Like batteries, electric motors can also have a second life

The increase in sales of electric cars has led to the electric motor production has increased significantly. At the end of their useful life, these motors are usually crushed and recycled, without its individual components being reused. Until now, no sustainable strategies or procedures have been developed that go further with the remanufacturing and the recycling.

In it Reassert projectresearchers from Institute Fraunhofer of Manufacturing and Automation Engineering IPA, together with its industrial partners, are exploring various concepts for the repair, remanufacturing and reuse of electric motors, as well as new designs.

It is not enough to recycle

Currently, the recycling of raw materials has been established as the main strategy to preserve the value of electric motors. Through manual or automated methods, materials such as copper and aluminum. This involves disassembling, crushing and sorting the electric traction motors into individual material fractions which are then melted.

However, the recycled material, often contaminated, is no longer suitable for use in engines, and individual components are destroyed. Therefore, the recycling of raw materials should be considered as a last resource and be replaced by high-quality value preservation strategies, such as reuse, repair, remanufacturing and recycling of materials.

The goal is to establish a closed-loop system where valuable resources are reused to reduce dependence on imports of raw materials and minimize additional extraction, he explains. Grosse Erdmannscientist at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA in Bayreuth.

The circular economy of the electric motor

Electric motors contain materials such as copper or rare earths such as neodymium, of which China has a near monopoly and which currently cannot be recovered with available recycling methods. On the other hand, its raw materials have a larger carbon footprint than that of a combustion engine. These reasons make it essential to extend the life of these engines.

Erdmann points out that value retention strategies offer significant potential to reduce emissions in terms of sustainability. Within the framework of Reassert projectresearchers from the consortium led by Schaeffler, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, BRIGHT Testing GmbH, iFAKT GmbH and Riebesam GmbH & Co. KG are trying to develop innovative procedures to give a second life to reused electric motors in a new vehicle

The approach focuses on strategies of reuse, repair, remanufacturing and recycling of raw materials, key elements for a circular economy that allows reducing the consumption of natural resources and minimizing waste. The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Economy and Climate Action (BMWK).

The project partners define the reuse such as secondary use of the entire engine and repair such as replacing defective components. In the remanufacturing, all components are disassembled, cleaned, reconditioned and reassembled. This allows fewer raw materials to be used, such as rare earths and copper. For recycle raw materials, the project partners plan to dismantle the engine and sort the different materials before crushing them.

The ‘guts’ of the process with the help of artificial intelligence

The project involves the implementation of a complete processwhere each stage has its own demonstrator and test bench: from the initial inspection to classify the motor to disassembly, demagnetization, cleaning, component diagnosis and remanufacturing, to reassembly and quality testing, where functionality is evaluated the motor.

Thus, for example, an engine casing with minor wear can be classified for reuse and, if necessary, subjected to machining processes to ensure its functionality. Depending on the value retention strategy chosen, different phases and process chains are involved, which can vary the remanufacturing effort.

A tool based on artificial intelligence, developed as part of the project, helps select the most appropriate value retention strategy for a specific application. This tool has access to electric motor product and process data, which is stored in a digital twin.

The knowledge obtained in the project will be used for the design of new electric motors. The objective is to develop a prototype engine for the circular economy that can be easily disassembled and to which the four value preservation strategies mentioned can be applied without difficulty.