MOTARPM

Design and Development of high-speed electric machine for the machine tool sector

Financed by:

Program: Elkartek

Partners

• OBEKI INNOBE: Coordinación, investigación electromagnética, mecánica y térmica.

• CEIT: Investigación térmica y electromagnética.

• IDEKO: Investigación mecánica.

• ZIGOR: Investigación relacionada con variadores de frecuencia y control de motores.

Summary

With the advancement of power electronics and motor and generator control technologies, an increase in applications using high-speed electric motors has been seen in recent years.

High-speed engines have advantages over conventional engines in terms of weight, size, and power per unit volume. In addition, the ability to work at high speeds makes it possible to eliminate gearboxes used in traditional solutions with standard electric motors, thus obtaining an increase in the reliability and maintenance of applications.

Some of the applications that have taken advantage of high-speed motors are compressors, vacuum pumps, generators attached to turbines, machining heads, applications in the aeronautical sector or energy storage by flywheels.

As these technologies are still in their initial phase, the manufacture and supply of this type of engine is concentrated in a few actors, especially located in countries of central Europe (Germany, Switzerland, Austria). This means that industries such as machine tools or the aeronautical sector are conditioned by prices and conditions imposed by these manufacturers.

This project will allow the development of knowledge, in order to have in the future the ability to develop and offer advanced solutions with high added value for applications in which high speeds of rotation provide advantages over traditional solutions, leading to a technological leap important.

The fields of research addressed within the project will allow having advanced technology to offer solutions that allow the improvement of operating characteristics, energy efficiency, weight, or reliability by incorporating high-speed electric motors.

From there derive the following objectives:

Technological:

• Provide theoretical knowledge in the finite element electromagnetic calculation in the case of high RPM motors.

• Provide knowledge in the theoretical calculation of the thermal design of the motors in the case of an motor that will work in high RPM situations.

• Provide knowledge in the theoretical calculation of the mechanical design of the engines in the case of an engine that will work in high RPM situations.

• Combine advanced and global design including both advanced electromagnetic calculations and advanced vibration / thermal calculations.

• Provide knowledge about new design processes for rotors and stators (designs for high RPM).

• Provide knowledge about the joint work of frequency inverters and motors in high rpm / high frequency conditions.

Socio-economic:

• Provide innovative services to users that allow customer satisfaction and a profitability of technology.

• Achieve the necessary knowledge to be able to develop high value-added products demanded by leading companies in high-tech sectors such as machine tools or the aerospace industry.

• Obtain knowledge to be able to advance in the development of purely electric aviation.

Ceit's role in the project

The work carried out by Ceit in this project has focused on the development of high-speed machine technology from three areas: electromagnetic, thermal and mechanical.

• In the electromagnetic study, the influence of the different system variables (rotor configuration, harmonics study, stator groove width, loss analysis ...) on the final performance of the machine has been analyzed, offering design criteria for future machine designs.

• In the thermal study of the machine, the different cooling systems have been carefully analyzed. An aspect of vital importance in this section has been the analysis of the influence of temperature on the expansion of materials and their behavior.

• Finally, the mechanical study has allowed the analysis of the centrifugal forces to which the machine's rotor was subjected, as well as its deformations, establishing a calculation procedure for high-speed motors.