Light E-Mobility – comprising all those vehicles with electric motors and power between 4-40kW, two/four wheeled – is increasingly gaining market share in e-mobility.  This is mainly due to environment-oriented policies and the need for sustainable transportation solutions. Forecasts expect this market’s value to grow from $98.2 billion in 2024 to $268 billion in 2034. This growth will be driven also by the relatively simple and accessible manufacturing process of light electric motors, when compared to other technologies. While the production is, on paper, accessible and simple, starting “from scratch” still has its own challenges: primarily the knowledge of which machines are needed in each phase of the process.

There are basically four separate lines working in coordination to manufacture the electric motor:

  • the stator line;
  • the rotor line;
  • the impregnation line;
  • the assembly line.

Each line has different machines in it to cover each process phase required to finally assemble the electric motor. Typically, suppliers specialize on machines handling one or two phases of the process at most. This means that electric motor manufacturers have then to build up a system supplied by different partners, specialized in different phases of the whole process. Worries related to the challenges new potential light e-mobility manufacturers have to face when starting a new project the way described above, could halt investments in Light E-Mobility. To date, this has been the only solution adopted in Italy because no supplier has been able to offer an alternative. This situation has challenged new entrants in the field of Light E-Mobility electric motors because of:

  • knowledge about the machines needed for each manufacturing phase;
  • knowledge required to build a system with various specialized partners
  • complexity of coordinating different phases.

Pioneering a new manufacturing way

But things are changing: an Italian manufacturer – GROB Italy, a company with over thirty years of expertise in manufacturing lines for electric motors – has developed a comprehensive and innovative process system to manufacture light electric motors. This solution aims to revolutionize the conventional manufacturing scheme by offering a complete turnkey solution that eases market entry for companies without prior experience in this field.

GROB Italy stator line winding and inserting machine

GROB Italy is revolutionizing the market by proposing itself as the supplier of each of the process phases. In fact, GROB Italy is the only enterprise to date able to provide for the whole motor production process. More in detail, in 2022 the corporate strategy focused on the market boost in the Light E-Mobility and designed a complete process system, aiming to revolutionize the approach. With this solution, GROB is willing to overturn the traditional manufacturing scheme where suppliers propose specific machines only for specific phases of the process, to be later harmonized together by the motor manufacturer. By offering a complete process system, GROB Italy not only gives the customers the possibility to enjoy the reliability of a single supplier of a high-quality turnkey solution, but also eases the entry into the market of electric motors to those who never developed projects in this field.

GROB Italy’s Comprehensive Solution: technology and advantages

The solution proposed is a system of separate lines, one for each step in the production process of electric motors. They are not physically connected to one another, but they operate according to a logic scheme, being mutually linked only at the end of the assembly process. This allows the overall process to continue even in case of a specific phase stopping. The system designed by GROB Italy offers the most widespread and demanded state of art technology of electric motor manufacturing on the current market for the production of Light E-Mobility motors, the solution with round wire winding, in fact is still regarded as the most suitable for this power level and for the numbers existing on the market. It is an excellent compromise between motor performances and investment needed to implement it.

With its solution GROB Italy:

  • offers a complete process system;
  • provides a turnkey solution that eases the entry into the electric motor market;
  • leverages and offers the client its extensive experience and technological expertise.

Innovations “Made in GROB Italy”

GROB Italy has completed the base technology with the addition of some innovative technologies – some of them proprietary – to further improve the result performances, allowing GROB machines to stand out on the market, compared to competition

These technologies are:

  • antitwist technology for the stator winding: by means of the patented antitwist technology, GROB can fill a higher percentage of copper in the stator slot, improving the efficiency and performance of the stator;
  • use of non-magnetized magnets: in the system developed by GROB Italy the magnetizer is positioned towards the process end, after the magnet insertion into the rotor. Therefore, the in-line operations occur with non-magnetised magnets which allows a cleaner process;
  • Trickling process is used for impregnation;
  • system flexibility: GROB Italy’s solution can be adapted both on automation level and number of machines, to meet customers’ requirements in terms of production, automation, and volumes. The solution can be configured to use both round and rectangular wires, making it suitable for various types of end products.
GROB Italy rotor line for Light E-Mobility

At a Glance: advantages of GROB Italy Light E-Mobility solutions

  • relying on a single partner to implement the whole manufacturing process
  • having a high-quality and reliable system
  • having a turnkey solution for the state of art production of a ready-to-use Light E-Mobility motor
  • being able to start a new manufacturing line from scratch in a relatively simple and quick manner compared to conventional proceeding

Simultaneous Engineering: ensuring the product feasibility

A newly designed motor is often not easily producible in an industrial process, forcing the customer to adopt expensive and time-consuming handcraft solutions. GROB Italy addresses this challenge by offering a Simultaneous Engineering service: a feasibility study that ensures the compatibility of the design with industrial production. This is a fundamental analysis following which GROB Italy provides assurance that the motor resulting from the production process will be consistent with the agreed design and therefore feasible.

GROB Italy rotor line with assembly stations

Ready for emerging technologies

While the “state of art” technology for Light E-Mobility motors today is the one described in the previous pages and it can be realized with the system offered by GROB Italy, there are also a lot of initiatives to find possible new solutions. In this context, many customers turn to GROB Italy for the joint study and prototyping of Axial Flux (Axial Flux) and Segmented Stator (Segmented Stator) motors with concentrated windings that GROB Italy can make with both round-wire and rectangular-wire conductors. In particular, segmented stator motors achieve better performance than needle-wound stator windings thanks to a higher filling rate. Concentrated winding technology is mainly used in permanent magnet motors for industrial applications, but it can also find its place in Light E-Mobility for low-power solutions (bikes, scooters). The advantages of these winding method are compactness and the possibility to optimize slot filling. GROB Italy strongly believes in the future of these two emerging motor technologies for Light E-Mobility. The Company is available to do prototyping for interested customers.

Cell to Pack: battery pack customization for Light E-Mobility
Not just motors! One of the aspects which require more customization in Light E-Mobility is battery pack configuration. Having little space available and having to adapt to the design of the vehicle, the battery for Light E-Mobility requires a high degree of customization in the organization of the cell packs and their design. The plant in Pianezza (TO), the headquarter of GROB Italy, has potential for this type of service too: it can offer the possibility of battery pack assembly for Light E-Mobility.

(by Maria Luisa Doldi)