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Go Green With Eco-Friendly Tolerance Rings
July 23rd, 2021
Reduce your manufacturing carbon footprint and make a big difference with a small component. RENCOL® Tolerance Rings are created with eco-friendly engineering design to reduce costs and respond to greater demands for environmentally friendly manufacturing. Find out how these reliable rings from Saint-Gobain can improve your e-motor manufacturing process.
Environmental Challenges of E-Motor Manufacturing
Reducing our CO2 emissions is becoming an increasingly important topic, and rightfully so; it is the right thing to do. At Saint-Gobain we have a mission to become CO2 neutral by 2050. And we want to help others achieve their carbon footprint reductions too. The e-motor manufacturing industry, as part of a larger manufacturing sector movement, are making strides towards employing more environmentally responsible practices. There are a number of reasons to consider CO2 friendly engineering in your manufacturing process:
- Environmental legislation
- Company reputation – doing the right thing
- Sustainable manufacturing
Environmental Legislation
The US Environmental Protection Policy (EPA) Automotive Sectors has a number of laws and regulations to promote sustainable manufacturing. Similarly, the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) is the main EU instrument regulating pollutant emissions from industrial installations. It aims to reduce harmful industrial emissions across the EU through better application of Best Available Techniques (BAT). By choosing an environmentally durable engineering approach, your facility can not only comply with current laws and regulations but move beyond basic requirements
This helps you keep pace with changing electric vehicle laws. Consider reducing your carbon footprint lower than the current required level to avoid future restrictions or fines when the emissions limits are lowered or altered. Even if you’re always under the required carbon emissions, you may wish to further limit emissions and prevent restraints from additional legislation in the future.
Reducing emissions isn’t just an environmental issue; it’s also a matter of branding. Increased media coverage of electric vehicles makes it more important than ever for an environmentally durable e-motor design. Consumers and the media are becoming more aware of energy use and emissions in the electric vehicle manufacturing process.
By highlighting the eco-friendly aspects of your manufacturing, you can improve your brand positioning among auto manufacturers and consumers. It’s no longer enough to simply position yourself as an e-motor manufacturer, but you must address ways you’re continuing to reduce your carbon footprint within this green industry.
E-Motor Manufacturing Costs
Low-emission manufacturing processes can also reduce energy use and total costs. If you’re manufacturing a carbon-footprint-liable stator coupling, you may be investing unnecessary resources into the manufacturing process.
Both adhesive and heat shrink press-fit components create more emissions and use more energy to manufacture than tolerance rings. Compare these options with RENCOL® Tolerance Rings to see how you can go green and cut costs at the same time.
How RENCOL® Tolerance Rings Reduce Emissions
RENCOL® Tolerance Rings are innovative components designed to improve the security and positioning of your electric motor stator. A tolerance ring rests in the housing and wraps around the shaft. The wave-like structure of the ring is used to protect systems through offering a secure fastening by fixing the stator in place across all use cases.
Using a RENCOL® Tolerance Ring allows you to replace heat shrink press-fit and adhesive technologies. The result is reduced factory footprint, increased recyclability and improved component retention. Each of these are important factors as you move to an eco-friendly alternative and streamline your facility.
Both existing technologies for fastening and positioning require a considerable amount of factory floor space. If you’re currently using a heat shrink press fit or adhesive solution, you know the cost and space required to heat and cure these products.
Heat shrink products need to be heated and cooled in a conveyor belt process. Adhesive products require a curing process. The added time and factory space of these steps can reduce the efficiency of your e-motor assembly process.
Tolerance rings are installed at ambient temperature. This single factor alone can significantly free up factory floor space as you remove your cooling or curing equipment. Expand your storage area, add new equipment or diversify your factory production with all that free floor space.
Increase Re-Workability and Recyclability
A tolerance ring doesn’t need to be heated or cut to be removed. There isn’t any adhesive or other product involved in the fixing process. Using a tolerance ring in your assembly allows costly components to be easily removed/disassembled so they can be reworked and/or reused helping you achieve a more sustainable and cost effective production line. Alternatively, the easy disassembly gives you the option to recycle components at the end of life.
The sustainable design of the tolerance ring avoids the inefficient heating, curing, and removal processes found in other technologies. The metal construction means it can also be recycled. Sustainable engineering uses innovative designs to reduce emissions and costs throughout the part lifecycle.
Improve Component Retention
Not only are these rings more affordable and convenient to install, but they offer benefits for the final consumer. The spring properties of the rings create a firm, consistent hold, avoiding component rotation or positioning issues with this efficient product.
Comparing Stator Mount Solutions
How does the tolerance ring, an eco-friendly stator mount solution, compare to common alternatives?
Here we explore the features and limitations of both heat shrink press-fit and adhesive products and compare them with the features of RENCOL® Tolerance Ring and Aluclad products.
Heat Shrink Press Fit
A heat shrink press fit solution heats the housing to create a clearance fit. Once the stator is inserted, the entire unit is cooled to create a firm fit. It’s a common method, but there are limitations to this process, including energy-intensive processing, re-work safety concerns, and limited material selections. And with newer, more complex housing designs the heating and cooling stages can result in deformation of the component resulting in either poor motor performance or a scrapped assembly resulting in increased waste and higher costs.
Heating and cooling the housing requires a significant amount of energy and factory floor space. These features all add to the total production cost. If you need to re-work or replace the component, it must be cut open, releasing the pre-tension created during assembly. This process can become a safety issue, causing damage or injury. During normal operations, the heat shrink press-fit component may become overheated and reduce its efficiency. You need to carefully select a material that can withstand the heat and wear of normal e-motor operations, which limits your flexibility in choice.
Adhesive
Adhesive-bonded stator retention is another common option, but also comes with limitations. This process uses a strong epoxy adhesive on the housing and stator. The housing is often heated before the epoxy is applied, and the entire unit must cool down before moving on to the next step in the manufacturing process.
Adhesive bonding takes more time and is more difficult to assemble than tolerance rings or heat shrink alternatives. This is a very precise method - any errors in the process result in a scraped assembly which cannot easily be recycled. The heating and cooling process uses the same amount of factory floor space and energy as the heat shrink process, therefore turning to adhesive stator retention won’t clear any floor space or allow you to cut down on your carbon footprint.
Tolerance Rings
Choose an environmentally friendly stator mount to limit your energy consumption and promote a re-workable and recyclable solution. These rings are assembled at room temperature, so you can remove the heating step from your manufacturing process.
They’re designed to support dissimilar materials across temperature ranges that can affect both adhesive and heat shrink alternatives providing retention across temperature and material ranges. A tolerance ring is easy to remove without damaging the housing or stator, so you can reuse these critical components. Reusing a RENCOL® Tolerance Ring isn’t recommended, but these recyclable components still reduce waste in your e-motor manufacturing. Not only is this an eco-friendly solution, but these rings also increase retention.
Hit your recycling, emissions, and retention goals with RENCOL® Tolerance Rings. Whether you’re attempting to meet regulatory requirements or looking to improve your eco-friendly branding, switching to a tolerance ring is a great way to cut down on energy use and product waste.
Aluclad
If you’re having thermal transfer issues in your e-motors, then choose Aluclad tolerance rings. This RENCOL® product uses the same CO2 friendly mechanical engineering as other RENCOL® Tolerance Rings, but introduces a bimetallic design.
By using a softer, more thermally conductive material that includes a durable steel core, Aluclad tolerance rings offer up to four times better thermal transfer than typical tolerance ring products. This further improves retention rates in high-heat applications.
Speak to the Team at Saint-Gobain
Develop new technologies and push boundaries with RENCOL® Tolerance Rings and environmentally friendly mechanical engineering. Speak to our team at Saint-Gobain to discuss your engineering challenges and learn more about state-of-the-art e-motor technologies. Contact us through our online form or email us at: makingabigdifference@saint-gobain.com. Reduce your carbon footprint and go green to improve your brand and reduce manufacturing costs.