b'18 Partner News Spring 2021AcademicAdvancing the design and development of electric motorsWith 27% of UK greenhouse gas (GHG)a revolutionary supply chain for electricIt is expected that this newly developed emissions currently coming fromvehicle motor manufacturing in Walesmotor and associated novel supply road transportation, the need to findand the UK. Together with TATA Steel,chain will not only strongly support alternative, electric solutions has neverMotor Design Limited, Dragon Laserthe UK Governments ambition in full been more urgent in the race to addressLimited, Wiltan Limited, Batten and Allenelectrification of the road transportation climate change. As well as the benefitLtd. and the Welsh Automotive Forum,target by 2030, but also create a new to public health, there is an increasingthe i-CORE project is investigating newdriving platform for other applications, need to improve the air quality in manymaterials, manufacturing processessuch as trains, buses, marine, industrial and of the UKs towns and cities, where roadand techniques for novel designs. construction machinery, as well as aviation.transport emissions are one of the biggest contributors to localised pollution.They are investigating the manufacturingDr Rukshan Navaratne, Senior Lecturer of ultra-thin electrical steel, the materialin Aeronautical Engineering at USW, In the UK, there are ambitious targetshandling and novel laser cuttingwho is leading the project, said: To to stop the sale of fuel-based cars andtechnology, new bonding material andachieve net zero carbon by 2050 will vans, and only allow electric vehicles tointerlocking methods for laminations,require a huge effort across the entire be sold from 2030 onwards. It is hopedas well as additive manufactured (3Dsupply chain as fuel-based transport that this will help the UK to achieveprinted) lightweight polymer based motoris phased out, and electric vehicles net zero carbon emissions by 2050.components to optimise the manufacturingand motors become the new norm. The process. The motor that is being designedproject aims to develop solutions that will Electric vehicles have advanced greatlyand built aims to produce optimal motorsupport this aim, as well as developing in recent years. The core component ofperformance with a high amount of powera new supply chain for electric motors an electric vehicle is the electric motor,and torque, whilst still being small andin Wales that will make us a world but it needs to be highly efficient,lightweight enough to be viable in aleader in this expanding technology.lightweight, and generate low amounts ofstandard-size vehicle. It will be tested as heat and noise. It is not straightforwarda stand-alone unit, as well as a complete to achieve this, and there are a number ofintegrated system in different propulsion challenges in the manufacturing processsystems for techno-economic and that still need to be addressed to optimiseenvironmental performance assessments.the efficiency of an electric motor. The project will also look at developing The University of South Wales (USW)a new supply chain that covers the is a leading a 1.6m project with sixentire electric motor commercialisation industrial partners to design and developprocess, from motor design, component a high-performance motor using variousmanufacturing to drivetrain testing, novel techniques, that will also createperformance optimisation and assessment.'