Showa Denko has started full-scale marketing of its ST60-HSM aluminum alloy board, which is designed to be used in place of copper as an on-board bus bar connecting an EV’s motor and power electronics. In 2021, SDK started to provide several automotive parts manufacturers with samples of the boards. Showa Denko says the ST60-HSM, which… Read more »
Author: Tom Lombardo
Wright develops inverter for zero-emissions aircraft
Wright Electric has developed an inverter for large zero-emissions aircraft. Designed to be scalable from 500 kW to 20 MW systems, the Wright inverter targets the following performance levels: 99.5% efficiency—a 6x improvement in heat loss over current in-production aviation inverters resulting in lower thermal management loads. 30 kW/kg power density—in contrast, today’s technology delivers… Read more »
Infinitum Electric raises $40 million to scale ultra-high-efficiency motors
Infinitum Electric, creator of the air-core motor, has secured $40 million in Series C funding to scale production of its ultra-high-efficiency, lightweight motors. The investment will be used to expand production of the company’s IEs Series motors for commercial and industrial applications, and to complete development of its IEm Series EV motors. Infinitum says its… Read more »
Pensana plans $125-million rare earth separation facility in England
Pensana plans to build a $125-million sustainable rare earth separation facility at the Saltend Chemicals Park in Humber, UK. Targeted annual production is around 12,500 tons of rare earth oxides, including 4,500 tons of magnet metal rare earth oxides (NdPr), which would represent approximately 5% of the 2025 projected world demand. The Saltend plant will… Read more »
Factorial Energy unveils 40 Ah solid-state EV battery cell
Factorial Energy has introduced what it says is the first 40 Ah solid-state EV battery cell. The Factorial Electrolyte System Technology (FEST) is a proprietary solid electrolyte material designed to enable safe and reliable cell performance with high-voltage and high-energy-density electrodes. Solid electrolytes like FEST are considered safer than conventional lithium-ion technology, as they replace… Read more »
Airbus boosts cryogenic technology testing for electric aircraft systems
Airbus is developing a testing platform called Advanced Superconducting and Cryogenic Experimental powertraiN Demonstrator (ASCEND) to explore the impact of superconducting materials and cryogenic temperatures on the performance of an aircraft’s electric propulsion systems. The introduction of superconducting materials can lower electrical resistance, which reduces power loss in conductors. When coupled with liquid hydrogen at… Read more »
Report: Indonesia to overtake China as top nickel producer this year
Materials supply chain intelligence company Roskill expects Indonesia to become the world’s largest producer of refined nickel this year, pushing China to second place. As recently as 2014, Indonesia produced only 24 kilotons of refined nickel. In 2020, Indonesia produced 636 kt of refined nickel, most of which was nickel pig iron (NPI) for the… Read more »
Donaldson expands battery venting product line with Dual-Stage Flex resealable vent
Donaldson has expanded its dual-stage battery pack vent line with the addition of the Dual-Stage Flex battery vent. The new battery vent enables pressure relief at lower pressures, helping support battery life and reliability. EV weight can be reduced by using thinner battery pack walls, but thin walls can’t withstand higher pressures within the battery… Read more »
Williams Advanced Engineering partners with Italdesign for EV production
Italdesign and Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE) have announced a partnership that will provide the automotive sector with a complete high-performance EV production solution. Combining WAE’s composite EV rolling chassis with vehicle development services from Italdesign, the joint venture will support automotive OEMs in the creation of a range of premium EVs, including high-performance GTs, crossovers… Read more »
WAFIOS introduces SpeedFormer bending process for hairpin prototyping and production
WAFIOS has introduced the SpeedFormer, a new approach to the production of hairpins for EV motors. SpeedFormer combines three bending techniques from conventional wire and tube bending machines into one system. One of the bending techniques has been used for decades in WAFIOS CNC spring and wire forming machines and has now been modified and… Read more »
