Robot-based Forming of Hairpin Winding

Rotating electrical machines receive an innovative push due to the demands which are made on traction drives. Thus, machines with high power density are required which are produced cost-effectively in large series production. In order to meet these requirements, the use of stators with hairpin winding is a suitable approach, as they have the potential to achieve improved copper filling factors in the stator slots. Furthermore, this technology is also seen as an opportunity to improve the complex and often non-reproducible winding technologies by means of bending, assembly and joining processes. In the design of electric drives, the influences of deviations of the manufacturing processes on the performance are usually not considered. This applies in particular to hairpin winding technology, the manufacture of which requires a large number of bending and contacting operations. These process steps can change the electrical properties of the winding, which changes the behavior of the electrical machine. For this reason, one goal of research at the Institute for Factory Automation and Production Systems (FAPS) is to investigate flexibly automated and reproducible processes for the production of hairpin winding. In the context of the paper, special attention is set on the robot-based forming process and the process-safe conveying of the wire.