University of Modena and Reggio Emilia
University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, located in the two close cities of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the world, founded in 1175, with a population of 20,000 students.
Some famous students who attended the University include Ludovico Antonio Muratori, a noted Italian historian and scholar who graduated in 1694, the playwright Carlo Goldoni in the 17th century and, in the last century, Sandro Pertini, who became President of the Italian Republic.
The University of Modena and Reggio Emilia is highly involved in international relations with other Universities and research centres, it hosts around 1200 international students and approximately 400 Erasmus students per academic years. It has hosted also 18 visiting professors in the period 2012-2013 (last figures available) and is currently involved in 2 Marie-Sklodowska Curie Actions, while in the 7th Framework Programme it has been involved in 5 Marie-Curie Actions, either host driven actions or individual fellowships.
UniMore has an international research office, which supports the different departments of the university in the management of R&D projects and external funds. Research Office provides information, assistance and consultancy about financial, administrative and management matters regarding internationally funded projects.
UniMore has manage a total of 57 projects financed by the European Union in the years 2014-2020 Among them: 9 have been directly coordinated by UniMore and 10 belong to the Marie Sklodovska Curie Actions aimed at the mobility of young researchers.
The Department of Engineering “Enzo Ferrari” was founded in the Academic Year 1990-91. Its main building, which covers more than 160,000 sqm, meets the highest teaching and research requirements. The Department regularly cooperates with renowned firms in the car manufacturing, chemical, mechanical, ceramics and biomedical fields, as well as enterprises in the sectors of information technology, telecommunications and industrial electronics. The Department has benefited from this productive network, and over the years it has improved and has further developed the high quality level of its research and technological application.
In the last years, the research particularly focused on e-mobility and transportation electrification fields, with expert personnel from other universities joining the department to increase the competences in power electronics and electrical machines area.
UniMore is also partner of the MUNER consortium. Muner collaborates with the Emilia Romagna Region in the definition of the plans and strategies for Smart Specialization in the automotive field.
In the transportation sector, the research focused on the design of electrical drives for high-speed motors and their control, via SiC-based inverters that can achieve switching frequency up to 100kHz.
High quality and high efficiency DC-DC/DC-AC power converters are researched for hybrid and full electric vehicles drivetrain and to intelligently manage the increased number of electric loads in the airplanes power distribution systems, guaranteeing reliability and resilience.
Converters’ power density is sought through comparison of the performance of wide bandgap devices, (SiC, GaN) respect to those of conventional silicon devices, and to the design of Gate Driver circuits that enable the active control of the temperature of the power devices, in order to improve their reliability.
Regarding the aerospace sector, the research is focused on the diagnostic of electric motors, and on the study of the failure models of the insulation system of motor windings. In particular, the impact of sudden voltage variations, introduced by the extremely reduced switching times of wide-bandgap devices, and the effects of the joint action of electrical stress and environmental factors (changes in temperature, pressure) on the aging of isolation systems.
CopperING
CopperING has more than 50 years of history and experience in designing and building individual systems and machines for electric motor production. In 2016, the company, whose original name was US Engineering Deutschland GmbH was renamed CopperING and two more sites were founded in Italy and Switzerland, respectively. With three sites combining Swiss precision, German efficiency and Italian creativity, CopperING is a byword of innovation and reliability.
The Italian CopperING S.r.l. is an industrial company that was born with the precise objective of placing itself in the international market as a manufacturer of special machines for the industrialization and production of electric traction motors and services for the green transportation sector. As part of a European group, CopperING S.r.l. makes determination and desire of people a key factor for the company’s success. Based upon this concept, CopperING S.r.l. was soon able to compete in world level for professional ability and competence, thus allowing to bring the company to a level of recognized excellence in less than two years. The team employs a group of mechanical and electronic technicians with many years of experience in the design and construction of machines. Thanks also to the collaboration of external partners, the company has developed rapidly and has proposed itself on the market with a series of highly innovative machines.
Later, copperING Italy became part of a German industrial group, namely Gehring Technologies Holding 2 GmbH, whose core business is entirely dedicated to the design, construction and sale of automatic machines for finishing the cylinders of combustion engines. This has led to a further boost to innovation, resulting in a series of initiatives and projects that are believed to be a competitive advantage in the field of manufacturers of automatic lines for the production of large volumes of electric motors, which may be precisely the needs of the automotive and aerospace worlds. Its promoters and collaborators are people with a lot of experience in these sectors united by the desire to respond positively to the needs of a rapidly evolving market.
The company organization presents several figures of mainly technical extraction. The main aspect was to build a team of project leaders and planners with many years of experience supported by young graduates, all dedicated to the study and innovation of the product, and a team of commercial technicians initially aimed to probe the market in relation to the needs of the main potential customers. From the technical point of view, in addition to an internal office, a number of external firms and professionals with experience in mechanical and electronic/software projects, in order to be able to follow the design of all-round lines while maintaining control of the whole process.All the above indicates that, besides providing standard engineering solutions and services (such as stator lamination, paper insulation and insertion, impregnation, etc.), the R&D team at CopperING works toward new solutions to fulfill some stringent and special customer requirements. In this context, given the numerous potential advantages deriving from the adoption of hairpin technologies in electrical motors, investments toward substantial changes in the production process have been made by the company. The need to increase production volumes has led to the creation of ever-faster and faster lines. One solution was to move the wire through mobile tracking stations in order to have a zero relative speed between the equipment and the wire. Through the technical research CopperING has come to different solutions that for the interest shown by potential customers and the first comforting results of the laboratory has prompted the company to undertake the choice to request the patent of various production solutions. In this context, where the wire and therefore the next pin is always in motion, a continuous drafting system (pulling) has been developed, a new method of cutting and coining and a new method of 2D bending and 3D forming have been investigated and realized.