Jaguar’s I-PACE model has been named as the 2019 “Car of the Year”.

In its time, this long-established automotive manufacturer has launched quite a number of cars onto the market. And all these cars have made history.

Yet of all things, it is an electric car that has seen the British manufacturer scoop up the most coveted automotive prize in Europe.

Prof Ralf Speth, Jaguar Land Rover’s CEO: “The I-PACE was developed on a white piece of paper by a design and engineering team in the United Kingdom. It only took four years to get from the initial concept to the finished series model. It’s our most technologically advanced model to date and we think it will give a strong impetus to electromobility.”

Proprietary electric motors

Jaguar has managed to take the full potential of the electric drivetrain and light-weight aluminium construction. As a result, the vehicle combines sports-car performance with the practicality of an SUV.

The car is powered by two permanent-magnet synchronous motors, which Jaguar Land Rover developed itself. Based on the drive typology, they resemble the electric motors used in the I-Type Formula E racing car.

They can generate 294 kilowatts of power and produce a torque of 696 newton metres. So as to achieve the most compact solution possible, the drive shafts are guided through the motors.

By integrating the two motors into the front and rear axle, they enable powerful acceleration from a standing start. But also a facilitate all-wheel traction on any road surface.

However, the car of the year named I‑PACE doesn’t rely on just any conventional transmission. It can accelerate without interruptions to the traction and without any need to change gear. In this case, from zero to 12,000 rpm across the entire motor speed range.

This means that the electric Jaguar can jump from 0 to 100 km/h in just 4.8 seconds.

The key component in the car of the year: power electronics

In order to achieve this excellent power delivery, the car’s electric motor works with currents of up to 650 amperes. To master these high currents and their associated extreme load changes, Continental developed a system solution for Jaguar Land Rover.

This system solution was especially tailored to sporty high-performance drives.

In hybrid and electric vehicles, power electronics are a key component of the electric motor. They supply the electric motor with electricity and also control the energy recovery process (recuperation).

So, it is the power electronics that determine whether the full potential of the electric motor can be brought to fruition. As such, the power electronics are also key to maximising the driving enjoyment associated with the high starting torque. And instant response that form an inherent feature of electric motors.

IGBT enables excellent power density

The power electronics have to provide the full current within split seconds, for example during maximum acceleration from a standstill.

A particular challenge for the developers was mastering this extremely high load change, yet at the same time also guaranteeing the high cycle stability and durability rates required for automotive systems.

A further development objective was to achieve a high power density, so as to keep the assembly space as small as possible.

The particular component that contributed to obtaining this combination of performance, durability and compactness was an innovative power module – the core of the power inverter.

The inverter uses double-sided sintered chips (Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistor, IGBT). Compared with conventional, soldered wire connections (bonds), using sinter technology enables you to create connections that fulfil significantly higher requirements in terms of durability, reliability and thermal load capacity. Therefore they are particularly well-suited for the premium sector.

Continental is the first company to use this complex process for automotive electronics.

“In addition to the double-sided sinter technology, this approach also involves, amongst other things, the use of special ‘Direct Copper Bonded’ (DCB) substrates, as well as Continental’s custom-developed power semiconductors. The overall architecture of the power electronics, and the materials used, are optimised for maximum power and driving dynamics,” explains Continental Project Manager Alexander Reich.

Another important special feature of the newly developed power electronics technology is that the same system can be used in quite different types of vehicles.

For example, the power electronics in the Range Rover Sport Plug-In Hybrid and the Jaguar I-PACE are completely identical in terms of hardware – the only differences are in the software.

The post Electric power – car of the year 2019! appeared first on Future Markets Magazine.

For a long time, sensors and drives were connected to a controller or to each other via analogue signals – a process still used to this day in conventional applications.

To do this, each connection between a drive and another device requires a separate cable. Meaning that larger systems and complex drive systems are, in turn, accompanied by a larger amount of cabling.

Fewer cables, more performance

The introduction of bus systems has been able to significantly reduce the amount of cabling transferring data between the individual participants within a network. Whether wired or wireless.

The digital bus allows for a bidirectional flow of information, transferring both basic process data and other information such as the number of revolutions, operating parameters, fault signals and maintenance signals.

Bus systems in every industry

There is currently a large array of bus systems available, given the different needs in every industry and application for data transfer.

The variety of possible technical solutions and the fact that separate manufacturers have brought their own bus systems to market.

However, some systems have established themselves as leaders in different drive-technology applications over the course of time.

CAN bus was originally developed for use in vehicles. After all, the number of sensors and actuators in cars is steadily growing.

Today, in addition to the drive motor, there are up to 40 other electric motors in use, including for the washer fluid pump, the windscreen wipers themselves and the seat adjustment system.

This number will continue to grow in line with the trend towards fully automated driving, making efficient component networking more and more important.

In addition, CAN is now a tried-and-tested system in the industrial sector. It is used today in the automotive industry alongside a number of other bus systems, with each focusing on specific requirements.

LIN (Local Interconnect Network) allows for cost-effective integration of sensors and actuators in vehicle networks, while FlexRay can be used in distributed, safety-relevant control systems.

Systems such as Profibus, Modbus, CC-Link and DeviceNet (based on CAN) have become established fixtures in industrial applications and automation technology.

Meanwhile, other sectors have adopted other solutions. In building management, examples include KNX, LON (Local -Operating Network), BACnet and highly specific bus systems such as the Standard Motor Interface (SMI), which are used to control electronic drives for items like blinds or shutters.

Ethernet gaining ground

The bus systems used to date have scored points for their ease of operation, low cost and reliability after years of use.

However, the growing digital transformation in all areas is also leading to ever-stricter requirements in terms of communication.

One solution to these needs is bus systems based on the Ethernet standard.

This bus was developed back in the first half of the 1970s. Today, it has become the most common communication standard in IT, with millions of computers and office devices now interconnected using this interface.

Thanks to its widespread use, the costs are low and levels of acceptance are high.

Ethernet has been adapted for industrial applications so that the system is fast enough for the exacting requirements of industrial automation.

These protocols, known as Industrial Ethernet, include Profinet, EtherCAT and Ethernet IP.

Some of the drivers of growth in Industrial Ethernet systems are higher performance, larger data volumes, better real-time capability, the integration of safety protocols and access to office networks – making it easier, in turn, to connect to the Internet of Things and the cloud.

Ethernet-based systems offer positive results precisely where it matters – in terms of drive control, for instance, they can be advantageous for cycle times and the synchronisation of different drives.

The latest systems achieve transfer rates of 1 Gbit / s, such as the recently developed EtherCAT G; the EtherCAT G10 variant, presented as a technology study, even achieves 10 Gbit/s.

This means operators will be well equipped, even for extremely large-scale applications in the future and the increased integration of data-intensive devices like complex motion systems.

Real-time transfer meets multi-vendor capability

Nevertheless, there is still the problem of devices from different manufacturers not always being capable of communicating with each other.

As a result, the OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) data exchange standard was developed in close cooperation between manufacturers, users, research institutes and consortia.

OPC UA bridges the gap between the IP-based world of IT and the world of production.

Ethernet has been further developed in parallel to this to offer a secure data transfer and real-time functionality.

A series of standards have been compiled for this purpose with TSN (Time-Sensitive Networking), which expands Ethernet to include real-time data-transfer functions.

Reducing latency while ensuring precise time references and higher availability are important goals of this -technology.

Both developments are currently being combined to create OPC UA over TSN, a unified communications standard in Industrial IoT.

In the future, the aim is for OPC UA over TSN to enable plug-and-produce networks that are easy to administer and configure, with network stations communicating up to 18 times faster than with any protocol available on the market today.

This would open up new possibilities in areas such as tightly synchronised motion and control applications.

The post Communication of bus systems appeared first on Future Markets Magazine.

Traditional maintenance methods, in which systems are inspected at regular, set intervals, are not based on the actual condition of the systems in question.  This means that systems may be checked either too early or too late.

While premature maintenance is acceptable and has little effect on cost, belated maintenance could mean machine damage or failure. In other words, with consequences that are just as serious and costly. Condition-based maintenance of drives is necessary to avoid this outcome, for instance.

Digital drive technology provides a key foundation for this process, so permanently recording machine and drive data. As a result, the actual condition of a component or system to be continuously monitored and conclusions to be drawn about their functionality.

Condition monitoring makes it possible to intervene in good time as soon as an unusual change in the machine’s condition is detected. Indeed, before the drive has the chance to fail.

When Drives Become Current Sensors

A vast array of different data sources are possible in this area. Electric motors and their actuators provide valuable information. Frequency converters, for example, collect a large amount of data that enables operators to reach conclusions about motors’ working condition.

Also a direct indication can be given, if it is necessary to check the bearings of motor and driven components. This is when a little more energy is needed to reach the same speed even though the process has not changed.

Further data can be recorded via additional sensors to gain a deeper understanding of the drive’s condition, as well as to predict possible wear, tear and failures.

Temperature sensors act as important indicators with electric motors, for instance. Because overheating is a sign of a defect that may result in future system failure. In addition, acoustic and vibration sensor data can be a useful source of information about the status of roller bearings. Or they drives as a whole, with vibration sensor technology offering particularly beneficial results in this regard.

Detailed manufacturer databases are available especially for the bearings used in industrial drives. These databases contain all components of each bearing type with their characteristic vibration frequencies. Therefore, with such manufacturer databases, the individual frequencies can be clearly identified and allocated.

Outliers from the typical frequency spectrum indicate early-stage damage.

Condition Monitoring with MEMS

Market research by Technavio has found that the use of vibration sensors in predictive maintenance processes is one of the factors driving solid growth in this segment. The global vibration-meter market is predicted to grow by 5 % a year on average between 2019 and 2023.

According to Technavio, micro-electromechanical sensors (MEMS) are seeing increased use in this area. Because they offering a cheaper, smaller and more energy-efficient alternative to conventional sensors.

MEMS is also part of a new system that uses the ultrasonic output from a machine or drive. The small MEMS microphones measure noise from 10 to 50-plus kilohertz. Changes within this range can point users to damage in fans’ bearings or dirty air inlets.

These systems’ sensitivity needs to be higher than that of conventional vibration or acoustic sensors, allowing damage to be detected at an even earlier stage.

Drives can also be retrofitted with modern condition-monitoring systems. Various drive manufacturers have developed compact sensor tags that are simple to attach to the drive’s housing. They also provide information about the operating parameters, such as vibrations, temperature and overloading. Additionally, they can then send the data to a smartphone or to the cloud via wireless communications interfaces for further analysis.

Predicting Damage

While condition monitoring only supports recognition of the current situation, predictive maintenance can be used for long-term planning of when maintenance will be necessary or how long a component will continue to work reliably.

This means higher system availability, reduced costs, a longer drive service life and – most importantly – no unplanned downtime. To this end, patterns are detected from the condition-monitoring data to create insightful predictions.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is playing an increasingly important supporting role in this process, as the amount of data generated by the drives and sensors is too large to be quickly evaluated and interpreted by human talent alone.

The plant operator can only benefit from the data that has been collected once it is processed by suitable methods of mathematical AI analysis.

Today, these methods take the form of analytical tools requiring high computing capacity, mostly stored in the cloud. As a result, the communication capability of digital drives is essential. The data can only be transferred from the motor to the plant controller to the cloud through the appropriate interfaces.

With the growing intelligence of the drives themselves and the effectiveness of their controllers, however, these analyses can increasingly be shifted to the drives.

This way, at the very least, simple factors can be evaluated locally in a direct process and displayed on a device such as the plant operator’s smartphone.

The post Condition Monitoring vs. Predictive Maintenance appeared first on Future Markets Magazine.