eTech Learning: EV & AV Technology

For this episode of the eTech podcast Ryan Maughan speaks to Dr Chris Tighe, CEO and Founder of Electrical Cooling Solutions Ltd.

Chris is based in the U.K. and has been involved in the development of advanced thermal simulation techniques for power electronics and e-machines since 2007.Chris is an internationally renowned expert on complex thermal management in high performance machines and drives, he has built up a wealth of experience especially around the use of novel techniques to produce detailed simulation data on the thermal behaviour in complex power electronics and electric motors.

Ryan and Chris discuss the thermal challenge in e-machine and power electronics development as well as Chris' plans for a new software product to help others produce these next level simulations and improve their design process.

To find out more listen to this great episode!

ECS corporate website - https://www.e-cooling.co.uk/

Cohere simulation website - www.cohere-sim.com

Chris Tighe LinkedIn profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-tighe-thermal-edrives/

Ryan Maughan LinkedIn profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-maughan-a2893610/

eTech website – https://www.etech49.com

For this episode of the eTech podcast Ryan Maughan speaks to Dr Antti Lehikoinen CEO and Founder of Smeklab

Antti is based in Finland and has been involved in the development of electric motors since 2010, he has built up a wealth of experience in modelling and simulation techniques for electric machines.

Ryan and Antti talk about motors, current challenges and trends in the market and future exciting developments that are coming. From Radial to Axial, rare earth to switched reluctance they cover a wide range of motor topics.

Check out Antti's website and Linkedin feed for some great posts and videos showing some great e-machine simulations!

To find out more listen to this great episode!

Smeklab corporate website - https://www.smeklab.com/

Antti Lehikoinen LinkedIn profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexxa/

Ryan Maughan LinkedIn profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-maughan-a2893610/

eTech website – https://www.etech49.com

For this episode of the eTech podcast Ryan Maughan speaks to John Tinson, VP of Sales and Marketing ilika PLC.

ilika is a pioneer in next generation solid state battery technology. Scalable from miniature implanted and IoT devices through to large scale motive applications like electric vehicles. ilika's technology enables higher energy densities , longer battery life , lower leakage currents and higher temperature ranges all in a non-flammable material format.

Solid state battery development and commercialisation is widely seen as the next major breakthrough in performance, cost and safety for electric vehicle powertrains. ilika have been actively working in this field for a number of years and built up considerable expertise.

To find out more listen to this great episode!

ilika corporate website - https://www.ilika.com/

John Tinson LinkedIn profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-tinson-a25b974/

Ryan Maughan LinkedIn profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-maughan-a2893610/

eTech website – https://www.etech49.com

Follow eTech49 on social media:
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/etech49-limited
Twitter – https://twitter.com/acexryan

For this episode of the eTech podcast Ryan Maughan speaks to Davide Tessore, General Manager at Marposs EDC.

Marposs Group is an Italian headquartered global supplier of testing solutions for a wide range of industries. They acquired specialist electric motor test equipment business EDC in July 2020.

Marposs EDC is a developer of motor testing solutions covering the full range of functional tests required for a typical electric motor assembly including end of line testing, dynamometers and stator test. Their motor stator partial discharge testing technology was of particular interest, this offers the ability to test a much greater range of properties and defect detection far beyond conventional hi-pot or surge testing equipment.

To find out more listen to this great episode!

Marposs corporate website - https://www.marposs.com/

Article about partial discharge testing - https://www.marposs.com/eng/news/edc-technology-identifies-electric-motor-defects

Davide Tessore LinkedIn profile -https://www.linkedin.com/in/davide-tessore-705b472a/

Ryan Maughan LinkedIn profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-maughan-a2893610/

eTech website – https://www.etech49.com

Follow eTech49 on social media:
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/etech49-limited
Twitter – https://twitter.com/acexryan

For this episode of the eTech podcast Ryan speaks to Philip Johnston, CEO of Trackwise PLC. Trackwise is a specialist UK based manufacturer of printed circuit boards. Printed circuit boards are a key component in all electronic equipment but it is a technology that has often been overlooked or undervalued.

Much of the UK's PCB manufacturing has moved offshore however Trackwise has kept UK based manufacturing by innovating new products and manufacturing technology. First of all they developed large format PCB manufacturing processes and this found them success in markets such as antenna arrays for communications systems.

They then developed large format flexible circuit manufacturing, and by flexible they mean it can bend and flex rather than quickly adapt to a change!

So these large flexible circuits are finding more applications replacing wiring harnesses in aerospace and automotive. More recently Phillip and his team have been working with a key customer to improve battery module design by implementing flex circuits to replace the internal harness in the battery pack which interconnects the cells and BMS.

To find out more listen to this great episode!

Trackwise corporate website - https://www.trackwise.co.uk/

Philip Johnston LinkedIn profile -https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-johnston-66a5471/

Ryan Maughan LinkedIn profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-maughan-a2893610/

eTech website – https://www.etech49.com

Follow eTech49 on social media:
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/etech49-limited
Twitter – https://twitter.com/acexryan

For this episode of the eTech podcast Ryan Maughan talks to Mark Preston CEO the DS TECHEETAH Formula-E team and CSO & Co-Founder of autonomous driving business StreetDrone.

Mark began his career in Australia where he began working in motorsport designing and building Formula Ford racing cars before deciding to move to the UK to progress a career in Formula 1, initially with Arrows before moving to McLaren and then taking the bold move to start his own team Super Aguri in 2005.

Mark was one of the first to see the potential in Formula-E being only the 6th team to enter the championship whilst it was being set up again under the Aguri banner.

Mark is now the CEO of DS TECHEETAH one of the most successful teams in the Formula-E championship. As if that wasn't enough Mark also co-founded an autonomous vehicle business Streetdrone.

Mark and Ryan discuss motorsport and Mark's career history, where he came from and the successes and challenges that led him to where he is today. They talk about Formula-E in depth how the championship and cars have evolved and what is happening in the next season.

We will be doing a separate episode discussing Streetdrone so keep your eyes out for that in the future!

Mark Preston LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markpreston/
DS TECHEETAH Corporate Website: https://www.dstecheetah.com/
Streetdrone Corporate Website: https://www.streetdrone.com/

Ryan Maughan LinkedIn profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-maughan-a2893610/

eTech website – https://www.etech49.com

Follow eTech49 on social media:
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/etech49-limited
Twitter – https://twitter.com/acexryan

For this episode of the eTech podcast Ryan Maughan talks to Dr Victor Kalinin Chief Scientist at Transense Technologies PLC.

Victor began his career in Russia at the Moscow Power Engineering Institute, he later moved to the UK to take up a post at Oxford Brookes University.

He joined Transense in 2001 to lead the technical development activity of the Surface Acoustic Wave sensor systems, applying his expertise in Physics and RF Engineering.

Transense's technology has been successfully applied in applications ranging from heavy duty off highway tyre pressure monitoring to torque sensing in aerospace turbine engines. Transense also recently signed a deal with McLaren Applied Technology who have been successfully applying the technology to monitor torque in motorsport applications for several years.

Ryan and Victor talk about Surface Acoustic Wave sensor technology, its origins how it works and how it can be used.

Victor Kalinin LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victor-kalinin-383a7622/
Transense Corporate Website: https://www.transense.com/
Link to story about McLaren Applied Technology JCA: https://www.investegate.co.uk/transense-technlgy/rns/5-year-jca-with-mclaren-applied-ltd-for-saw-tech/202109140700076319L/

Ryan Maughan LinkedIn profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-maughan-a2893610/

eTech website – https://www.etech49.com

Follow eTech49 on social media:
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/etech49-limited
Twitter – https://twitter.com/acexryan

Note this episode was not specifically sponsored by Transense, however since it was recorded Ryan has joined the team at Transense as a Director helping to commercialise the technology in applications such as electric propulsion and machinery.

It is great to be back. It has been some time since we last published a new podcast episode, for this episode it's a quick run through of where we are at and what is coming.

We talk about some of the exciting new electric vehicles in the market that are now applying technology we discussed in earlier episodes such as:

Episode 51 - 800V powertrain systems https://etech49.com/ep51-800v-powertrain-overview/
Episode 8 - Multi motor drive trains with torque vectoring technology https://etech49.com/multi-motor-systems-in-electric-vehicles/

Find out more about eTech49 at our website https://etech49.com/ and you can find our back catalog of podcasts here https://etech49.com/about-us/podcasts/ or in your favourite podcast app!

You can find Ryan on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-maughan-a2893610/

Follow eTech49 on social media:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/etech49-limited
Twitter - https://twitter.com/acexryan

For this episode of the eTech podcast Ryan Maughan talks to fellow North Easterner and electric vehicle innovator and trailblazer Doug MacAndrew about his vast experience in the Electric Vehicle market.

Doug is a hugely experienced automotive engineer having come up through the ranks at Rover Group, JLR then to McLaren Automotive where he worked on the SLR super car program. After McLaren Doug moved back to the North East and joined a little known company called Smiths Electric Vehicles, Smiths were one of the oldest electric vehicle manufacturers in the world and they had an ambitious plan to launch a range of high performance electric commercial vehicles. Saying that today in 2020 this might not seem all that special with electric commercial manufacturer start-ups appearing all over the place, but way back in 2007 this was something really unusual and special.

Smiths could trace its roots back to 1920 when it started as a manufacturer of electric delivery trucks for milk and tea. Its products had been quite low performance until that point focusing on low speed industrial electric vehicles they had a vision for transforming urban logistics with higher performance electric delivery trucks and vans. As an early mover in the electric commercial vehicle market unfortunately Smiths did not manage to break through with investment issues meaning they ran out of money before they managed to fully mature the product and gain scale in the market.

After the Smiths adventure Doug then moved onto another massive challenge at electric personal aircraft company AeroMobil taking his experience of cutting-edge product development onto what could only be described as a unique challenge!

Ryan and Doug discuss the electric vehicle market looking at what is happening in the market now, the challenges of vehicle development, achieving reliability and the vehicle powertrain engineering process. From electric delivery vehicles to flying autonomous cars including bringing together the skills of automotive and aerospace engineering! Including how electrification can significantly simplify and reduce the cost of small aircraft leading to huge opportunities and challenges for the established aircraft industry.

After AeroMobil Doug has taken up a new challenge as Chief Operating Officer of battery manufacturing company InoBat, where Doug is leading the delivery of InoBat’s plan to develop and scale up battery technology in Europe. Ryan and Doug discuss the battery industry, cell technology cell form factors and packaging from solid state tech to the new form factors of cells coming to the market. Doug explains the plans at InoBat to scale their business as they bring new battery technology and manufacturing capacity to the market. Rather than just licensing in battery tech and building a manufacturing plant InoBat is aiming to take a leading position in global battery supply by developing their own battery chemistries and manufacturing technology for world class sustainable and ethical battery cell production in Europe.

Doug’s passion for engineering and his vast knowledge of the electric vehicle market make for a fascinating discussion.

Doug MacAndrew - https://www.linkedin.com/in/doug-macandrew-c-eng-fimeche-72847717/

InoBat - https://inobatauto.eu/

Gordon Murray - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Murray

Frank Coppuck - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Coppuck

Barry Lett - https://www.linkedin.com/in/barry-lett-361a13140/

Interview with Barry Lett about Mercedes SLR - https://jalopnik.com/the-mercedes-benz-slr-mclaren-is-and-is-not-a-supercar-1833557369

Aeromobil - https://www.aeromobil.com/

Smith Electric Vehicles - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_Electric_Vehicles

Ryan Maughan LinkedIn profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-maughan-a2893610/

eTech website - https://www.etech49.com

Follow eTech49 on social media:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/etech49-limited
Twitter - https://twitter.com/acexryan

For this episode of the eTech podcast Ryan Maughan talks to Dr Ben Upcroft, VP of Technology at British autonomous vehicle technology firm Oxbotica.

Ben has had a long career in robotics and autonomous technology having been involved in the space since completing his PhD back in 2004 he then began working as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow looking at field robotics.

Ryan and Ben discuss the autonomous vehicle market looking at examples of applications both on and off highway. Ben shares with us his views on the future direction of travel in the industry and the work to do before self driving vehicles become common on our roads.

They also discuss what Oxbotica do, which is a fascinating discussion in itself developing and bringing together the different software elements required to make autonomous technology a reality.

If you are interested in autonomous vehicles, check this podcast out

Dr Ben Upcroft LinkedIn profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-upcroft/

Oxbotica corporate website - https://www.oxbotica.com/

Ryan Maughan LinkedIn profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-maughan-a2893610/

eTech website - https://www.etech49.com

Follow eTech49 on social media:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/etech49-limited
Twitter - https://twitter.com/acexryan