Wireless charging for electric vehicles (EVs) is possible, says Premo, as it launches the WC-RX-Series of receiver antennae (secondary coil).
The antennae provide a flexible magnetic core combining flex-ferrite blocks with PBM (soft-polymer bonding magnetic).
Initially handling 3kW to 11kW, the company announced that a 22kW version will be available soon.
Currently, the market for hybrid and electric vehicles is growing fast. These are alternative and improved solutions to common internal combustion engine vehicles to reduce global pollution, especially in terms of CO2 emissions or other NOx pollutants and other thin particles that are toxic for our health and endanger our planet.
The EV market is driving the demand for more convenient and reliable means to recharge the onboard battery. Most of the motorised EVs have a plug for direct AC or DC slow or fast charging, explains Premo.
Wireless power transfer (WPT) requires no physical contact between the vehicle and the charging station, offering convenience and avoiding the hazards caused by traditional direct-conductive methods.
The challenge is to replace the conductive charging method with WPT technology while maintaining a comparable power level and efficiency. The long-term goal is to dynamically power the moving vehicles on the road, automated guided vehicles (AGVs) on a factory floor and/or autonomous robots and forklifts in a warehouse.
This may lead to a significant size reduction in battery packs and extended driving range while also addressing the cost of batteries and range anxiety.
For the past three years, Premo has been investing in inductive components design applying both the 3DPower concept (for the magnetics involved in WPT) and the Alma concept (for long-range antennae using flex-magnetic core).
A team of scientists from Madrid’s CSIC (Superior Council of Scientific Research), researchers of UPM (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid), Andaltec (Instituto Andaluz del Plástico) and a team of materials scientists and technologists at Premo’s Innovation Center in Malaga have developed a technology aimed at inductive WPT in the range of 90kHz. This technology deals with the limits of conventional ferrite cores that are both fragile and brittle and cannot be manufactured reliably in the long, large and thick formats required by this application. The team has announced that it has realised an improvement in performance of Premo’s WC-Rx-Series (secondary coils). The magnetic core technology provides high-efficiency (above 95 per cent) power transfer due to the combination of an optimized coil (Litz wire) and a flexible core that avoids air gaps and reduces heating areas. The result is a compact secondary coil with a high Q-factor (very low losses) and high reliability, reports Premo.
Samples of the WC-RX @ 22kW) will be available by Q1 (2020).
WC-TX-Series (emitters) will be available in Q1 (2020).
