Month: March 2024

CVE are attending the 75^th International Institute of Welding (IIW) Annual Assembly and Conference, 17^th-22^nd July 2022, in Tokyo, Japan.

The Japan Institute of Welding, The Japan Welding Society, and The Japan Welding Engineering Society will host the event this year, with support from the Tokyo Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The theme is innovative welding and joining technologies to achieve carbon neutrality and promote sustainable development.

CVE colleagues Chris Punshon, Head of New Energy Applications, Alex O’Farrell, Development Engineering Manager, and Max Nentwich, Head Laser Development Engineer, will be presenting at the conference, with topics spanning local vacuum power beam welding, copper welding for electric vehicles, and laser welding in a vacuum.

The details of the papers are as follows:

• Doc.IV-1507-2022 Local Vacuum Electron Beam and Laser Solutions in New Energy Applications – New Developments and Regulatory Position, Chris Punshon, et al.

• Doc.IV-1506-2022 Removing The Bottleneck In Welding Of Electrical Conductors for Electric Vehicles, Alex O’Farrell, et al.

• Doc.IV-1508-2022 Interaction of Protective Gas with Process Emissions in Vacuum Laser Welding, Max Nentwich, et al.

Chris is the UK delegate for IIW Commission IV (Power Beam Processes) and will act as a session chair for Commission IV. He will also present on local vacuum electron beam welding.

His paper is titled the Local Vacuum Electron Beam and Laser Solutions in New Energy Applications – New Developments and Regulatory Position.

This follows a series of development projects using CVE’s local vacuum technology, Ebflow, including welding of 200mm thick steel, pressure vessel manufacture, pilot at Dogger Bank wind farm, and wind tower manufacturing.

Alex’s paper, titled Removing the Bottleneck in Welding of Electrical Conductors for Electric Vehicles, will focus on how the industry can increase the rate of joining electrically conducting components and the criticality of this to improving electric vehicle manufacturing.

Finally, Max, working as part of a knowledge transfer partnership (KTP) between Cambridge Vacuum Engineering and Cranfield University, will present a paper on the Interaction of Protective Gas with Process Emissions in Vacuum Laser Welding.

Chris’s presentation will take place on Monday 12th July between 13:00 and 16:00. Both Alex and Max’s papers will be presented on Monday 18th July, between 14:00 and 16:00. Please visit the event’s website for the full timetable.

The conference covers a range of other topics, including:

• Additive manufacturing technology and efficient engineering
• Artificial intelligence (AI) and digital transformation (DX)
• Hydrogen (including fuel ammonia), renewable and nuclear energy, electrification
• New materials
• Future technologies
• Other fundamentals

The CVE team will also be attending the adjacently-running Japan International Welding Show at Tokyo International Exhibition Centre and will be happy to meet any attendees or exhibitors interested in the above topics, please get in touch by emailing sales@camvaceng.com.

CVE is exhibiting at The Battery Show Europe, in Stuttgart, Germany, 28-30 June 2022. The Battery Show Europe brings together engineers, business leaders, and top-industry companies to create powerful solutions for the future.

Join the leading meeting place for the advanced battery and hybrid/electric vehicle technology community.

You can find CVE at the UK Pavilion at stand 8E50.

CVE colleagues Chris Coaster, Sales Manager, and Nick Edge, Consultant, will be pleased to discuss developments in electron beam welding for electric vehicle (EV) powertrain components, including batteries.

Alongside us in the UK Pavilion, you will find:

• Autocraft Solutions Group
• Acovet Battery Materials
• Breathe Technologies
• Brill Power
• Dennis Ferranti
• Eatron Technologies
• Lotus Engineering
• Samuel Taylor
• Turntide Technologies
• TWI

At the exhibition you will meet manufacturers, suppliers, engineers, thought leaders and decision-makers for a conference and trade fair focused on the latest developments in the advanced battery and automotive industries.

The free-to-attend expo provides attendees the chance to find solutions to their application needs, get a look at the latest technologies, and connect with their peers.

A forum for advanced battery technology which covers electric and hybrid vehicles, utility and renewable energy support, stationary power, portable electronics, medtech, military, and telecommunications.

Find out more on our exhibitor page.

CVE have launched a new electron beam (EB) welding machine for electric vehicle (EV) components, including batteries, shunt resistors, motor stators, hairpins, and invertors.

The machine will address the automotive industry‘s requirement for a high-quality, quick, and reliable welding process for EV components.

Vehicle electrification is the process of powering the vehicle with electricity by replacing components that operate on a conventional energy source with components that operate on electricity. This includes battery packs, motors, auxiliary systems, and charging systems.

Improvements are developing rapidly, with manufacturers already making advances in fast charging technology and battery exchange systems.

The size and mass of a battery pack often impact the design as more battery cells mean more mass for the vehicle. Increased mass requires more energy for the vehicle movement and affects manoeuvrability, such as handling, acceleration, and braking.

Widespread electrification of light and heavy-duty vehicles faces many economic and technological challenges. Many manufacturers sell electric cars, but there are still some barriers to adoption, including charging infrastructure and price. This is mainly due to the battery costs, but innovative welding solutions can help reduce these.

Electron beam welding is an optimal joining method for welding EV components.

Evflow is an electron beam welding machine for producing electric vehicle (EV) power train components. Electron beam welding is an extremely consistent process, creating strong, high-quality welds.

It is significantly faster for this application as the beam from the electron gun can be deflected electromagnetically with no moving parts, allowing it to move at speeds many times faster than a mechanical laser mirror.

It is significantly faster for this application as the beam from the electron gun can be deflected electromagnetically with no moving parts, allowing it to move at speeds many times faster than a mechanical laser mirror.

You can also change the focal point of the electron beam dynamically and very rapidly using electromagnetic focusing coils, which again have no moving parts. This allows the electron beam to process very wide areas without mechanically moving the welded part or the weld head.

The focal depth of the electron beam is typically longer than a laser; this combined with the lack of issues with reflectivity, makes electron beam welding a more reliable technology for mass production as it has wider tolerance for part misalignment.

Furthermore, as there is no reflectivity from an electron beam on metals such as copper (unlike laser), there is a greater heat intensity. As a result, less material is required in critical areas, such as hairpins, to absorb the heat.

As the vacuum chamber contains the welding process, there is less spatter, so the welds are extremely consistent.

The vacuum reduces the porosity in the weld creating a better electrical connection and increasing the efficiency of the electric vehicle.

Follow the links for more information:

• Evflow machine page
• Evflow datasheet
• Electron beam vs laser welding case study
• Electron beam welding in the automotive industry
• Electrification
• CVE exhibit at coil winding exhibition
• Strip welding machine for shunt resistors
• Electron beam welding of battery busbars
• CVE exhibit at The Battery Show Europe

We build machines to order, and options include custom and precision work handling, vacuum systems tailored to specific process needs and productivity, wire-feed, automatic joint finding, backscattered electron imaging, automatic focus, alignment and stigmator adjustment, high-speed data capture, beam probes and QA reporting. At the heart of the system is CVE’s fully integrated HMI – find out more about our advanced features and options.

If you are not sure which system is right for your application, please get in touch! Our machines are built and manufactured at our Cambridge Headquarters. With 60 years of process know-how in providing turn-key solutions, we can find the right solution for your application.