Electric Motor: PEM Publishes Production Guides
The chair "Production Engineering of E-Mobility Components" (PEM) of RWTH Aachen University has published three guides with current findings from science on the design of electric motors. The documents, each available in German and English, present the process chains for manufacturing so-called hairpin stators, continuous hairpin stators and rotors as essential components of electric motors. The guides with a total of around 60 pages of know-how from production research are available for free download.
"Efficient production processes are of central importance for the success of electric mobility, not only for batteries but also for e-motors," says PEM head Professor Achim Kampker. In production of the stator as a motor component, which is crucial for its performance and efficiency, the hairpin design with its plug-in coil structure of solid copper wires is increasingly displacing conventional wire winding techniques. The "Production Process of a Hairpin Stator" guide therefore devotes more than 20 pages, with explanatory graphics, to the underlying processes with a view to electric vehicle drives – starting with the straightening of the wire, through hairpin manufacture, assembly and interconnection, to impregnation and testing.
Flat wire winding as an alternative to hairpin technology
Meanwhile, the 16-page "Production Process of a Continuous Hairpin Stator" document presents continuous flat wire winding as an alternative to hairpin technology, for instance looking at the processes for manufacturing winding mats and for inserting and interconnecting the windings. On another 24 pages, the "Production Processes for Rotors" guide focuses on alternative methods for manufacturing the three predominant designs – permanently excited and externally excited synchronous machines as well as induction machines.
Flexible and economical production of electric drives
The research of the group "Electric Drive Production" at the RWTH Chair PEM contributes to the economic, variant-flexible, future-oriented and sustainable production of the electric drive and its active components rotor and stator. The focus is on investigating issues along the entire value chain – from the semi-finished product to the finished drive and from the individual process to the holistic consideration of cross-process interactions.
Free download and further publications
The guides "Production Process of a Hairpin Stator", "Production Process of a Continuous Hairpin Stator", and "Production Processes of Rotors" are available for free download. Further publications on the topics of batteries, fuel cells, and electric motors can be found in the Electric Mobility Guides section.