Advancing Electric Motors with Additive Manufacturing

Advancing Electric Motors with Additive Manufacturing

Hassan Aktar

Ollie Hartfield

The Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) is an independent Research & Technology Organisation with the objective of bridging the gap between academia and industry. The MTC develops innovative manufacturing processes and technologies in an agile, low risk environment, in partnership with industry, academia and other institutions. The MTC’s electrification programme looks to understand the possibilities of high value design and manufacturing to drive innovation and paving the way for more sustainable, efficient, and high-performance electric motors across a variety of sectors. The Future Electric Motor Systems 3 (FEMS3) project focused on leveraging additive manufacturing to revolutionise the design and production of electric motors. By harnessing the novel design and manufacturing capabilities of AM, The MTC pushed the boundaries of motor development and showcasing assembly, performance, and sustainability benefits. A holistic design approach and the increased design freedoms of AM allowed the use of advanced design tools, such as nTop and Siemens NX, to perform topology optimisation, automate design workflows and generate complex lattice structures. The result led to a reduction in mass of over 65%, with additional benefits seen through the reduction of assembly steps, elimination of multiple seals and reduced lifetime environmental impact. The industrial significance was recognised when the project won the electrical category of the international 3D Pioneers Challenge (3DPC) in 2022. This presentation will show the technical challenges and solutions achieved in the FEMS3 project and The MTC’s the continued development into advancing AM for electric motor design and manufacture with high conductive AM materials such as pure copper and aluminium. & State of the Art Technologies to Support Future Development of High Performance Power Electronics Assemblies

This session will explore:

- An introduction to the MTC

- Additive Manufactured Heatsinks for PE Assemblies.

- AMB Ceramic Substrates with Enhanced Laser Features for EV Applications.

- Challenges/MTC's Solution