ECM PCB Stator Tech’s software-as-a-service enables users to create custom, optimized electric motors for multiple use cases.
LAS VEGAS—The U.S. electric motor design and software company ECM PCB Stator Tech publicly released its PrintStator Motor CAD SaaS at CES 2024, coinciding with ECM’s selection as a CES Innovation Awards Honoree for PrintStator, the company said in a press release.
Described as an “advanced design-to-manufacture tool,” ECM’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) application is reported to “fundamentally transform the way electric motors are devised and manufactured.” From the cloud-based interface, PrintStator users can dial-in precise performance and dimensional specs to create custom electric motors for verticals such as consumer electronics, HVAC, e-mobility, medical, robotics, and aerospace.
“PrintStator Motor CAD uniquely enables a motor as software product, mobilizing unprecedented, rapid innovation within the global electric motor industry,” said ECM CEO Brian Casey, in a statement. “Within minutes, PrintStator’s SaaS platform optimizes user specs into PCB Stator motor solutions. Those PCB design files can then be printed immediately worldwide, facilitating vertical or local manufacturing.”
Casey invited innovators to demo the PrintStator SaaS platform at ECM’s CES 2024 exhibit and visit ECM’s Design Your Own page. (http://pcbstator.com/design-your-own/)
According to ECM, PrintStator CAD leverages advanced algorithms to transform discrete motor specifications into “optimized PCB Stator electric motor solutions.” It creates a rapid design cycle, as models and functioning prototypes become available in minutes, hours, and weeks, versus months or years.
The platform is said to extend design flexibility in specifying machine parameters and application constraints. PrintStator generated design files can be used to produce optimized electric motors with preferred manufacturers worldwide, enabling the vertical integration of motor manufacturing, the company said.
PrintStator offers innovators unparalleled design optimization,” said Casey. “If a global electronics manufacturer needs a 1.62 horsepower appliance motor that achieves 94 percent efficiency, conforms to an exact form factor, and complies with regional regulatory requirements, PrintStator can design that.”
Motor as software
As an SaaS offering, the Motor CAD platform allows companies with manufacturing capacity to advance designs immediately to production. PrintStator users who don’t have manufacturing capability can leverage the global capacity of the printed-circuit board industry to enable rapid production of their perfect-fit electric motors, ECM said in the release.
“With PrintStator, ECM aims to positively disrupt an electric motor space that hasn’t seen transformative innovation for eons. PrintStator enables any innovator in any sector to become an electric motor designer and OEM. Moreover, PrintStator designed machines incorporate the axial flux, PCB Stator technology that 21st century motors need,” Casey said.
ECM PCB Stator Tech pairs PrintStator Motor CAD with patented PCB Stator technology to create next generation electric machines that are reported to be smaller, quieter, and more energy- and space-efficient across a broad range of use cases. The PCB Stators replace the bulky copper windings in traditional motors with an ultra-thin disc. According to the company, PCB Stator motors that are designed via PrintStator are up to 70 percent lighter than conventional options, while achieving efficiencies in the mid-90s and requiring just 20 percent of the raw materials.
Macro trends—such as mass electrification and automation—reflect environmental considerations that are pushing global demand for specialized electric motors to more than a billion units annually in a sector valued at over $200 billion. Research underscores that conventional electric motor systems account for more than 50 percent of global electricity consumption. These scenarios present a complex challenge: how to sustainably meet the supply needs of a world that demands over a billion specialized electric motors annually.
The United States and European Union estimate that converting to next-generation electric motor technology could yield CO2 emissions reductions of more than 100 million tons. That’s why both regional economic blocks are mandating eco-design, Minimum Efficiency Performance Standards (MEPs) for electrically powered machines. As a design product, PrintStator serves a critical market need while offering significant benefits in the form of energy sustainability and scalability, ECM said.
“Releasing PrintStator to the public via SaaS will expand the optimization and environmental benefits of PCB Stator electric motor design at scale,” said Casey.
As a software platform, PrintStator is said to power the design, manufacture, and integration of optimized PCB Stator electric motors to precise performance and form factor requirements. ECM believes the release of its advanced MotorCAD platform as SaaS will serve accelerating demand for optimized PCB Stator machines.
“The need for specialized electric motors is an overlooked technology trend,” Casey said. “The world will require billions of specialized motors annually—in every vertical imaginable—designed precisely to specs for performance, efficiency, and size. In ECM’s view, the best way to serve that electric motor future is to offer PrintStator Motor CAD to the public as SaaS.”