Link between research and day-to-day business
Not every medium-sized electric motor manufacturer has its own R&D department like BEN Buchele. In this article, we reveal how our customers benefit from this, what the department does, and what the links with day-to-day business look like.
When you ask Research and Development Manager Dr Michael Reinlein why BEN Buchele needs its own R&D department, he looks at the big picture: “A medium-sized electrical engineering company with its own production facilities in Germany can only ensure its long-term competitiveness with innovative drive ideas and manufacturing processes. Since Caption: Head of Research and Development Dr Michael Reinlein
we rely on manufacturing with high quality and individualised concepts, the development activities of the research department pay off both in the long term and right now, for customers and for us as a company. As our colleagues from design and technical engine analysis are usually more than busy with day-to-day business, R&D can provide support with technical issues and jointly develop solutions for our customers”.
R&D tasks
Cooperative problem solving is a top priority here: Andrea von Lattre-Hertel and Michael Reinlein.
The department consists of four people, two electrical engineers (Dr Michael Reinlein and Bastian Kohlmann) and two mechanical engineers (Andrea von Lattre-Hertel and Jaydip Gadhiya). Flat hierarchies and a favourable working atmosphere are important to Michael Reinlein: “It’s not your job title that matters here, but getting ideas and feedback from everybody helps us find the most sensible technical solution.” The tasks of the R&D department include the following: monitoring market and technology trends, developing new drives and technologies, researching and implementing new manufacturing methods, cooperating with production, purchasing, technical engine analysis and sales to launch new products, and working with research institutes and universities.
Mechanical engineer Jaydip Gadhiya
In addition, R&D often acts as a link between day-to-day business and development activities. It is often not possible to find the time to clarify fundamental design and layout issues. These tasks can be outsourced to R&D. All suggestions from colleagues – including suggestions and requests from our customers, of course – are included in a large list of topics, reviewed, prioritised, subjected to preliminary studies, and finally processed. This can happen within days, weeks or months, depending on the project.
“Atypical vibrations”
A “problem” that needed to be solved quickly was brought to the R&D department by colleagues from testing: During a test, unusually high mechanical vibration values occurred that could not be analysed in everyday use. Our R&D department provided support by checking the basics and the test setup in order to categorise the problem and develop a solution. Due to the very rapid increase in vibration intensity when the speed was increased, Michael Reinlein recognised the occurrence of a resonance frequency – not in the electric motor itself, but in the test bed, i.e. the test setup itself. The head of department was certain that as quickly as the resonance frequency increased, it would also fall again if the speed was increased further. “However, my colleagues were not immediately convinced”, Reinlein smiles. “I had to carry out the next test alone in the test bay before the rotor could blow up in their faces”. However, the theoretical principles delivered what they promised; the cause in the test setup was eliminated. In an emergency, the automatic vibration value monitoring system would also have switched off the system.
Development is not the same as research
When it comes to R&D, we need to distinguish between the terms “research” and “development”. Most of the work concerns development tasks to drive innovation for our customers. Research tasks, on the other hand, are about fundamental research. One example of this is the multi-year research project “Prodrimo” with the University of Erlangen. Together, we are developing a new manufacturing process to automatically insert windings into the stator. Jaydip Gadhiya explains: “Winding machines already exist for large quantities. However, we would like to develop a system for small and medium quantities with a greater range of variants. The aim is to be able to automatically wind different motor variants with the shortest set-up time and lowest cost as possible”.
Recommended action for bearing currents
In a current project, R&D has supported technical colleagues in the evaluation and avoidance of bearing currents. The situation here was the same: As the topic was quite complex and depended on a wide variety of factors, it was hardly possible to tackle it in day-to-day business. The R&D team acquired detailed knowledge of when which type of bearing currents occur and which countermeasures are possible depending on the cause and overall structure of the system. The department drew up a recommendation for action and organised training for colleagues. Depending on the customer application, possible solutions include insulated shafts, drainage systems, insulated hybrid ceramic ball bearings, bearings with insulated inner and outer rings, and many more.
Bastian Kohlmann prepares the bearing currents workshop for his colleagues.
Long-term research project as an investment in the future
A real basic research project on which the R&D department is working intensively is the development of its own machine analysis program. Michael Reinlein explains the reasons behind this: “A project like this, setting up a machine analysis programme from scratch, is really unusual for a company of our size. But we see it as an investment in the future. The existing programme, which encompasses decades of knowledge, definitely still has a role to play and will continue to be used. However, these basic principles reach their limits in newer applications, such as inverter operation. To this end, we are developing a numerical system based on an FEM (finite element method), which also significantly improves the accuracy of the analysis”.