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Rapid prototyping
with plastic gears

3D printed plastic gears for charging system for electric cars

Profile

What was needed: plastic gears for prototypes
Manufacturing process: igus 3D printing service
Requirements: wear resistance, robustness, fast delivery
Material: iglidur i6
Industry: automotive
Success from the collaboration: time savings thanks to simple online configuration and fast delivery, elimination of tooling costs, variety of options

Easelink, based in Graz, Austria, has developed the "matrix charging" system, which consists of two components. A charging pad is connected to the mains is installed in the parking spot. A connector on the bottom of the e-car drops down when the car is parked over the pad. The charging process starts automatically, so the driver does not have to connect a cable – like inductive charging, but with 99 percent efficiency and up to ten times the charging power.During the development process, the design engineers created a production-ready component by means of several prototypes. To minimise expenses while ensuring high quality, they used the igus 3D printing service.

Save time and money 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.

Matrix Charger with 3D-printed gears made of iglidur material with an electric car

Configured quickly online

An online gear design for the igus 3D printing service takes about 60 seconds. Delivery then starts at 24 hours. Gears manufactured with industrial printers are ready to ship after up to three days. "In prototype construction, high flexibility and fast delivery times are crucial," says Hermann Stockinger, Easelink founder. "It is precisely these factors that we appreciate about igus – being able to quickly select and print gears in many variations with the online configurator."Another advantage, along with the unbeatable time savings, is the low cost of igus service, since all tooling costs are eliminated. A design engineer needs only to select the gear module and specify the number of teeth and the torque transmission. The configurator creates a 3D model of the gear, the basis for 3D printing. Hundreds of variants of single and double gears can be created without using computer-aided design (CAD) software.

Matrix Charger with 3D-printed gears made of iglidur material

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 I6 was still fully functional after a million cycles, and the wear hardly measurable. Unlike a machined gear made from POM. It was worn out after 321,000 cycles and broke down after 621,000 cycles.

Buy laser sintering material iglidur I6 online

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