Leading electrification specialist, Equipmake, has readied a range of high performance yet cost-effective advanced electric motors for marine, bringing major benefits to multiple types of watercraft in terms of power density, packaging and reduced emissions.
Based in Norfolk, UK, Equipmake primarily provides EV technology to automotive OEMs and specialist supercar manufacturers, producing everything from industry-leading electric motors to power electronic systems, all the way up to complete EV drivetrains, while also operating across off-highway, construction and aerospace.
With the marine world trailing industries such as automotive on emissions regulation and alternative propulsion strategy, combined with pressure to reduce the environmental impact and noise of boats on coastal areas and ports, Equipmake sees many advantages for its motors to be used by electrified craft including RIBs, tugs and yachts.
The company’s APM motors, which incorporate many industry-leading innovations and are believed to be the most power dense in global series production, use technology born out of Equipmake Managing Director Ian Foley’s career in top-level motorsport.
A former Lotus and Benetton F1 engineer, Foley’s research into electric motors and flywheels in the mid-2000s led to him play a key role in the development of Williams F1’s hybrid system, used in the 2009 F1 season. The resulting hybrid flywheel arrangement went on to further success in endurance racing with Porsche and Audi.
The high-speed flywheel developed for the Williams programme was effectively a composite electric motor, Foley applying the expertise gained to a new design: Equipmake’s APM range of ‘spoke’ electric motors.
These are permanent magnet motors that use a spoke architecture(so-called because the magnets are arranged like the spokes of a wheel) to bring a major cooling advantage. Because the motor can be kept cool, it can produce lots of power and torque, use less expensive magnet materials and conventional manufacturing methods, so can be made smaller, lighter and more cost-effective.
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