3D Printing
News Videos Newsletter Contact us
Home / Automotive / Additive Drives Gets 1.5 Million Dollars Seed Funding for AM Motor Components
qidi

Additive Drives Gets 1.5 Million Dollars Seed Funding for AM Motor Components

October 22, 2020

Manufacturing coil windings for motors (and other components) is fantastically labour intensive, requiring many steps for converting the raw material into the end-use product.

First you have to make the wire, which involves lots of machinery (and heat!) in itself. Then you need to transport that wire to a factory, and transfer it to a production line where it will need to be loaded into some form of winding machine, which itself costs a lot of money.

What if you could just magically form the wound coil structure minus the winding? What if you could 3D print it, not only reducing production steps, transportation and costs, but also increasing the electrical properties of the finished product? That sounds like something that would be quite valuable.

Well we aren’t the only ones who think so, because AM Ventures has just provided Additive Drives with 1.5 million dollars of seed funding to do exactly that.

“Since our foundation in July 2020 we have successfully entered the automotive market,” said Jakob Jung, CEO and co-founder of Additive Drives.

“Our vision is to halve the development time for electric motors and to expand our technological leadership in additive-manufactured electric motors”.

Additive Drives

Additive Drives are based in Dresden, Germany, and they are focused on developing additive manufactured coils for electric vehicles. You can see one of the variants in the image below. This variant is the single coil design.

additive drives coil windings render

Their experimentation has shown that their additive manufactured motor coils are more efficient than conventionally manufactured coils, largely due to the variable geometries and wire cross sections enabled by additive manufacturing.

With the old way of doing things, motors suffered from lower outputs caused largely by thermal management issues (hot spots). By printing the coils and ensuring each wire is in contact with the laminated core, heat dissipation is increased and hot spots are eliminated. This can result in an increase of up to 45% power output.

And naturally, as the process steps are reduced, lead times on components are also reduced. According to Additive Drives, the lead time for a motor with a 3D printed coil is reduced from 6 months to just a few weeks.

The Additive Drive website shows a few case studies to demonstrate applications of their tech.

The first example shows how the Racetech racing team at TU Freiberg have been using the 3D printed motor coils in their Formula Student entry.

Their units feature the single coil variant, which is designed for low cost, fast turnaround applications over a range of geometries.

The next case study is of a traction engine and features the so-called hairpin winding variant, which is named because they look like hairpins as you can see below.

hairpin

These hairpins have a rectangular cross section and traditionally would require a lot of metal bending and welding to manufacture. Not any more. 3D printed copper windings can do all that, and can reduce the time for developing a prototype down to just one month.

“Additive manufacturing is becoming more mature and is increasingly opening up applications that are revolutionizing entire industries,” said Arno Held, Chief Venture Officer at AM Ventures.

“Additive Drives is a perfect example of this. With dramatically accelerated development times and massive improvements in weight, volume and performance, this product will contribute to electrifying not only motor sports, aviation and micro-mobility.”

The seed funding from AM Ventures will allow Additive Drives to advance their market launch as well as scale up in terms of prototyping new designs as well as increase their serial manufacturing capability.

3d printing copper featured image
Related Story
3D Printing Copper
Share:
WhatsApp Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Buffer Reddit E-mail
About the author | Phillip Keane
Phillip is an aerospace engineer from UK. He is a graduate of Coventry University (UK), International Space University (France) and Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), where he studied Advanced Manufacturing at the Singapore Centre for 3D Printing.
Join our newsletter

Our newsletter is free & you can unsubscribe any time.

Latest posts

Laser-Assisted Cold Spray Technology Enhances Material Deposition Process

Researchers at the University of Cambridge's Center for Industrial Photonics have developed a new additive manufacturing technique called laser-assisted cold spray (LACS). The... read more »

3D Printing Metal
Laser-Assisted Cold Spray Technology Enhances Material Deposition Process

Titomic Netherlands Secures Strategic Funding to Advance Cold Spray 3D Printing Technology

Titomic Limited, an Australian company specializing in cold spray additive manufacturing, has received €800,000 in funding from the Netherlands' 3D Print Kompas program.... read more »

3D Printing Metal
Titomic Netherlands Secures Strategic Funding to Advance Cold Spray 3D Printing Technology

3D-Printed Insects Help Scientists Map the Limits of Mimicry in Nature

Researchers at the University of Nottingham have developed a method to 3D print life-sized, color-accurate insect models for biological research. The team, led... read more »

Environmental

University of Hong Kong Scientists Explore Growing Organs with 3D Printing Technology

Researchers at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) are working to combine 3D-printed respiratory tissue with lab-grown organoids to create functional airways for... read more »

Bioprinting
University of Hong Kong Scientists Explore Growing Organs with 3D Printing Technology

SHINING 3D Unveils EinScan Rigil with Tri-Mode Scanning for Pro-sumer Flexibility

SHINING 3D has launched its newest flagship 3D scanner, the EinScan Rigil — touted as the world’s first 3D scanner featuring Tri-Mode operation... read more »

News
SHINING 3D Unveils EinScan Rigil with Tri-Mode Scanning for Pro-Level Flexibility

ETH Zurich 3D Prints Recycled Plastic Structure for Swiss Ice Cream Shop

ETH Zurich students have completed a 3D-printed ice cream shop in the Swiss Alpine village of Mulegns. The project, called Gelateria, was designed... read more »

Construction
ETH Zurich 3D Prints Recycled Plastic Structure for Swiss Ice Cream Shop

Hugo Launches 3D Printed Loafers with Zellerfeld

Hugo, the younger brand under Hugo Boss, has partnered with 3D printing company Zellerfeld to create a fully 3D-printed loafer. The shoe is... read more »

Fashion
Hugo Launches 3D Printed Loafers with Zellerfeld

3D Printed Resin Combines Rubber Flexibility with Plastic Strength, Surprising Scientists

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have developed a 3D printing method that can create objects with both soft and hard... read more »

News
3D Printed Resin Combines Rubber Flexibility with Plastic Strength, Surprising Scientists

LPE Supports Queen’s Propulsion Laboratory with 3D Printed Rocket Engine Chamber

Students at Queen's University Belfast have developed what they describe as Ireland's first student-built liquid rocket engine. The Kelvin Mk.1, named after Belfast-born... read more »

3D Printing Metal
LPE Supports Queen’s Propulsion Laboratory with 3D Printed Rocket Engine Chamber

Social

  • Facebook Facebook 3D Printing
  • Linkedin Linkedin 3D Printing
Join our newsletter

Our newsletter is free & you can unsubscribe any time.

Featured Industries

  • Automotive
  • Aerospace
  • Construction
  • Dental
  • Environmental
  • Electronics
  • Fashion
  • Medical
  • Military
  • QIDI Plus4

    • - Print size: 305 x 305 x 280 mm
    • - print temperature of 370°C
    More details »
    $799.00 QIDI Store
    Buy Now
  • QIDI Tech X-Max 3

    • - Print size: 325 x 325 x 315 mm
    • - fully enclosed
    More details »
    $799.00 QIDI Store
    Buy Now
  • Snapmaker Artisan Premium 3-in-1

    • - Print size: 400 x 400 x 400 mm
    • - comes with enclosure
    More details »
    $2,999.00 Snapmaker
    Buy Now
  • QIDI Tech Q1 Pro

    • - Print size: 245 x 245 x 245 mm
    • - 600mm/s max speed
    More details »
    $449.00 QIDI Store
    Buy Now

Company Information

  • What is 3D Printing?
  • Contact us
  • Join our mailing list
  • Advertise with us
  • Media Kit
  • Nederland 3D Printing

Blog

  • Latest News
  • Use Cases
  • Reviews
  • 3D Printers
  • 3D Printing Metal

Featured Reviews

  • Anycubic Photon Mono M5s
  • Creality Ender 5 S1
  • The Mole 3D Scanner
  • Flashforge Creator 3 Pro

Featured Industries

  • Automotive
  • Aerospace
  • Construction
  • Dental
  • Environmental
  • Electronics
  • Medical
  • Military
  • Fashion
  • Art
2025 — Strikwerda en Dehue
  • Home
  • Join our mailing list
  • Contact us
Blog
  • Latest News
  • Use Cases
  • Reviews
  • 3D Printers
  • 3D Printing Metal
Featured Industries
  • Automotive
  • Aerospace
  • Construction
  • Dental
  • Environmental
  • Electronics
  • Medical
  • Military
  • Fashion
  • Art
Company Information
  • What is 3D Printing?
  • Contact us
  • Join our mailing list
  • Advertise with us
  • Media Kit
  • Nederland 3D Printing