Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SpinCo (SpinCo, new energy saving worm gear technology by gear rolling contacts)
Reporting period: 2016-08-01 to 2016-11-30
Power loss in transfer systems is mostly due to friction. It reduces efficiency of power transmission and generates heat. SpinControl Gearing BV (SC) has developed, tested and patented a new energy saving power transfer technology that is uniquely versatile and adaptive to hundreds of applications in nearly every gear market segment. The new technology uses rolling contact between gear mating surfaces, replacing the rubbing and sliding gear contact found in conventional power transfer systems. Contribution to European Challenges of the project is immense, since the SpinCo gear can play a crucial role to deliver resource-efficient (less raw materials and lubricants), cost-effective (for users and customers) and reliable technology solution to decarbonize a wide range of applications that use gears to transfer power. It will strongly contribute to the challenges outlined in the legal base of the Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge ‘Secure, Clean and Efficient Energy, in particular by: improving power transfer efficiency.
During Phase 1, in collaboration with Bierens and Gibbs Consultancy, the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and product development plan have been defined. The product development has been narrowed down for the first 2 key applications: container lift and wood pellet machine. Project resource and project risks were evaluated and a budget of €2.129 M was estimated. Contacts were made and negations took place between SpinCo and key partners (SKF and Hitech Comac) in regards to the product development phase, but also for the commercialization phase. During the product development, the focus area will also be IP Management of the machinery, to secure the future commercial benefits. Pilot users for the validation during product development were secured by Bierens. During Phase 1, the target market of Dutch and German gear manufacturing market was defined. Phase 1 convinced the management of SpinCo to further pursue the idea and to prepare next steps towards the product development, to be conducted with the help of Phase 2 of the Horizon 2020 grant scheme.
SpinCo has already the automotive and industrial prototypes, which needs to be technically validated in real machines. The product development plan, which intends to scale up the technology, to move it forward towards explicit product lines for real use cases and to achieve market readiness. SpinCo gearboxes of various size, can be the produced in 4 different models per each size. Each module represent various power transfer ratios, in order to be able to offer to the market a viable product with a wide enough scale of use cases. When comparing to today`s available gears, SpinCo is superior thanks to the lower friction. SpinCo gears consume 30% less energy at the start. This means 30% less carbon emissions during start up process of the engines. Peak power is achieved 80% faster. Overall, the SpinCo gear achieved 95-96% efficiency, which is 5-6 % higher than ever achieved with worm gears and compares with or exceeds the efficiency of most of the other gear types.