admin Porsche uses additive manufacturing to successfully create an electric motor and drive housing. This optimized electrical motor can be effectively used in limited-edition sports cars. The renowned luxury car brand also added that its engineers were able to carry out several rounds of development tests on the prototype.
Details of the Housing Unit
The company also asserted that the additively manufactured alloy housing was lighter than the weight of a conventionally cast part. This helps in reducing the overall weight of the drive by 10%. The electric drive optimization project commenced with the design integration of components such as bearings, heat exchanges, and oil supply. However, the company also notes that the extended design offered by additive manufacturing has to be achieved in conjunction with certain specific design requirements.
Optimization of Technological Breakthroughs
Moreover, with the technology now available, the printing of the first housing prototype took several days. It had to be completed in 2 build processes due to the component size. With the constantly augmenting technologies of the modern world, soon this time would also be significantly reduced- by almost 90%- thereby allowing the entire housing to be produced in a single process.
Optimization of topology and integration of functions drastically reduced the weight of the housing parts by approximately 40%. The honeycomb structures used reduced the oscillation of the thin housing walls. This helps improve the acoustics of the drive. Overall, the drive package was improved, integration of parts made the drive unit more compact, and also reduced the assembly work- this corresponded to the faster production of the each unit.
Falk Heilfort, Project Manager in the Powertrain Advance Development department at the Porsche Development Centre in Weissach spoke on this feat of success stating, “This proves that additive manufacturing with all its advantages is also suitable for larger and highly-stressed components in electric sports cars. Our goal was to develop an electric drive with the potential for additive manufacturing, at the same time integrating as many functions and parts as possible in the drive housing, saving weight and optimizing the structure”
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