Focus: products and technologies at the service of the electric motor – Part 2

What proposal of products and technological support for the electric motor world in automotive and/or appliance ambit?

World reference reality in the production of high-speed presses, automations and complete systems for the sheet metal forming, AIDA, for several time now, has already invested part of its research capability in the development of specific solutions for the production of electric motors. Today the fruit of this activity allows the company to offer two product lines fully dedicated to rolling: AIDA HMX Series and AIDA MSP Series.

“They are products– confirms Michele Archenti, Sales and Marketing Manager AIDA Europe – the market already highly appreciates. To the extent that we can boast hundreds of installations in leader players’ production plants”.
AIDA MSP presses (Multi-Suspension Points Presses) allow producing high precision and high efficiency motors such as EV motors, HEV motors and energy-efficient home appliances motors.

Executions that are highly suitable for the production of parts characterized by thicknesses under 0.2 mm.
“Such presses – adds Archenti – stand out for notable dynamic precision, due to both the compact design, to the architecture consisting in in-line multi-suspension points, to the native Aim function (i.e. Adjust In Motion) and finally to the balance reached between the high stiffness and the wide plan surface. Indispensable prerogative, the latter, to house tools with the number of stages needed for the production of high-efficiency motors”.

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Specialized in the design and in the production of electromagnetic and electronic components, Bluergo implements smart technologies for the development of innovative solutions customized according to single requirements. A range of products that go from stator coils to laminated and electronic transformers, from solenoid valves to tachometer coils, from motor injectors to electromagnets for servomechanisms, from antennas to ferrite wound components.

“Productions – specifies Andrea Cusinato, Sales Department – intended for the sector of the Home Appliance, of white and brown goods, as well as for the automotive industry. We can supply complete packages for the latter, in particular, perfectly suiting our customers’ requisites. Concerning this, we can offer an all-round service that goes from the technical feasibility analysis to the co-design and virtual prototyping activity, from the fast-sampling to the design and implementation of mass-production equipment”.

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BTSR International operates in the design and manufacturing of electronic sensors for the quality control in the manufacturing chains of clothing-textile, mechano-textile and technical textile, besides operating for years also with solutions for the testing of metal wires (copper and precious metals).

“Ambit, the latter – confirms the project manager, Paolo Caviggioli – that has allowed further increasing our presence in the automotive market. With high-tech solutions, which include electronic sensors and smart systems, aimed at satisfying the most different requirements in the monitoring of wire sliding, of feeding tension control and of all major quality parameters of all kinds of wires: traditional wires, elastomers, glass fibers and carbon fibers”.

Among them, stands out the new patented CWF 2000, specific high-tech system, that is to say an innovative solution that redefines the state-of-the-art in the wire feeding technology, likely to have a significant impact in the sector of metal coil winding. Available in two versions (CWF2000 to work on machines with double-winding and coil and CWF2000 HCL for needle machines and needle winding machines), if finds applications in several sectors, such as producers of ignition coils for automotive, of solenoids, of transformers, of relays, of stator and rotor windings for household appliance motors.

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The activity of Cagnoni Srl includes three different manufacturing ambits, among which the production of electric commutators and the cold blanking of metal sheets. The latter results in the production of high-precision components made of iron, stainless steel, copper, brass aluminum and bronze, which find applications in industrial sectors, like the prevailing automotive and household appliances.

«Our product, that is the electric commutator – explains the managing director Giordano Sorci, at the head of the company together with his brother Ignazio – has always been focused on the requirements of the automotive and appliance world. Our process has been calibrated to meet the more and more severe requirements of these two sectors. Our customers’ trend is oriented to the reduction of the footprints and weights of the electric motor. Therefore, our range, which is focused on small high-performance commutators, perfectly matches this need».

Moreover, the company’s structure and organization avail themselves of engineers who interface with customers’ research and development teams and, together, they study alternative solutions to optimize more and more both costs and performances of the finished product. An unceasing research of technological solutions, materials and automations, which then allow Cagnoni to keep pace with times constantly and to deal with markets’ severe requirements.

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Dema is specialized in the design and production of tailor-made automated lines intended for the manufacturing of rotors and stators for electric motors. Highly performing and reliable technologies to carry out sorting, packing, inspection and assembling processes. A context where it holds a protagonist role, side by side with leader manufacturers in the development of more and more challenging projects.

“Today more than in the past – states the owner, the engineer Cesare Librici – we are focusing our attention on the development of solutions dedicated to inspectioning, i.e. the complete geometrical, dimensional and optical-visual control of rotor and stator stacks produced, before they are used in other phases of the manufacturing process. This to satisfy more and more preponderant requirements in the production ambit of electric Powertrain, with total traceability of processed components. As if often happens, the automotive sector is pioneer, like in this case of process innovation. However, by technological transposition and transfer, the same can find applications also in other fields, like for instance appliances”.

In this context, the know-how and the deep competences gained in various operational ambits allow the company to study and to develop tailored, performing and reliable manufacturing lines and machines.

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Demak produces plants for the degassing, meter-mixing and dispensing of epoxy, polyurethane, silicon resins, and several other types of resins. Moreover, the company can supply customers with the suitable resins for their processes and productions, through the sister company S.E. Special Engines Srl, formulating and producing chemical company.

“Demak Group – underlines Massimiliano Balboni, Technical Sales Manager of Demak Group – approaches then the automotive EV/HEV market as supplier of plants and resins for the encapsulation of electric traction motors and other electric-electronic components. Every day the protection and the rise of performances of the electric motor becomes more important and here the use of the vacuum encapsulation technology becomes fundamental. In fact, with the choice of a suitable resin, it is possible to grant an important heat dissipation of the motor and higher resistance to collisions, vibrations, chemical agents, water, dust, and other external agents”.

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EuroGroup Laminations is Holding of the Italian engineering group, world reference reality in the production of magnetic blanked laminations for stators and rotors of electric motors and generators. A Group today composed by 7 manufacturing units in Italy and other 5 in Mexico, United States, Tunisia, Russia and China. The Group is at the service of several sectors, like automotive, which provides the major boost of developments oriented to an epochal turning point towards the electrical car.

“In this survey– states Sergio Iori, president of EuroGroup – our Group plays an important role, offering more and more efficient stators/rotors for electric motors to the market. Efficiency that, in the specific case of electric vehicles, results in more autonomy of car driving distance”.

In the stator/rotor, this needs not only a use of steels with increasingly high magnetic and permeability features but also thicknesses that from standard 0.5-0.65 mm decrease to 0.30-0.20 mm (and someone already uses 0.10 mm), besides stricter geometrical tolerances owing to heat and noise reduction reasons.

“Our response/offer to the market– adds Iori – provides for several solutions: progressive blanking dies able to process these new materials, assuring the final characteristics demanded; assembling systems of single stator/rotor laminations; accessory operations on the motor, like magnet and shaft insertion and successive machining and balancing”.

In particular, the assembling systems of single stator/rotor laminations provide for various solutions: gluing (Glue Fastec); packing (Corpack/Zip) during the blanking with compensation by rotation of laminations, even with 0.20 mm thickness (granting a stacking-factor in line with the motor requirements); welding of stator/ rotor through laser/Tig/Mig technology.

“In line with the requisites of Industry 4.0 – adds Iori – we can assure the total traceability of our whole production. All that in compliance with quality procedures established by IATF regulations”.

This industrial approach is adopted by EuroGroup also for stators/rotors for the Home Appliances sector, to the end of a constant technical improvement, aimed at increasing the efficiencies of the electric motor for this type of applications.

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GROB-WERKE is a family-run enterprise operating on international scale and headquartered in the Swabian-Bavarian town of Mindelheim, with a product catalogue that ranges from the universal machining centre to the complex manufacturing system provided with automation, from assembling units in the stock removal machining up to fully automated assembling plants.

“Our company – specifies Christian Grob, Supervisory Board Chairman of GROB-WERKE – is one of the few machine tool manufacturers in the world fully oriented to electro-mobility requirements. Our range of machines can accomplish the entire production process of an electric motor, from the various phases of wire winding and shaping to the assembling and contact. One of the main processes in the production of an electric motor is the phase of copper wire winding inside the stator. In this ambit, Grob can make available all known technologies, including the wave winding, the hairpin winding process and the fan-coil technology. Grob Italy S.r.l. can also put at disposal winding/insertion solutions, as well as the needle technology”.

In short, this means that Grob provides the market with all available manufacturing processes for the electric motors demanded by the automotive industry.

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Inarca is a company that makes research its main asset, then applied to the design and production of terminals, connectors, technologies and machines for electric connections.

“Reading it – comments the sales manager Alessandro Rocchi – it seems a stock phrase but the innovation that derives from intense research activities is actually the main competitive edge that has allowed us, along the years, an almost constant growth. Besides, it is also the primary factor that permits us to compete on apparently difficult markets, since characterized by much lower pure labour costs”.

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After the recent celebrations of the 25^th anniversary of activity, Piciesse starts the new year with a heritage of experience and internationalism in the world of printed circuit boards. Almost 50% of its turnover comes from the automotive industry, inside of which stand out the apt qualitative policies for constant improvement and updating, in certification ambit, too (see VDA 6.3), and for promoting the constant technological upgrade.

“Power circuits – specifies Enzo Montani, partner and member of the Board of Directors, together with Claudia Marinelli and Gian Marco Baldini– can represent a valid proposal by Piciesse to the electric motor world. Such market is increasingly connected with this typology of circuits, whose materials, granting the heat dissipation, reach high copper thicknesses, i.e. from 105 to 400 µm, and they often allow connections to further heatsinks. The result? An increased and better heat management. Currently, the means prevailingly equipped with this typology of PCB are machines for handling, warehouse management or displacements of goods, such as forklifts, tow hooks, cranes and so on. They are defined power circuits because they can withstand and manage a bigger passage of electric current, with a higher voltage/current product able to create, precisely, more power”.

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Risatti Instruments produces systems for the trial and testing of electric equipment.
“The company – explains the owner Rodolfo Risatti – has operated in the specific market for over seventy years and every year it goes on investing in research and development to grant innovative forefront testing systems, in conformity with Industry 4.0 law, too”.

Precisely due to this characteristic, the company goes on operating worldwide. Specialized also in the automotive sector, today it can meet customers’ single requirements, supporting them in each phase of the testing process (which encompasses also scooters and electric bicycles) like for instance: control of magnetic losses of both stator and rotor iron, of already assembled stacks; complete stator testing, including the measurement of partial discharges and the ohmic resistance, in alternate, at various frequencies; testing of the die-casting of both aluminium and copper rotor.

“They concern – adds Risatti – also systems and solutions for the testing of the finished motor, both as only motor and provided with reduction gear and differential gear, both in production and in laboratory, with detection of all characteristics of torque, revolutions and efficiency. Last but not least, also the instruments for lab tests and the systems for testing the service life of batteries, with setup of programmed charge and discharge cycles”.

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Samac, since 1975 specialized in the engineering and manufacturing of machines and plants for the automation of assembling and testing processes, for some years has been focusing its investments on R&D and marketing, in market ambits concerning electrified components and under electrification. This action has aroused the interest in the company by the major world players of the automotive industry, and not only. Electric brushless motors for steering systems (EPS) and for car fans, including stators and rotors, brushed electric motors for the motion of car seats and roof, tubular motors for the shutter movement are only some of the products assembled and tested on Samac plants in the last 5 years. The company has applied for years important Industry 4.0 concepts on the manufactured plants, such as predictive maintenance, interconnection with managerial systems and other machines, self-adaptivity of operational units, use of augmented reality for maintenance and assistance, plant control from remote, with the use of cloud technology, too.

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TE Connectivity is a technology company that designs and manufactures connectivity and sensor products for harsh environments in a variety of industries, including automotive, appliances, data and devices’ industrial, energy and medical.

“We also offer a wide choice of products – specifies Ugo Aime, Product Manager in TE Connectivity – for applications in electric motors, transformers, inductors, electromagnets, coils and other devices with enameled wire windings. A high value derives from offering “full package” solutions such as terminal + plastic cavity + assembly, to ensure a significant cost reduction, together with higher efficiency and reliability”.
The ‘Insulation Displacement Connection’ (IDC) / Crimp technology is a valid alternative to the welding process for enameled wire termination; this process is still used by majority of the market for electric motor connections.

“Connections with IDC/Crimp technology – Aime emphasizes – offer several advantages, including, for example, the absence of chemicals and high temperatures/power. Oxides and possible contamination risks are eliminated, providing a clean contact surface and a stable, gas-tight electrical connection. Another strength is the increased flexibility, since it is possible to terminate not only copper wires, but also aluminum and combinations of copper and aluminum wires”.

TE Connectivity is also offering different termination machines, that provide high reliability with minimal wire preparation. Additionally, many TE Connectivity machines have an automatic precision adjustment functionality, i.e. ‘Crimp Quality Monitor’CQM), to ensure maximum quality during the production process.

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Zoppas Industries Heating Element Technologies, operating in over 200 markets in heating systems, considers the evolution of the automotive market in electric vehicles as a strategic opportunity to offer its “know-how”, gained in over 55 years of experience, in the thermal management of both batteries and of the entire car interior. At the state-of-the-art, the company is developing solutions of heating and maintenance of the correct operation temperature of batteries through both “direct heating”, then the applications of heating sheets directly in contact with cells, and with “indirect” proposals, like the introduction of conditioning circuits for fluid solutions and heat exchangers. Referring to the car interior, both “booster” solutions for heat pumps and air heating systems are available.