Electric motors for agricultural machinery.

Electric motors are increasingly being used to power vehicles, and electricity-powered machinery is becoming widely used in agricultural applications. Feintool supports this development with its electrolamination stamping technology – which resulted in a major manufacturer receiving an award at the Agritechnica agricultural trade show.

Agricultural machinery development cycles are very long. Tractors are a perfect example for this, as they have been operating with continuously variable, hydromechanical power-split transmissions for more than 20 years. But when it comes to new generations of large tractors, manufacturers move to transmissions that transfer power directly without hydraulic pressure loss.

Knowledge is key

Schabmüller GmbH, based in Berching, Germany, develops electric motors for such drive systems. In order to manufacture them, it needs the right components and partners – this is where Feintool comes into play with its expertise in electrolamination stamping and stacking,: “The stator and rotor stacks from Feintool perfectly meet our requirements in terms of quality and performance,” says Rainer Kruse, Head of Development and Design at Schabmüller.

Following a two-year development phase, Feintool’s plant in Jessen, Germany, started producing the sophisticated components for electric motors in 2018: “Our technical knowledge as well as the gained customer confidence were the key factors for this nomination,” says Thomas Weinert, Head of Sales in Jessen.

Award-winning solution

The tool used to manufacture the in-tool lamination core stacks represented an extraordinary technical challenge. Due to its size and the associated complexity, all the process parameters must have been perfectly tailored ensuring the components necessary tolerances. The stamped and loose stator plates are subsequently welded into stacks, which Schabmüller then winds and uses in its electric motors and generators.

The joint efforts by Feintool and Schabmüller have paid off for an agricultural machinery manufacturer – the latest generation of its tractors received an award for this technological advancement in agricultural engineering at the Agritechnica trade show. According to the competition jury’s explanation on their website, this award is given to products with new concepts “in which the functionality has changed significantly, and the use makes a new process possible or substantially improves an existing one.”