Equipmake patents spoke motor, gears for expansion

British electric motor firm Equipmake says it is on the brink of a major expansion based on their advance in electric drive technology. The firm patented so-called spoke machines with a new cooling technology.

Based on their patents, Equipmake from Norfolk says they will soon be building “hundreds of thousands” of said spoke machines. In fact, they want to turn from a specialist manufacturer designing KERS drives for Formula 1 through Williams for example into a large tier one supplier.

While spoke motors, where magnets inside the PMS motor are arranged like spokes of a wheel, are not a new concept, Equipmake’s way to cool the magnets is. They manage to place the coolant very close to the magnets and say they have found a cost effective way to build spoke motors. Equipmake thus claims their electric drives deliver higher continuous power than others while using less material and being more compact overall.

Equipmake’s founder Ian Foley told Autocar, they had a lead over rivals of about two year. His growth prediction builds on the company’s patent but also on growing demand from carmakers for electric drives.

In order to become a large supplier over the next five years, Equipmake wants to invest in their workforce, “employing hundreds of people and manufacturing hundreds of thousands of motors,” according to Foley. Obviously this won’t be done over night and so the company wants to take in investors in order to capitalise on their opportunity.

Equipmake aims their electric motors at the high performance EV industry as well as commercial electric vehicles.

autocar.co.uk