Hairpin Motors for Electromobility: Twists and Bends of a Technological Breakthrough that Initially Arrived A Century Too Soon

There is currently a major trend to hairpin-winding motors for small and medium drives with increased power, specifically more torque density in the automotive industry. Practically all large players in the field either already use this winding technology or have announced doing so soon. However, hairpins, bar windings, and other segmented winding techniques are not purely a material and production issue. Instead their application to small drives influences all aspects of the design of machines, which are currently explored and studied by the industry. These range from not obvious gaps in the theory, parameter studies for maxima of efficiency, possible as well as advantageous winding schemes, thermal design, and ways to control ac losses to specific materials and process difficulties. Despite the apparent novelty of the trend, however, designers could revisit a widely forgotten knowledge base of more than 100 years for many of those questions. This old knowledge base and the understanding that many recently presented concepts have been developed earlier may speed up the technological development and appear to be a key to further innovation. Instead, many problems need to be solved again and technologies re-invented. Furthermore, as this technology has recently become merely industry-driven, a substantial portion of the information and technological developments are not available to the public – a state that to our eyes may harm the innovation capacity of the drives community.