Mahle presents new high-performance fan for electric vehicles
The new fan can be used for all-electric vehicles as well as for vehicles with fuel cells. The bionic fan blades can reduce the fan noise of a lorry by up to 4 dB(A) – that is more than halving the sound power, according to the company. This reduction in noise is extremely significant: “One can imagine the sound reduction power of our fan to be like that of turning off one of the speakers on a stereo system,” says Dr Uli Christian Blessing, Head of Thermal Management Development at Mahle. The new fan thus solves an important challenge of e-mobility: loud fan noise, which can be disturbing under full load and also when charging the vehicle at night in residential areas or at motorway service stations.
Artificial intelligence was used in the development of the new high-performance fan – and the animal world served as a model: “With the help of AI, we analysed the special features of bats, swordfish and many other sources of ideas from nature and ultimately ended up with the owl, the silent hunter, as the main model for our new fan,” says Blessing.
The design of the fan blades is based on owl wings and feathers and is therefore bionic, or modelled on nature. Mahle had already used this principle in the development of a new battery cooling plate, which is shaped like a coral. “We learn from nature: It inspires us in many areas! We have already seen success with our bionic battery cooling plate, a technology which helped us significantly while optimizing our fan,” says Dr Uli Christian Blessing.
The new bionic high-performance fan really comes into its own in areas where residents are sensitive to noise. Reduced noise emissions, for example when fast-charging electric vehicles, increase comfort for drivers and residents alike. Mahle offers the fan in a range from 300 watts to 35 kW. This allows it to be used in everything from small electric cars to large, particularly temperature-sensitive fuel cell lorries. According to Mahle, the first prototypes are already being trialled by various car and commercial vehicle manufacturers.
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