University of Nottingham starts electric motor consultancy

Nottingham Drive Specialist Services (NDSS) will provide “bespoke development, manufacturing and testing of electrical motors and drives to support the industrialisation of power electronic converters, electrical machines and drives from design through to manufacture and testing”, according to the university.

It is based at the recently opened Power Electronics and Machines Centre (PEMC) and has access to more than £20m of equipment. Funding has come from Research England, Getting Building Fund, D2N2, the Wolfson Foundation and the Driving the Electric Revolution Industrialisation Centre (DER-IC, or which Nottingham is a partner).

“Over the past 25 years, we have built up a store of intellectual property on this subject area and making this available for companies to benefit from is a key part of what we are doing to support the drive towards electrification and developing the UK supply chain,” said NDSS general manager Hitendra Hirani (pictured).

“This initiative is really about breaking down the barriers to engaging with the university and making our facilities and knowledge available for societal benefit,” said Nottingham professor of electrical machines Chris Gerada. “It is also one of the first steps we are taking on our net zero strategy.”

Facilities include:

• Test cells: 2MW, 5MW, 500kW altitude environmental, 120,000rpm
• Propulsion (inc automotive traction), aircraft generator and actuator test
• Characterisation: magnetic materials and insulation
• 3MVA PSU and energy storage emulation (dc, variable frequency ac)
• Specialist coil winding: Needle (concentrated and distributed stators), Litz, flat conductor, hairpin (continuous and variable cross-section)

Nottingham Drive Specialist Services  can be found here