SUBCONTRACTING INCREASING EMOBILITY/ELECTRIFICATION ACTIVITY
STL has won funding to back development
of an innovative copper-to-aluminium
bonding technique for use in zero-emission
vehicle busbars
pressed the button on a £1 million project
that bene ted from over £300,000 of funding
from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund
run by UK Research and Innovation to help it
set up a high volume e-machine stack line to
produce thin laminates for the automotive
and aerospace sectors.
Working in partnership with the Warwick
Manufacturing Group (WMG) and supported
by Jaguar Land Rover, Brandauer believes
there is an initial £500,000 opportunity it can
secure, once the methodology is in place,
with the longer term projection seeing it target
a marketplace worth between £60 million and
£70 million.
Engineers and academic experts will be
working to create an in-line adhesive
dispensing process to support the volume
challenge, whilst the second part will see the
partners work towards the integration of an
advanced stamping line that will be capable
of creating 0.1 mm thick laminations having
very narrow iron bridges.
GAME-CHANGING TECHNOLOGY
“This project is a game-changer for our
business, but importantly a game-changer for
the UK power electronics, machines and
drives supply chain and its ability to supply an
increasing demand for e-components from
Tier 1s and car makers,” explained Adam
Burgoyne, new product introduction and
quality engineer at Brandauer.
“There is a clear market signal, with our
sales engineers regularly elding £10 milion
enquiries per annum for this capability for
0.1 mm laminations,” he added.
And just last month Brandauer scored
more success, having been selected to be
part of a new consortium led by tech company
Saietta, which has won an Advanced
Propulsion Centre (APC) grant to fast-track
production on new electric propulsion motors
for use in all vehicles from scooters through
to buses. Its unique Axial Flux Traction
technology will use Brandauer’s thin-gauge
stamping and progression toolmaking
expertise for busbars and laminations used
in the state-of-the-art motors.
The APC research contract will enable
Saietta to ramp up production capacity to
150,000 motors per annum and trigger the
hiring of 150-250 highly skilled engineers in
the rst round of recruitment.
Back to where we started and STL also
announced in November that it had been
awarded Innovate UK funding as part of the
recent ‘Catalysing Green Innovation: Securing
the Future of ZEV’ competition. EVBus is an
Innovate UK collaborative project between
STL and TWI Ltd that will investigate an
innovative copper-to-aluminium bonding
technique for use in zero emission vehicle
(ZEV) busbars. Joining copper to aluminium
would allow for light-weighting of electric
vehicle (EV) busbars, while maintaining
electrical properties.
Clearly, the wider supply chain is starting
to see a new market opening up, but there is
surely much more yet to come.
Battery production positives
In August this year, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and
Traders (SMMT) said the demand for battery electric vehicles
(BEVs) continues to accelerate, with sales surging 259.4%
against last year. But the EU continues to lag behind in electric
lithium-ion battery production, representing less than 3% of global
manufacturing capacity. With lithium-ion battery demand
projected to increase 10-fold by 2029, the over-reliance on a few
large-scale manufacturers overseas creates both risk and
uncertainty for the sector, the SMMT said, adding that EV
production in the UK alone provides enough demand for
approximately eight battery giga-factories by 2040.
In May, AMTE Power and Britishvolt announced plans to
investigate collaborating to build
the UK’s rst full cycle battery
cell gigaplant, servicing the automotive and energy storage
markets. Lars Carlstrom, CEO at Britishvolt, said: “Aligning our
objectives with AMTE Power, who are looking to add to their
current manufacturing capabilities in the UK, our ambition is to
build a 30+ gigawatt hour factory with the support of the British
government, creating up to 4,000 jobs in the process.”
Both AMTE and BritishVolt have subsequently made separate
announcements about their efforts. In July, BritishVolt announced
a collaboration with Italian design house Pininfarina to build the
UK’s rst large-scale battery gigaplant at the former RAF base of
Bro Tathan, Wales. And in October, AMTE announced its Thurso+
project, which aims to determine the feasibility of upscaling its
Thurso facility to align it with the company’s future gigafactory
ambition.
Meanwhile, in support of those developing batteries, Lotus
Engineering last month said it is launching a pilot containerised
battery testing facility to assess energy storage solutions for the
EV sector.
BEVs need lots of batteries.
A Renault chassis and battery assembly is pictured
22 December 2020 | www.machinery.co.uk | MachineryMagazine | @MachineryTweets
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