Characterization of Rectangular Copper Wire Forming Properties and Derivation of Control Concepts for the Kinematic Bending of Hairpin Coils

Abstract

As a result of the continuously growing demand for electric vehicles, innovative production technologies must be developed to fulfill the high automotive requirements for productivity and quality in the manufacturing of electric drives. By providing advantages regarding the degree of automation, the productivity as well as the attainable filling factors in comparison to established round wire winding technologies, the hairpin technology shows a high potential for meeting the requested specifications but also technological weaknesses, especially concerning the process reliability. The referring production process of stators is normally based on the spatial forming of open, hairpin-shaped coils of enameled flat copper wire as well as subsequent joining and contacting processes. Consequently, the hairpin coils represent the elementary components of the process chain and can be either shaped by robust tool-bound or flexible kinematic bending processes that enable the shaping of different contours at moderate tool costs. In this paper, the essential mechanical forming and product properties of flat copper wires with different dimensions and insulation coatings are characterized by means of uniaxial tensile tests as well as metallographic analyses of the material structure, at first. Subsequently, the identified forming properties are correlated to the applied manufacturing processes drawing, rolling as well as continuous extruding and considered as limits of possible material variations. To evaluate the effect of fluctuating wire qualities on the robustness of kinematic hairpin bending processes, the fabrication tolerances are analyzed by finite element simulations, using the example of elementary kinematic bending operations and modeled changes of the material properties. Based on the knowledge of material-based process tolerances, different control concepts for the kinematic bending of hairpin coils are derived and compared based on technical as well as economic aspects.