April 2021

NEWS n 5 www.drivesncontrols.com April 2021 £28.5m investment aims to keep UK at forefront of electric drive technologies UK RESEARCHAND INNOVATION (UKRI) is investing £28.5m in nine facilities across the UK aimed at building a competitive drive and motor technology supply chain for sectors including industrial, transport and energy. The programme, part of the Driving the Electric Revolution initiative, will build on existing capabilities and fill gaps in the UK’s current capabilities in PEMD (power electronics, machines and drives) technologies. The facilities are due to start operating later this year. The investment will bring together a UK-wide network of more than 30 academic, research and technology organisations, led by Newcastle University. It will give businesses the opportunity to develop manufacturing technologies and industrialise the processes needed to scale up PEMD activities, while cutting risks by sharing expertise, technical advice and facilities. Four regional Industrialisation Centres – in Scotland, the SouthWest &Wales, the North East, and the Midlands – will coordinate and build on the UK’s national capability to deliver long-term sustainable growth on the path to the Government’s target of net-zero carbon emissions. They will help businesses to scale up the use of electrically- powered machines and vehicles across a variety of industries and transport systems. Beneficiaries of the new funding include: n assembly lines for power electronics and machines at the North East Innovation Centre in Sunderland; n a power electronics reliability and failure analysis facility, and a centre of excellence for electrical machine windings, at the University of Warwick; n a high-power integrated electrical propulsion and powertrain accelerator at the University of Strathclyde’s Power Networks Demonstration Centre; n a line for recycling sintered magnets at the University of Birmingham; n a high-frequency coil manufacturing and magnetic test facility at the University of Nottingham; and n a prototype facility for ceramic and copper elements and sub-assemblies for integrated modules at the Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult. “This investment represents a vital step forward in making the UK a world leader in PEMD,”says Professor Will Drury, director of the Driving the Electric Revolution Challenge.“With access to the Centres and network open to all, we aim to give all UK businesses and researchers the ability to develop and scale new PEMD technologies and manufacturing processes. Only by investing now in developing PEMD will the UK achieve its net-zero ambitions.” Professor BrianWalker, pro-vice- chancellor for research strategy and resources at Newcastle University, says that the UKRI support“allows us to bring to life a vision that was conceived by colleagues from across the UK and connects the UK’s best r&d across PEMD. It is essential that the UK grasps the opportunity to lead in providing supply chains for electrification of multiple modes of transport if we are to maintain our manufacturing capacity and meet our targets for electric vehicles in 2030 and net-zero carbon by 2050.” Professor James Widmer, CEO of the Washington-based motor and drive developer Advanced Electric Machines, says that new centres are “critical to AEM’s plan to scale from 1,000s to 100,000s of electric motors per year. These centres will help us to develop manufacturing capability and supply chain links to support our customers around the globe. We believe in the UK as a global centre for electrification; the Centres are key to announcing this capability to the world.” www.der-ic.org.uk Prof BrianWalker: essential that the UK grasps the opportunity “The UKRI support allows us to bring to life a vision that was conceived by colleagues from across the UK and connects the UK’s best r&d across PEMD” LUC LEROY, former head of core automation engineering at the electric vehicle maker Tesla, has set up a company with the aim of producing“the first no- code automated manufacturing platform”. Full Speed Automation, based in Silicon Valley, California, has raised $3.2m in seed funding to support the development and reach of its Vitesse platform. It has teams in the US and Europe. The platformwill allow fast production set-ups and rapid iterations on both new and existing production lines. As well as bringing agility to factories, it will simplify data acquisition and enable production monitoring with real-time telemetry. Leroy helped to solve the automation problems that Tesla encountered when it started to produce its Model 3 vehicle. He also helped to set up the controls and software architectures for Tesla’s Model Y and battery production lines. “To enable production agility with smart automation is key for a better future,” Leroy says. “Our platform increases quality and working conditions; it also boosts productivity, traceability and is essential to protect our planet by decentralising production and redistributing supply chains.” He describes Vitesse as “the missing universal automation operating system that will support this transformation”. Former Tesla automation head promises no-code platform