Almost everyone is aware of the electric vehicle (EV) revolution in the automotive industry. The switch from diesel and petrol engines to electric power is constantly in the news, and despite some obstacles to widespread adoption, the clock is ticking to a total switch by 2035. Here Gareth Tomkinson, Business Development Manager in Renishaw’s CMM and Gauging Products Division, explores the role of metrology in solving these challenges.
The global importance of reducing our reliance on fossil fuels has set the scene for the replacement of combustion engines with e-transportation. However, a snapshot of sales in 2023, showed EVs made up only 16 per cent of new car registrations in the UK, according to Zapmap. While they may be an increasingly common sight on the country’s roads, widespread adoption by the majority has yet to come.
Driving change
Whilst early EV adopters enjoy the benefits of a more peaceful, carbon friendly motoring experience, they are also learning to live with new issues like higher purchase prices, low battery range and lack of charging infrastructure. Across the world, governments, local authorities, large employers and manufacturers all have a part to play in providing improvements that encourage EV adoption as part of the overall drive to net zero.
Providing inspection solutions that cater to the changing needs of the automotive industry requires a two-way conversation. It’s almost impossible for manufacturers to predict exactly what new designs will arrive on their inspection table in the future. However, a flexible measurement system, such as Renishaw’s REVO® five-axis measurement head, is now available with a wide range of different sensors that can be tailored to future demands
Changing lane
Further upstream, manufacturers have switched some of their traditional powertrain lines, by removing the equipment used to machine cylinder heads, cylinder blocks, cranks etc. and replacing this with new processes for components like rotors and stators for electric motors. Although the electric motor is far from a new technology, the high efficiency versions required on such a mass scale do bring new engineering challenges. At this early stage in the evolutionary cycle of the ‘new’ electric motor, we see engineers applying their talents and producing a constant stream of incremental design improvements. However, each of these new designs must go from the CAD (Computer Aided Design) screen through a manufacturing process and end up as a finished product with the precise tolerances attributed to each part. This makes quality checks essential to ensuring efficiency, reliability and safety, especially important with new and relatively unproven designs.
These inspection checks are used by manufacturers in two distinct ways: Firstly, as a standard pass or fail quality check for individual components. Secondly, as a source of data that can be used to make constant micro-adjustments to upstream machining. Much like the small steering wheel adjustments we make to keep a car in between the white lines on a highway, these ‘process control’ adjustments help to nudge machining operations towards the ideal size and prevent drift towards out of tolerance limits.
As the manufacturing industries we serve evolve, so must we. As companies race to find better EV designs, inspection must not only be rapid and reliable, but flexible too. Improving the driving range of EVs means manufacturers must produce a range of prototypes with new components, experimenting with different materials and designs
Two-way traffic: EV stator side inspection with REVO-2 and RVP on an AGILITY CMM
Providing inspection solutions that cater to the changing needs of the automotive industry requires a two-way conversation. It’s almost impossible for manufacturers to predict exactly what new designs will arrive on their inspection table in the future. However, a flexible measurement system, such as Renishaw’s REVO® five-axis measurement head, is now available with a wide range of different sensors that can be tailored to future demands. These include rapid tactile scanning probes, non-contact camera-based sensors, a surface finish sensor and an ultrasonic thickness probe. Renishaw has worked closely with our customers to understand their unique requirements and match these to the systems we provide.
Down the road
As the manufacturing industries we serve evolve, so must we. As companies race to find better EV designs, inspection must not only be rapid and reliable, but flexible too. Improving the driving range of EVs means manufacturers must produce a range of prototypes with new components, experimenting with different materials and designs. Providing flexibility in the manufacturing inspection setup is increasingly important to help lines that are retooled or upgraded.
Flexibility is also important because even though the future currently looks likely to be heavily dominated by electric vehicles, manufacturers will offer a diverse range of propulsion technologies for the various niches of sustainable transport. Much like today’s mix of vehicles using petrol, diesel and LPG, each suitable to different applications, vehicles powered by eFuels, hydrogen and batteries might all have a place tomorrow.
Gareth Tomkinson, Business Development Manager in Renishaw’s CMM and Gauging Products Division
When working on burgeoning technologies such as electric vehicles, it can be difficult to foresee revolutionary step-changes before they appear. Future predictions are also notoriously tricky to get right. By prioritising early discussions with customers, providers of metrology equipment can develop innovative and agile inspection solutions. Renishaw is providing inherently flexible technologies to meet its customers’ demands, helping to create more efficient, reliable and affordable EVs for a more sustainable future.
Passing of Sir David McMurtry
It is with profound sadness that Renishaw announced the death of the company’s co-founder and Non-executive Director, Sir David McMurtry in December 2024, at the age of 84.
Will Lee, Chief Executive, said: “David was a great visionary, an outstanding innovator who constantly challenged conventions, and a hugely empathetic man. He will be greatly missed by so many, including the generations of Renishaw engineers who he inspired and mentored. The manufacturing industry has lost a true pioneer and many of us at Renishaw have lost a father figure and a friend. Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with his wife and family.”
It is with profound sadness that Renishaw announced the death of the company’s co-founder and Non-executive Director, Sir David McMurtry in December 2024, at the age of 84
Sir David founded Renishaw in 1973 with John Deer, a fellow Rolls-Royce engineer, to commercialise the 3D touch-trigger probe for coordinate measuring machines. He had invented the probe the previous year to solve measurement problems faced in the manufacture of the Olympus engines that powered the Concorde supersonic aircraft. A brilliant engineer, he was employed at Rolls-Royce plc, Bristol, for 17 years, where he rose to become Deputy Chief Designer and their youngest ever Assistant Chief of Engine Design. He was responsible for 47 patents at Rolls-Royce and went on to be named on over 200 patents for Renishaw innovations.
With Sir David at the helm, Renishaw revolutionised the development of co-ordinate measuring machines, shopfloor metrology and process control. Today it is hard to imagine a machine shop of any size without tool setting and inspection probes that automate laborious and complex setting and measurement tasks, yet in the 1970s, ideas for such applications were truly visionary. Sir David also led the company’s diversification into other areas of metrology, manufacturing and automation, from encoders and calibration systems to neurosurgery and additive manufacturing. His lateral thinking and capacity to deal with scientific concepts from multiple disciplines was truly legendary.
Today, the company that he co-founded over 50 years ago is a globally respected business, employing over 5 000 people in 36 countries. Sir David said that from the start he and John set out to create a company that was different to most others – different in how it applied technology to real world problems, in how it invested for the long term, in how it manufactured rather than outsourced, and in how it treated customers and local communities as partners. The culture that he and John created remains today and is very much present in Renishaw’s values and especially that of integrity, where the company takes decisions for the right reasons and not just because that is what is expected.
Despite everything that he had achieved, Sir David was a reserved man who avoided publicity, and who was more comfortable sharing his insights with young engineers than making public speeches. He did however receive huge recognition from around the world for his achievements, including Japan and the USA, where he received awards that had historically only been presented to citizens of those countries. His Knighthood was awarded “for services to Design and Innovation” and he was appointed a Royal Designer for Industry (RDI) in 1989. He was also a Fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, a Fellow of the American Society of Manufacturing Engineers, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the Royal Society.
For more information, visit www.renishaw.com
