3D printed gears for electric cars charging systems

Time and cost savings with the igus® 3D printing service

The future should be in e-mobility. Only the electric cars could not prevail so far. An important factor is the insufficiently developed charging infrastructure. For many drivers, the available recharging facilities are very rare. Easelink wants to change this. The innovative start-up has developed 'Matrix Charging', a vehicle charging system consisting of two components: A charging pad connected to the mains is installed in the car park. A connector on the bottom of the e-car drops down when the car is parked over the pad. The charging process starts automatically, without the driver having to connect a cable – similar to inductive charging, but with up to ten times the charging power and with 99 percent efficiency. During development, designers have to approach a component ready for volume production slowly via several prototypes. If costs and time get out of hand during this phase, prototyping can become a stumbling block. But Easelink skilfully manufactured the components. They used the 3D printer to make the gears in the mechanism of each of the connector prototypes.

iglidur i6 for high wear resistance

The most suitable material for gears is the iglidur® I6. The high-performance plastic withstands ambient temperatures of -40 to +80 degrees Celsius, is pressure-resistant up to 44 MPa and has a high wear resistance. It was proven in laboratory tests that it is significantly more robust than the classic plastic polyoxymethylene (POM). Here, gears were operated at 12 revolutions per minute (RPM) and loaded with 5 Nm torque. The result: The 3D printed gear made of iglidur® measurable. Unlike a machined gear made from POM. It was worn out after 321,000 cycles and broke down after 621,000 cycles.

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