Among the mainstays of an industrial economy is construction, housing and commercial in particular.  While these industries are incredibly competitive, there is always room for innovation.  Precisely because it is a mature, competitive industry, really ground breaking solutions are sometime hard to find.

Transcon Steel is a small startup company in Georgetown Texas that makes structural steel building systems.  The innovation comes from the fact that Transcon roll forms flat sheet metal into structural shapes that are highly optimized to reduce weight and increase strength.  The steel structural shapes are formed into large panels with compressed foam which results in structures that are super light weight and extremely high strength.

The new structural panels permit construction of buildings in a variety of applications.  So called “temporary housing” for oilfield crews in remote area can be built in hours instead of days.  Heating and cooling costs are a fraction of conventional structures.  All of which leads to increased opportunities to serve unique construction applications with better solutions.

Transcon’s big challenge will be to create the manufacturing resources needed to produce the structural panels in very large numbers.  The enabling technology of the manufacturing processes?  Mechatronics. The roll forming of sheet metal is a classic application requiring high performance drives to de-reel the strip steel rolls and servo actuators to follow the roll throughout the various forming process that take place to make the final product.

The compressed foam requires unique tooling to form large rectangular panels that can be filled with foam, compressed with hydraulic actuators and cured with heat and pressure to form the final super dense structures.  Amazingly, the cores are made from material that is similar to the conventional styrofoam cups we use for coffee, yet, when the basic material is processed correctly, it becomes strong enough to withstand blows from a sledgehammer.  When it is bonded to an already strong steel frame, you have a complete building system that has incredible structural strength and insulation value.

Transon is negotiating enough new business that it will need a new facility 4 times the size of it’s present location and will hire CAD designers and plant personnel to support it’s manufacturing needs.  If they are successful at marketing the technology in other countries, it will be more of the same.  Lots of it.

And that is how job creation is done.  Someone with an idea, willing to work hard, taking risks, finding people to come alongside and help, to deliver a solution.  Making lives better by employing people, and by delivering a product that provides shelter at a lower cost than the traditional products in the building market.

American Entrepreneurship.

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The electric light, for example, which was coveted 100 years ago as the great solution to night time darkness, making obsolete the candle or gas lamp.  Mass production has made the light bulb an inexpensive  commodity on the verge of extinction at about 25 cents per bulb.  The desire to reduce energy consumption is ushering in the age of the light emitting diode (LED) as the replacement technology for electric light.  Every effort is under way to reduce LED costs by any means possible so that illumination will be available that is even cheaper than incandescent lighting when the energy cost over ten years is factored into the new technology.

Even generating and delivering electricity is the result of applying the principles of mass production.  Large generating facilities are able to generate power cost effectively through economy of scale, selling the power profitably at 4.5 cents per kilowatt hour.  Wire, cable, switching systems and other infrastructure are generally costed in at an additional 2 cents per kilowatt hour to deliver the power to your door.  This is an incredible deal, trillion of dollars of resources at your disposal for pennies.

But mass production is not the answer for every aspect of modern society.  Lowering the cost of mass-produced goods implies that there is a requirement for the sufficient numbers of a product to warrant the investment in the necessary processes and tooling to accomplish the task.

Enter 3D printing technology.  Also known as “Maker bots”, this new class of tools is making fabrication a  new American pastime at incredibly low cost.  Where 3D printing equipment has recently been the domain of well-funded large corporations , selling at $10,000 to $20,000 each, 3D printer kits are available at less than $1000.  And lest you think that these are only toys for boys, the additive manufacturing paradigm has taken hold in the metals industry producing high quality parts in various steel alloys and even in titanium.

Why does it matter?  Because anything that lowers the barrier to market entry for new products creates the opportunity for people to enter a market that was previously inaccessible.  The hidden relationship is financial, it is the cost of amortizing the manufacturing resources across a given number of products that makes startup of a new product impractical.  So barriers to entry in new product development are primarily the result of amortization costs.

What happens when a new technology introduces a significant reduction in the amortization cost?  You get the opportunity to experiment with things because the cost of iterating the design is low.  New products can be test marketed and improvements made because there is no major investment in tooling that would have to be modified in order to change the design.  You don’t have to get it right the first time.

And that means that anything is possible.

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In the wind energy arena the biggest change has been the shift to direct drive permanent magnet generators.  By eliminating the gear “increaser” to convert the low RPM of the propeller system to a high RPM for a standard high power generator.  This is crucial step in bringing the cost of wind power down. Current systems are weighing in at 100 tons and have to be suspended above water or land 165 feet in order to pick up sufficient wind currents to be economically practical.

There is no single solution that is ideal for wind applications.  One supplier has a generator that is made up of 4 smaller units on a single large ring gear.  This system seems to have significant advantages in reducing the size and weight of the generator and makes maintenance more simple in the event of a failure.

Among the major mechatronic challenges driving change in the motor industry, electric vehicle applications are continually pushing the boundary for energy density and efficiency.  The performance demands of electric vehicles and other mobility applications make every percentage point of efficiency crucial to the range of the target vehicle.  This has led to a rash of new motor and drivetrain designs with a variety performance capabilities.

Each new innovation seeks to organize the basic materials of the electric motor in a new way to improve some aspect of performance.  Electric motors are copper conductors, “soft” magnetic steels and many times, permanent magnets.  The basic costs for copper wire at $5-6 a pound, commodity strip steel is about $.50 per pound but has to be punched in precise shapes, coated with insulation and stacked into larger assemblies, and $16. per pound for permanent magnets.  Complex processes associated with motor manufacturing make motor costs considerable.

In a recent development teams in academia in Australia and the US have developed simple low RPM motor structures based on polymer actuators referred to as “artificial muscle”.  While this development is in its early phases, the simplicity and low cost are significant and very appealing.  A demonstration of the new technology can be seen on YouTube at;  www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcCPNJR5PCMand it is very much worth the watch.

The only sure thing is that we continue to meet the challenge of new market needs with innovation.

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Considering the possibilities of improved personal transportation, the consequences of a major change in transportation technology are significant and should be carefully considered as we move forward.

The major impact of all the technology being promoted these days is increased efficiency and reduced fuel consumption.  Whether your motivation is reducing emissions and cleaning the air, or you are interested in reducing your cost of transportation, the requirement is the same; get more miles out of a gallon of gasoline or eliminate gasoline usage altogether, as is the case for a pure electric vehicle.

Across the entire population of cars in the US, the average fuel efficiency is around 20 miles per gallon. Despite the demand for higher fuel mileage from consumers, this situation hasn’t improved much in the last few decades.  A dismal thought in contrast to the claims being made these days for the new solutions.

The US consumes 383.25 million gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel per day.  This all goes into transportation.  The only fuel going into electrical generation is in diesel gen-sets for backup and remote power, just in case anyone is thinking about the barrel- of-oil-to-electricity energy equivalency.

Imagining a future in which gasoline usage declines is not difficult.  I drive a Ford Fusion for work which is averaging 30 mpg combined city and highway.    If the US fleet average is 20 mpg, increasing that average to 30 mpg implies decreasing the amount of gasoline sold by 1/3.  Currently, gasoline retails for $3.25/gallon, or $453 Billion annually at the pump.

So a sharp change in usage due to efficiency or an increase in the number of electric vehicles, is cause for concern from oil & gas exploration companies, gasoline refiners, distributors and dealers.  Unless gasoline prices continue to go up.  In which case there would be less gasoline solid at roughly the same total revenue, which suggests that higher profits might be the side effect if the true cost doesn’t go up.

What about tax revenues?  The direct state and federal tax on gasoline is about 40 cents per gallon.  This does not include large excise taxes collected by the states, taxes paid by refiners and distributors, etc.  In fact, it would be hard to calculate how much of gasoline pricing is taxes and how much is the cost of the product.  Regardless, at 40 cents/gallon, the daily revenues are $153 million and the annual is above $55.8 billion.

Given the current economic picture, is there any level of government that is willing to give up the tax revenue from gasoline?  Probably not.  Is this any different than “Dollars for Oil” at the UN a couple of years ago?  Probably not.  But we thought that was a scandal.

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American buyers will be able to buy American hybrid cars.  The Chevy Volt will be flanked by the Ford Fusion Electric scheduled to be released for sale in 19 US markets in March of 2012.  The Nissan Leaf might be the first production electric, so most commentators will make comparisons regarding driving range, speed and recharge time based on the performance of the Leaf.  At present, the claimed performance of the vehicles is very comparable.

It’s all speculation until there are a few units out there and the actual life cycle of the batteries can be measured.  100′s to 1000′s of vehicles will have to be built and consumer experiences cataloged in order to get a handle on how the batteries really work.  With all due respect to the development and testing efforts, it’s educated guesswork until there is real world experience.

Will the batteries be able to cycle enough times to make them cost effective?  When will they require replacement?  What will the price tag be for the battery pack?  Hopefully less than the $13,000 Tesla battery pack.

EV’s are coming.  But they are, like all the alternative energy technologies, still not cost competitive with Internal Combustion engines.  Most vehicles carry a $39,995 starting price tag with a $7,500 Federal rebate.  The basic purchase price puts EV’s out of the price range for many people, which fundamentally defeats the purpose.  The point of alternative energy technology is that it must become widespread in order for any impact on the environment to take place.  High prices are a major barrier to broad adoption.

Meanwhile the internal combustion engine is seeing some revival.  New approaches are being built and tested that offer dramatic improvements in efficiency and engine weight.  The EcoMotors opposing piston engine has been under DARPA development since 2007.  EcoMotors technology has been demonstrated to 40% efficiency, more than double that of traditional ICE.  In addition, it weighs less, takes up less space and gives of dramatically less heat.

Recently, the University of Michigan announced a new breakthrough called the wave engine that is expected to increase combustion efficiency to 60%.  And the rotor only turns in one direction like a scroll compressor instead of a piston, so there are no reciprocating motions to deal with.  This will also lower vehicle weight substantially, so the engine efficiency improvement leads to further overall efficiency in fuel required per transportation mile.

If these ICE improvements translate directly into miles-per gallon, then based on average 20 mpg cars today, we are talking about 53+ mile per gallon in town and possibly 70 mpg highway for EcoMotors solution.  At these levels, the equivalent energy cost per transportation mile is at parity with electricity.  If the wave engine proves successful, in town ratings of 80 mpg and 100 mpg highway become feasible, making electric options more expensive.

The future is what we make it.  Let’s make it the best we can with choices that make sense economically and environmentally.

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In part, a strategic energy policy should include incentives for people willing to engage in the risk of financing photovoltaic plants and wind power projects.  One of the problems with this is that the technology is not cost effective compared to the established methods of generating electricity.  More on that shortly.

But of great concern is how the “incentive” programs are designed to work.  And are they working as intended?

The creation of a “Feed in Tariff” (FiT) is one mechanism that the state governments use to incentivize investment in photovoltaics.  However, the FiT is limited in how much capacity can be built in the photovoltaic supply of electricity.  It has to be funded at the State government level.  So this is really a transfer payment from a group of taxpayers to a small group of investors to get the PV plant built.

In another frame of reference, when we consider the cost of producing energy, the history of the last hundred years has resulted in a mature industry that delivers power on demand to 300+ million users for pennies per kilowatt hour.  The purchase price of a coal fired power plant to produce energy in the US is in the range of $5.9 million per megawatt of capacity.  And that capacity is available day or night.

By the way, this also means that charging electric cars at night, when demand is generally lower for the power plant, is a great way to make the plant more profitable.

So the remaining question is; if you were really worried about the environment and felt that coal and natural gas were bad for the environment, what are the choices and most of all, how expensive is that going to be?

Well, if you are paying 14 cents a kilowatt hour presently, understand that your utility company is probably paying anywhere from 23 to 30 cents per kilowatt hour to buy the power from photovoltaic sources.   That’s pretty expensive.

And photovoltaic plants suffer from the fact that they only operate during daylight.  In fact, they only operate at peak power 2 to 3 hours a day.  Which is only 1/8 of the 24 hour day.  So the asset is only producing 12.5% of the time.  So they are not very cost effective with out a lot of subsidy money coming in to pay for them.

Nuclear power using wave reactors or pebble bed reactors can be very small, are very safe and they are also very economical.  They operate 24 hours a day and don’t emit any pollution to the atmosphere.  At an estimated $6.8 mil/mW they are the ideal alternative for those who are Eco-conscious without breaking the bank.

So why aren’t we hearing more about this option?

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The issue is that you have to convert the kinetic energy of the wind, which is very low depending on where you are, into enough mechanical energy to turn something that will turn a generator.  Sounds simple, and it is, up to a point.

The wind part can be thought of in Watts per Square Meter of energy.  So we have to come up with something that has very large surface area and very light weight.  Sailing technology comes to mind.  And there is a huge range of efficiency based on aerodynamics, which is why there is so much effort around blade design in the current generation of wind turbines.

But at energy levels of 150 W/m**2, it takes a lot of square meters to hit enough energy to be useful.  If you are thinking “small wind” for residential applications 2000-3000 watts peak power would require 20 square meters of surface area. That could be a rotor just over ten feet in diameter by eighteen feet tall.   That is a very large mechanical structure for a residential building.  And not easy to support securely against high winds.

2000  to 3000 Watts of intermittent power might displace half your power bill during the year if the wind blows a lot.  If not, maybe 1/4 of your annual power bill if you don’t get a lot of wind.  So you still need the power company unless you make the turbine 4 times bigger.

And the product cannot cost more than you are paying presently for the electricity. In states like New Jersey, New York or California where electricity costs are high, that might amount to $1500 if the value is for part of the annual power used.  In states where electricity costs are 11 cents/kWh, its really not worth it.

Land based wind farms have not done very well so far.  Think about the complexity of building gearboxes at the megawatt level that have to withstand sudden changes in wind conditions.  It’s nothing like the industrial world.  Historical costs of operation and maintenance (O&M) are being reported at 20 and 30% due to premature failure of gearboxes, electrical systems catching fire, blades breaking due to control system failures.  The list goes on.

So Wind Power still stands as a major mechatronic challenge.

What is the proper role of the government in the wind energy business?  President Obama says he is committed to promoting wind energy in this country.  Wind Energy will bring jobs to America.  Well, maybe for some of the construction guys.  So far, a significant amount of wind turbines sold in the US come from foreign suppliers.  And even for domestic wind turbines, a lot of the parts come from offshore suppliers.

If you look at all the new bureaucracy being created,  well, it will be amazing if anything ever gets done.  The newly formed Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement has been created to oversee the sale of leases of Federal Waters, where offshore wind is expected to migrate. Seems like the only jobs being created are Federal jobs.  By the way, they have 14 openings right now and some of them are Petroleum and Enviromental Engineers, so if you’re not busy, check it out.

The process to get a lease from BOEMRE will take at least 2-3 years before you can even think about putting equipment out.  Can you spell Boondoggle?

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Almost all variable frequency drives are sold on the basis of the amount of energy, and money, they will save as part of the justification for spending the money on the equipment and installation.  Fans and pumps can benefit from reduced power consumption, especially when there are hundreds of horsepower of load involved.   Mechanical life expectancy increases and maintenance costs are reduced as system speeds are reduced to meet the operating setpoint of the driven load.

Large material handling systems have found ways to reduce costs.  Systems that are divided into zones can be monitored for the the presence of product on the conveyor lines.  If there is no product present, the conveyor motor is idled which saves energy.  When there are large systems, like airport baggage handling systems, with hundreds of horsepower of equipment spread over miles of conveyors, the load requirements are similar and a 20% or 30% reduction in system energy consumption can be very significant.

But plant floor machinery can be very different depending on the industry you are in.  In the medical manufacturing arena, there are lots of machines and lots of stepping motors in them.  Sometimes 24 axes of stepping motors can be in a very small machine.  And medical manufacturing plants can have hundreds, even thousands of motors.  So you would think that there are similarities in terms of the energy savings opportunity.

But factory automation systems present different energy usage problems.  Stepping motors, for example, are low power consumption systems are always on.  The motor may not be doing any work, but the power supply needed to provide DC power is always on.  So power is being converted, even though the motors may not be doing any work.  But the fact is that stepping motor systems are fairly low power, 200 Watts is typical.  So even when there are loads made up of hundreds of stepping motors, its hard to come up with enough energy saving to return the cost of a complex effort to control it.

In the servo world because multiple servo axes are not all on at the same time, average load and power supply sharing have led to a number of servo amps that use common dc bus architecture. This is a great way to say money and reduce equipment size.  But even large systems are limited to 10 kilowatt average power.  And frequently these systems have the ability to manage the input power so that the AC load is fairly efficient.

But once in a great while, there are applications where excess bus energy is generated, or regeneration is taking place.  This is the case when a palletizing machine lowers its load.  The weight of the material on the pallets drives the motors instead of the amplifiers.  This puts generated electricity onto the input voltage bus.  Imagine the surprise of the electrical maintenance department getting an emergency call that the palletizing equipment was generating too much power!

Every prospective energy saving project needs to be considered in the context of the industry, application and cost benefit.    A simple Pareto analysis of the major segments of energy consumption can be conducted which will categorized and quantify the opportunities for energy cost reduction.  Many of the best opportunities will come from unexpected areas.

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Engineers Without Borders has completed a project in Lashaine Village Tanzania that will increase their ability to harvest rainwater, treat and store local water supply up to 120,000 liters, and add 1080 Watts of solar panels that will power an upcoming computer lab.  This project literally impacts hundreds of families by creating improved water quality and availability.  It also creates an electrical infrastructure that will enable the Middle School students to run computers and radically improve their educational opportunities.  This is a part time, volunteer organization that raises funds for projects and sends out teams all over the world to provide improved conditions in the lives of people who have a need and couldn’t get it done without outside help.

At a fundamental level all engineering should be about leaving things better than we found them.  Every project I have been involved in represented incremental improvements that provided more benefit to the business than the investment cost.  And we should consider context carefully.  For the employer who delivers a product or service, being competitive and producing quality are what keep the company in business.  So as engineers we are frequently engaged in the development of technology that enables our employers to be more successful, by way of improved product quality, increased throughput, decreased part costs, or any of a number of parameters by which the company you work for may measure success.

And that may not always “feel” like we are getting something done that Changes the World.  But it can make the difference between being open for business and having to close.  It can make the difference between having steady employment, and adding new jobs because of expanding sales. It’s not always as direct as going to a remote part of the world and helping people to have water to drink, wash and grow crops with.

The creative drive to develop something new and useful shows up in all new products.  Certainly the new “tablet” computers and hand help “Pad” computers are marvels of technology.  Does this product feed a starving person in a foreign land?  No.  But it creates real value that people are willing to pay for, to the tune of an estimated $5 Billion in new product revenue for Apple with much more to come.   And this will enable Apple to employ more people, some of whom will either give from their income, or be able to participate directly in their spare time, in projects like those of Engineers Without Borders.

My encouragement to each person out there is to think about your role in the context of what interests you, what skill and training you have been given, and where you can apply those skills to leave things better than you found them.  For yourself and for others.

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Everything from power tools to electric cars would be impacted by a new battery chemistry with less weight.  The latest generation of light weight laptop computers is largely a result of light weight battery technology.  Cell phones and various computer pad platforms are all impacted as well.

The new Chevy Volt will be one of the first production cars with a major lithium battery pack.  And every major auto maker is poised to deliver and electric of some type in 2011. Volkswagen Electric Golf with an 85 mile estimated drive range, a Lincoln Fusion Hybrid with a 41 mile per gallon fuel efficiency.  New power density levels makes possible a wide range of vehicle options from the modest all electric Think being manufactured in Indiana for the US market, to high performance sports cars like the Fiskar and Tesla cars.

Interestingly, much of the development work done on lithium battery technology was done in the United States.  The initial supply of lithium was mined in North Carolina.  MIT and University of Texas contributed significantly in the development, and Exxon owned the technology at one point.

But the mine in North Carolina is relatively small compared to the amount needed to supply the current demand.  So where will all the lithium come from?  Presently, most of it is coming from South America.  Chile, Argentina and Bolivia have huge deposits of lithium that are currently developed and they are supplying to battery companies around the world.  Interestingly, Afghanistan is supposed to have $1 Trillion worth of lithium, the largest deposits in the world.  A great way to generate revenue for the Afghan economy instead of poppies.

If the lithium is coming from South America, where are the batteries going to be made?  Presently A123 Systems is the largest US maker of lithium batteries with a major effort going in to the Detroit area to supply batteries to US auto makers.  But A123 also touts their Asian supply relationships.

Yes, I get it.  Lithium battery technology is still the most expensive part of the electric car.  So price is still an issue if the electric car market is going to expand.  So there is a lot of pressure.

With the existing market pressure for improved lithium in computers and cellphones, and the prospect of auto markets with hundreds of times more sales available, the R&D effort to improve the technology at the chemistry level is massive.  Even the federal government has made billions of dollars available in the recent stimulus bill to fund improvement in the technology.  This is a rare case where I agree with the role of government in supporting this technology.  The US needs to be a world leader in lithium batteries, not just on a technology development level, but on a manufacturing level as well.

So why is Chevy sourcing the battery pack for the Volt from Korea?  Isn’t there enough supply in the US?  Not yet, but its coming.

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Among the many interesting developments, many new product technologies, many new solutions focused on cost reduction, and many lessons learned along the way.

In the new developments, there are a number of new product entries, especially in the concentrating solar panel area.  As a subset of the Concentrating Solar category, there are a group of products which are similar to conventional solar panels, but use a lens like a magnifying glass to concentrate the sun’s light on a small patch of silicon that converts light to electricity. This approach has been around for a while, but in the past has had thermal problems due to the heat that is produced.  Remember setting a dry leaf on fire with a magnifying glass when you were a kid? Same thing.

The cost of the optics have come down and combined with the reduced cost of the silicon used, makes this type of concentrating solar more competitive.  But this type of concentrating solar technology requires 2 axis solar tracking with a fair amount of precision in order for the optics to do their job properly.

So there are a lot of new tracking systems coming into the market as well.  Large array trackers with high angular precision and high force from vendors like Bonfiglioli of Italy, Sener and TGB Group of Spain.  These systems are generally high reduction ring gears with a precision worm and spur output in the final stage.  Once again, a major mechatronic challenge in the middle of solar technology.  To say nothing of the incredible mechatronics required to manufacture solar panels.

There are five or six vendors who have built and installed these CPV systems have an interesting advantage.  They are reporting efficiencies of 22% and higher.  This is really amazing considering that the conventional photovoltaics are are typically in the range of 12% and thin film are 8%.  These are very significant developments in making the technology more cost effective.

And the forecast growth for solar in the US continues to be, well, “sunny”.  Sales of solar products in the US are expected to double again next year.  Which is amazing.

Its hard not to get excited about it.  But there is an important truth to be considered.  Solar Energy is still highly government subsidized.  The history of solar energy is built largely through the “Feed In Tariff”.  This is a mechanism where the utility company agrees to pay a premium price for electricity generated with photovoltaic equipment.

In the early years of 2000 the Spanish government set the highest Feed In Tariffs in all of Europe.  This caused a massive influx of companies to ramp up to manufacture and install huge amounts of equipment.   And therein lies the problem.  Spain has too much capacity and not enough demand.

Germany, which has relatively poor sunlight, has led the entire EU in solar installations. German PV engineering and capacity are well know around the world.  But what’s different about the situation in Germany is that the feed in tariff is being reduced gradually to allow the industry to adjust to demand that is not subsidized.

There are 2 lessons here that are very important.  We must be careful to not “overbuild” based on enthusiasm.  And we must protect American interests by purchasing domestic products.  And currently, our political leaders do not appear to be paying attention to either of these issues.

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Chevy Volt

Nissan’s Leaf is expected to release about the same time with a battery electric drive train and a driving range of about 100 miles.  And an all electric Smart Car with an 82 mile drive range is expected although no date has been set.

Nissan Leaf

And this is where it gets interesting.  What are the EPA standards for electric car mileage reporting?  They are still working on them.  So, there aren’t any right now.  Maybe this should have been the responsibility of the DOE.  Or would that be the start of a turf war?

Miles per gallon is pretty straightforward.  The EPA reporting standard generally doesn’t resemble any real world driving situation, so the numbers are somewhat abstract.  But since all cars are tested and reported using the same basis the comparison data is somewhat useful.  Just don’t expect to achieve their numbers with your new car purchase.

But electric cars have a different metric; kilowatts per mile.  And pure hybrids like the Volt should be rated on that basis until the gasoline engine kicks in, somewhere in the 25 to 50 mile range.  But since the EPA hasn’t sorted out reporting and testing standards, there is no consistent reporting of kilowatts per mile for Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf or anyone else.

As one data point, BMW reported it’s E car to get 100 miles of drive range using 33 kilowatts of electricity while cruising on the highway.  This is kind of a “Best Case” scenario, just enough energy to overcome friction and wind drag.  But not very helpful in terms of what to expect from city driving.

You have to admit, 3 miles per kilowatt is fantastic, especially if you pay 11 cents a kilowatt, that’s 3.6 cents a mile in equivalent fuel cost.  Fantastic!  And no oil changes!  In fact, there was even a discussion of using discounted billing rates for charging the electric car because the utility companies have the night time capacity sitting idle.  So its a great value add for them!

What is the average daily commute to work? 16 miles.  Which is obviously what Chevy had in mind when designing the Volt.  Electric vehicles do not have to compete with gas engine vehicles in drive range.  That’s a fallacy that the industry has used to convince consumers that electrics aren’t practical.   Cars can easily be segmented by drive range.  Look at the Golf Cart.  In my neighborhood, they drive them to the golf course and back, as well as on the golf course.  And you can drink a beer while you drive a golf cart, because they aren’t regulated by the Department of Highways.

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One model sports optional 2 wheel or 4 wheel in-hub mounted drive motors.  With a large battery pack and a curb weight of 3300 pounds, it’s a bit ponderous.  But it has a 50 mile drive radius and rarely requires any maintenance.  What year will this vehicle be ready?  1899. It’s the Lohner-Porsche.

Recognizing that the weight the battery pack was a major obstacle, Ferdinand Porsche, still working for the Lohner Coachworks, came up with a hybrid model.  The vehicle used a small gasoline engine to power a generator and a single motor mounted on the rear axle of the vehicle. Porsche raced the car himself in the Semmerling competition near Vienna, and with top speeds of 75 miles per hour, won against a very competitive field which included Benz gasoline powered cars.  The 75 mile per hour top speed was unprecedented, especially from an electric hybrid.  The year? 1900!

So all things old are made new again.  If the 2200 pound weight of the Lohner Porsche battery pack could be reduced by 4:1 by using Lithium batteries, then a curb weight around 1500 pounds should be feasible.  The reduced weight of the vehicle leads to significantly greater driving range.  The Smart Car electric model is expected to have a range of 120 miles per charge.  Which, actually, is enough for a lot of vehicle applications.

In wheel drive motors are not my favorite solution, but if the weight can be reduced, then problems relating to suspension dynamics can be managed.  And that’s exactly what the folks at Protean Electric are doing.  They have produced a number of conversion vehicles as demonstrations of their electric motor technology.  And if the motors perform as expected, they will carve out a niche in the plug-in and hybrid electric vehicle world.

There are a couple of important points that need to made here.

#1) based on the “Absolute Value of Technology”, the only thing that matters is the vehicle costs per transportation mile.  That is made up to two components, the purchase price and the expected cost per mile driven.  Admittedly, if you can run an electric vehicle at $.04/mile, it is cost effective to own, even if the car costs more up front, because over the life of the vehicle, the low operating cost will overtake the purchase price.

The IRS deduction for vehicle operation is $.50/mile.  Electric hybrids and especially plug-in electrics are not expected to have any major maintenance costs.  Even if you add insurance, the cost per operating mile will be significantly lower.

But the higher price of the vehicle will be an obstacle from a pure economics standpoint.  For this reason, some manufacturers have considered the option of the local power utility company supplying the battery pack and maintaining it.  Since this is the single largest expense, leasing it to the vehicle owner in the monthly power bill is a good deal.

The second major point to be considered is plug in electrics, even with limited drive range, are the biggest contributor to American energy independence.  These vehicles will directly reduce oil imports every day they are operated.  Because almost none of the electricity in the United States is generated using fuel.  It’s either coal, natural gas or nuclear.

So if we really want to get after the issue of energy independence and stop funding governments that support terrorist activity, the electric car is the path forward.  As are 40+ mpg gasoline cars, and drilling and refining of oil in the US.

Let’s get after it!

Mechatronic Tips

One report indicated that the $2 billion would be funded as part of the scheduled $863 billion stimulus fund already appropriate by congress.  Another report indicated that the funds would be provided as loans.  There is a huge difference between the two, and the fact that the various reports are not clear on this point is very curious.

As a sidebar, I guess this is the new style of legislation.  The government passes a law first and decides what it means later.

$400 million is provided as a loan (or loan guarantee) to assist Abound Solar to add 2 major manufacturing facilities and new product lines for the company.  One facility in Indiana will be built from an existing automotive plant that will be re-tooled for solar manufacturing.  The company is expected to add several hundred new production jobs.

Abengoa Solar of Spain, which has operations in the United States will be receiving $1.45 billion, although it is not clear if the money is a loan or a grant.  And while Abengoa has operations in the US and has an excellent reputation as a contractor of large energy projects, it seems very peculiar to be giving money to a foreign entity.

This leads to a couple of really important questions about American energy policy.

From the standpoint of cost effectiveness, if you take the $1.45 billion for Abengoa and divide it by the 1500 projected jobs, the cash cost of each job is over $966,000,  per position.   It would be the same as paying $96,000 to each employee for 10 years.  This has to be the most ineffective use of public funds imaginable.

The other public policy question which has come up before is, why are US taxpayer funds being given to foreign companies?  Major green energy projects in every sector are being built by foreign companies with US government funding.   There needs to be a “Buy American” clause in all this pork barrel spending.  If these are loans, or loan guarantees, how does the government get paid back?

The corollary question for US Energy policy is why should the Federal Government be making loans or guarantees to private companies?

Fiskar Automotive, for example, has secured $500 million in loan guarantees from the DOE for it’s electric car program.  But Tesla Motors raised $2.1 billion in the private financial markets.  Does this constitute a scenario where the Federal Government is creating unfair competitive conditions by providing financial support to companies of their choosing?  And not providing similar funding to other companies.

This is also true on the larger scale.  As the Federal government continues to direct where the majority of US research and development funds will be spent, the process itself disconnects the efforts of the research community from the potential economic benefit that the research should be targeting.

The goal of all research is to produce a benefit.  And the benefit must be weighed in the context of economic utility.  When the development of technology is subjected to bureaucratic decision making, it is dissociated from the decision making process of economic benefit.

This will result in massive waste as limited resources are put into projects with poor return in value.  We appear to have entered a period of time where the process of free market decisions are being circumvented, and everything is to be decided by government.

Because, after all, these folks are professionals at spending your money and they know better than you, or the market, what is most important.

Mechatronic Tips

One of the most complex parts of the automobile is the transmission, which is a multistage gear reducer that “tunes” the speed range of the engine to the desired speed range of the vehicle at power levels of several hundred horsepower.  What makes this so extraordinary is that the workings are almost entirely automatic.  And the gearbox life expectancy is huge.  I just sold a 15 year old car and it’s transmission system is still working perfectly.

Manufacturing processes associated with gear manufacturing have evolved to help deal with the various demands for performance at lower costs.  The traditional method of gear cutting using machine tools generates accurate parts, but metallurgists found that the grain of the metal cut by machining caused weakening of the gear tooth.  Powder metallurgy had been progressing to the point where it was more cost effective to mold gear profiles in sintered powdered metal and do only finish surfacing with machining processes.  Later improvements in the process include the ability to load higher strength materials where needed in the design to produce higher strength parts at lower cost.

But as load requirements increase, all of the performance issues are magnified.  And unique environmental conditions can play a part as well.  In the current design of horizontal wind turbines, the gear box design is a critical component.  The gear requirement at 2.5 megawatts is certainly a challenge, but adding the need for precision and and durability to survive 25 years of operation make the task incredibly difficult.

There are a couple of subtle aspects to gearbox operation that need to be considered.  One is reversal stress.  How does one calculate reversal stress?  It’s the absolute value of the power, two times the power for simplicity, divided by the time period of the reversal.  This is usually a really big number.  And as the time allowed for the reversal decreases, the number goes up.

It doesn’t matter if the application is a servo motor system on piece of machinery or a gear increaser on a wind turbine.  The situation is the same.  It’s just more expensive when it’s a 30,000 pound reducer that’s 180 feet above the ground on a pole.    But the principles are all the same.

Keeping the machinery running is a tough task regardless of the field.  But monitoring the mechanical systems is key place to start.  Next generation gear boxes will likely include electronics to monitor the loading and condition of the gearbox to prevent catastrophic failures.

Mechatronic Tips