MOTORS, DRIVES, CONTROLS
engineers are now able to design and manufacture products that are far more sustainable.” This collaborative approach is
reflected in the engineering expertise that ZF is relying on for this cross- disciplinary R&D work. “We have a range of people involved – from those holding a PhD with years of experience, through to those who have left school much more recently and are currently studying,” details Moule. “The principal skills are those of magnet and motor experts combined. However, the additional skills of the prototype engineers bring added value.” Expanding on the firm’s in-house
expertise, Moule describes how ZF in the UK has a long-established magnetic materials laboratory capable of characterising permanent magnets and soft magnetic materials such as electrical steels. “This unique facility is used not only for understanding the behaviour of magnetic components in our own products but is also offered
as a service to external customers. “During permanent magnet tests
we can investigate their behaviour when they are subjected to magnetic fields and temperatures that may demagnetise them, such as those within an electric motor operating at high torque.” Moule mentions that permanent
magnets, such as NdFeB or ferrites, are also used in linear actuators, sensors and electronic components: “ZF engineers are particularly active in assessing options for the use of recycled magnets in motors and sensors,” he says. “Our motor designers are interested in the properties that are achieved by recycled magnets and are well able to determine the impact of these properties on the performance of a motor. They can take the magnet characterisation data obtained from our magnetic materials laboratory and use it in finite element electromagnetic simulations to predict motor performance.”
Following the simulation work,
Moule explains that, “Our prototype laboratories assemble motors and sensors for testing using recycled magnets. This allows us to gain not only theoretical but practical confidence in the resulting tests.” Moving from testing to real-
world applications, Moule confirms that insights gained from both the SUSMAGPRO project and ZF’s own development work are being comprehensively applied. “One of the less tangible and harder to measure impacts has been the greater awareness of sustainability amongst the design engineers,” he comments. “It’s been quite subtle: design engineers have started work on a project then stopped and said to a colleague, ‘is this going to be a good idea for the future – it’s OK for now but how is it for sustainability?’ And this wouldn’t have happened before we adopted the more holistic approach to design.”
The University of Birmingham’s hydrogen reaction vessel for the processing of magnetic scrap. Image courtesy of the University of Birmingham
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