Future Electrical Machines Manufacturing Hub

b130bbbe-c2df-4aa7-b072-716d1dfdf50b

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EPSRC
EPSRC
EPSRC
EPSRC
EPSRC

£53,679,810

March 31, 2019

March 31, 2026

We are witnessing huge global shifts towards cleaner growth and more resource efficient economies. The drive to lower carbon emissions is resulting in dramatic changes in how we travel and the ways we generate and use energy worldwide. Electrical machines are at the heart of the accelerating trends in the electrification of transport and the increased use of renewable energy such as offshore wind. To address the pressing drivers for clean growth and meet the increasing demands of new applications, new electrical machines with improved performance - higher power density, lower weight, improved reliability - are being designed by researchers and industry. However, there are significant manufacturing challenges to be overcome if UK industry is going to be able to manufacture these new machines with the appropriate cost, flexibility and quality.

The Hub's vision is to put UK manufacturing at the forefront of the electrification revolution. The Hub will address key manufacturing challenges in the production of high integrity and high value electrical machines for the aerospace, energy, high value automotive and premium consumer sectors.

The Hub will work in partnership with industry to address some common and fundamental barriers limiting manufacturing capability and capacity: the need for in-process support to manual operations in electrical machine manufacture - e.g. coil winding, insertions, electrical connections and wiring - to improve productivity and provide quality assurance; the sensitivity of high value and high integrity machines to small changes in tolerance and the requirement for high precision in manufacturing for safety critical applications; the increasing drive to low batch size, flexibility and customisation; and the need to train the next generation of manufacturing scientists and engineers.

The Hub's research programme will explore new and emerging manufacturing processes, new materials for enhanced functionality and/or light-weighting, new approaches for process modelling and simulation, and the application of digital approaches with new sensors and Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) technologies.

Potential Impact:
Technological Impacts. The Hub will be instrumental in establishing and maintaining a leading and differentiated technology needed to ensure the UK's future success in strategically important sectors. The dividends from the true integration of electrical machine and advanced manufacturing research will enable the higher performance needed for increasingly demanding applications - higher power density, lower weight, embedded health monitoring - while reducing manufacturing cost and improving quality. It will help UK industry develop the smart industrial systems needed for the electrical machine factories of the future, with flexible manufacturing capability and support for manual processes and workers.

Economic Impacts. The Hub will deliver significant economic impacts through increasing UK productivity and competitiveness in a number of strategically important UK sectors - aerospace, energy (offshore wind), high value automotive / motorsport, premium consumer goods as well as future spillover benefits to wider sectors (mass market automotive). The Hub will help sustain and support future growth in these sectors, helping position UK industry to win future work, including: ensuring a UK presence in manufacturing the next generation of aircraft wings and hybrid propulsion (a strategic objective for the HVMC) and supporting the target to increase UK content in UK offshore wind installations from 32% to 65% by 2030.

Societal, People and Policy Impacts. The Hub will support the UK Gov. shift to cleaner growth via low carbon energy generation and energy use in transportation. It will help improve the health (reduced pollution) and wealth (jobs, economic growth) of the nation. The Hub will shape the national debate and strategy around manufacturing and manufacturing research with the academic, industry and innovation communities, sponsors, policy makers and the public. It will train and nurture a new generation of manufacturing and engineering leaders. The Hub will deliver a programme of public engagement activities to contribute to the important narrative to increase the profile and prestige of manufacturing and engineering within the UK, which is critical to help address the nation's skills gap.