Design for manufacture of integrated e-hubs for agricultural vehicles

Rapid advances are being made in the world of agritech, which is itself driving demand for integrated electric hubs (e-hubs) to provide the speed, torque, efficiency and durability required.

The project aims to drive the electric revolution by undertaking design for manufacture, integrating the motor, gearbox, brake and controller modules into a single unit designed specifically for agritech requirements. The product design will be available in a range of power outputs, and thus will facilitate scaling up and easy adoption by a multitude of vehicle and robot manufacturers.

Key to the project will be a close working relationship with two original equipment manufacturers with different agritech applications. These relationships will confirm duty cycles and running requirements, optimise the relationship between the gearbox/hub design and motor design, and focus the design for manufacture/scaleup.

As part of the design for manufacture, an assessment for automation will also be performed.

The project will result in two power variants (at opposite ends of the power range) of the e-hub being manufactured. They will be dyno tested for efficiency and durability, then fitted to appropriate vehicles for preliminary confirmation of dyno results by means of agricultural field trials.