
Description
The current market scenarios in the field of medium and large electric machines are such as to generate business opportunities of extreme interest to Lampas System, provided, however, that the company evolves by developing or bringing in-house adequate design know-how and partly revising its production processes. The market opportunities of recent years are mainly related to large, slow electric machines, directly coupled to the load or prime mover, with powers ranging from a few hundred kW up to several megawatts and rotational speeds between 5 rpm and 150 rpm, intended for the following uses:
(i) electricity generation by wind turbines:
(ii) electric generators for generating electricity by harnessing tidal power (tidal motive power):
(iii) ship propulsion engines for large ships and mega-yachts
(iv) ropeway drives. The extremely low speeds of the machines in question imply a construction form (with a high or very high number of poles, even over a hundred) that is very well suited to the technical skills and experience of Lampas System, as well as bringing considerable construction, reliability and economic advantages.

Goal
Melad’s goal is a design system (software or CAE tool) and production process for special low-voltage electrical windings in wire of the ‘tooth-wound’ type, according to an optimised form. The opportunity to search for an optimised design shape is due to the fact that, unlike the traditional distributed design, it presents various criticalities in that it produces ‘parasitic’ magnetic fields within the machine that can give potentially serious effects, such as excessive heating of the permanent magnets installed on the rotor, torque pulsations and excessive phase voltage distortions.
Result
The activity to be carried out as part of the project will be divided into four phases:
– Phase 1 – Study of design optimization algorithms for concentrated wire windings at low voltage. One or more algorithms will be identified capable of identifying the optimal design configuration of the electrical envelope according to design requirements and constraints.
– Phase 2 – Study of production processes and tools for the technically effective and economically convenient construction of concentrated electrical windings with an optimized design. The objective is the identification and provision of technical-instrumental resources and production processes to create the envelope designed in a technically effective and economically efficient way.
– Phase 3 – Design. Construction and testing of prototypes. Two (or more) forms of construction of the prototypes will be identified in order to validate the results of Phase 1 and Phase.
– Phase 4 – Development of an optimized assisted design software for concentrated wire windings at low voltage. The goal is to provide Lampas with a CAE tool for the optimized design of electrical windings concentrated in low voltage wire.
The MELAD project started on 2 July 2018 and will end on 31 March 2020 (for a total duration of 21 months). MELAD obtained a funding of € 57,426.27 from the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia on the call POR FESR 2014-2020 – Activity 1.3.a “Incentives to companies for collaborative industrial research and experimental development activities – agri-food specialisation areas and strategic production chains – Call for proposals 2017”.
