Electrical machines: from innovation to fabrication and back again
Electrical machines for a circular economy - a challenge workshop at Newcastle University
This workshop brought together researchers, engineers, and industry leaders to explore and discuss the full lifecycle of electrical machines from innovation and advanced fabrication to reuse, refurbishment, and redesign all within the framework of a circular economy. It highlighted emerging materials, novel machine topologies, sustainable manufacturing processes, and design-for-disassembly approaches that reduce environmental impact while maintaining high performance and reliability.
Agenda and links to presentations
Session 1: Setting the scene and state of the art – an industrial perspective
James Widmer (AEM) AEM: Advanced Electric Machines
Joe Burchill (CGEN Engineering Ltd) Modular Generator Technology for Renewable Energy Applications
Florian Kneidl (Electrified Automation) Electrified Automation
Keyne Walker (Royal Academy of Engineering) The recovery and remanufacturing of neodymium magnets from UK wind turbines
Session 2: Life cycle assessment and Electrical Machines
Oliver Heidrich (Newcastle University) Life Cycle Assessment and Material Flows - An Attempt to Quantify the Environmental Impacts of Electrical Machines
Lucia Corsini (University of Oxford) A systems approach to unlocking the circular economy in the Electrical and Electronics sector (Circular Electrical and Electronics Project | Embedding Circularity in off-grid solar-wind renewable systems | Smart grading and remanufacturing electronics)
Xuebei Zhang & Fengyu Zhang (University of Nottingham) Carbon Emission Evaluation and Comparison of Electrical Machines for Sustainable Design
Ricky Fox (University of Birmingham) State Augmented Graphs for Circular Economy Triage
Session 3: Trends in the Manufacture and Disassembly of Electrical Machines
Anna Ermakova (University of Bristol) High-Performance Electrical Machine Windings Enabled by Metal Additive Manufacturing
Umair Paracha (University of Warwick) Transitioning from wet processes for electrical machine insulation: manufacturing, digitalisation and impact on circularity considerations
Yongjing Wang (University of Birmingham) Scalable & Intelligent Disassembly of Electrical Machines
Tianjie Zou (University of Nottingham) Hairpin winding development and manufacturing for sustainable high performance traction motors Break (10 mins) water and juice
Session 4: Speculative Research, future directions and co-ordinating our efforts
Libing Cao (Newcastle University) Sustainable Generator Design for Offshore Wave Energy Converters: A Case Study
Xiao Chen (University of Sheffield) Manufacturing Efforts on Core Losses of Cobalt-iron Alloys in Electrical Machines
Hossein Shirzad (Newcastle University) Sustainable Magnet Materials and Their Impact on Electrical Machine Design
See a list of speaker abstracts here.