x40, stall torque from 5,10Nm to 1,27Nm, DC electric motors with brushes.

If requested, they can be equipped with EMC filter, usually made by two inductances and two capacitors.
In the inteactive technical datasheet it is possible to configurate the electric motor by selecting the preferred between the availabel options: motor shaft, filter, characteristic curve.
The interactive characteristic curve allows to select the required performances by selecting power voltage and no-load speed. Eventually it is possible to ask about further personalizations, like a special cables, simply by attaching in the request- form the relative documents.
The M77x40 electric motors are generally applied in linear actuators and in various automatisms.

Ferrite transformers for high frequency use

Redazione

Operative in the winding sector for 40 years, Albe has distinguished itself for the quality of its products and its flexibility in satisfying the requirements of its clients, guaranteeing Made in Italy quality.
The experience gained over the years, combined with modern, cutting-edge equipment, allows the company to offer the best solutions and the most advantageous conditions.
The range of components in ferrite, designed horizontally, vertically, open or resined, is available in all forms (RM-EP-OLLA-ETD-ER-EC-EF-U) and for various uses: filters, transformers, elevators, pulse transformers; and responds to the various requirements of every single type of electronic circuit.
Albe is an Italian company based in Cassano D’Adda (MI) and it makes products according to client specifications: open coils with or without ferrite, pillars on ferrite, sensor coils, relays, electromagnets, laminated transformers up to 20 kVA with CE, UL, Kema and Enec branding. Low profile transformers, ferrite transformers produced in all existing forms. Toroidal filters for low and high frequencies. Compensated and encapsulated toroidal coils, TA. Special Toroids, also wound with multiple wires.

Components

Increase performances and tear the costs down