Brandauer press into £500,000 new electric machine project

Brandauer’s expertise in motor laminations has helped it become part of a £500,000 project designed to prove the feasibility of a new electric machine.

The company is involved in the UK-ALUMOTOR consortium, led by Ricardo and partners Aspire Engineering, Global Technologies Racing, Phoenix Scientific Industries and Warwick University.

Powering up a British battery boom

The Birmingham-based pressings and stampings specialist will bring its capabilities to the development of the stator and rotor used in the electric motor, using its micron capable toolroom, wire electric discharge machines and design and engineering consultancy facilities.

Fifteen engineers will work on the project – which is backed by the Driving Electric Revolution Challenge Fund through UK Research and Innovation – and will be involved in developing low volume parts that will be used to fine tune processes, technologies and achieve the high-volume UK manufacture of a next generation electric motor design.

“Our ability to manufacture to microns is proving a very attractive commodity to some of the major OEMs and technology partners looking to establish an electrification supply chain in the UK,” Mark Parsons, Innovation Project Manager at Brandauer said in a statement.

“This project is all about working towards an electric machine that can be built in high volumes and our role will be to produce laminations that deliver the magnetic field to power the motor.

“We are focussing on the ‘design for manufacture’ and expect to produce multiple iterations of the components until we arrive at a rotor and stator combination that delivers the demanded motor performance while still being scalable to series volumes.”

Richard Gordon, Head of Research and Development at Ricardo, said: “This award of funding from the Driving Electric Revolution Challenge fund is significant. It will enable our consortium to continue to support the mass adoption of electrification by making it more affordable, contributing to the green bounce back with an environmentally sustainable design and establishing the UK at the forefront of the global electric revolution.”

The latest project with Ricardo is the third funded collaboration Brandauer has secured in recent months, following projects with Jaguar Land Rover and Saietta to deliver an e-machine stack line and Axial Flux Traction motor respectively.

“There is a real opportunity for UK SMEs to stake their claim to be part of the electrification movement, but we have to be bold, invest in the right technology and be prepared to collaborate,” said Rowan Crozier, CEO of Brandauer. “This appears to be a winning formula for our business, and we are confident it will lead to high volume work in an international electric motor market that is expected to be worth £28.5bn by 2025.”