Portescap’s new miniature motor R&D facility increases customisation capability

19 July, 2022

Dheeraj comments: “Our approach covers theoretical designs and prototyping through to manufacture. It helps us create the highest performance, most reliable motion solutions for compact applications, and also enables us to accelerate the development of a miniature motor package for the benefit of our customers. The new lab is integral to this.”

Proof of concept

Important for standard products but crucial for bespoke development is the proof-of-concept stage. As part of this, the new Mumbai lab includes in-house 3D printing, enabling the team to rapidly create and test designs. This can involve customising standard parts for fast delivery, utilising existing projects from the company’s customisation portfolio, or creating entirely new designs.

“With 3D printing we’ve been able to manufacture parts that would have been difficult to manufacture otherwise, especially at high speed and using new materials, so the ability to achieve this in-house is certainly advantageous for our customers for fast development,” says Dheeraj. “The capabilities of the new lab will also help our global teams receive prototype parts more quickly from our Mumbai factory, speeding up application development around the world.”

To validate concepts and prototypes for production, the Mumbai Engineering Lab includes testing across all miniature motor characteristics, such as performance, torque and noise, as well as life testing to ensure long-term reliability of motors for critical applications. Specific to Portescap’s customisation ethos, the new lab is also able to recreate field conditions for dedicated applications. Simulation techniques in virtual and live situations include aspects such as direction of rotation with variable load.

“Portescap typically uses its own design and testing methodology for performance and life testing, relating to the duty cycle of a specific application,” explains Dheeraj. “We try to model performance and reliability characteristics as closely as possible, based on customer feedback, our analysis of the existing application, as well as our experience of previous, similar examples. The results are very realistic to actual field use.”

Environment chamber

Facilities at the new lab include an environment chamber to test a motor against various temperatures and humidity, as well as an autoclave tester for sterilisation applications such as surgical hand tools. The lab also includes an NVH (noise, vibration, harshness) chamber for analysis over varying duty cycles. In addition to the latest test technology, the facilities require subject matter experts to optimise the procedures.

“Our subject matter experts cover aspects such as gearing transmission and noise, electromagnetic designs, materials, and reliability,” explains Dheeraj. “As a result of their experience in analytical procedures, these experts enable us to bring a product to market more quickly. Similarly, this capability is also focussed on problem solving for specific customers, such as simulation techniques and acoustic modelling, enhancing our capabilities for the validation of bespoke applications.”

In addition to the capabilities of the facility, the new Engineering Lab is significantly larger than the Mumbai team’s previous site. This brings a higher capacity of testing of products and composites, meaning that applications can be validated for customers at a faster rate. “Both Portescap’s Switzerland and USA teams have excellent labs with staff for design and prototyping. With India’s new facility and subject matter expertise, we’re complementing our global team,” says Dheeraj. “We operate as one team, problem solving for faster time to market for customer solutions. The new lab is part of an evolving development that will see Portescap resolve customer challenges into the future.”

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