Talking about the research and development process of "high-efficiency zero rare earth motor", Wang Jianchang, manager of the Institute of Green Energy and Environment of ITRI, felt like a long "hero's journey". Entering the fourth year of the research and development process and the eighth month of cooperation with the manufacturer, the manufacturer said, "This thing really looks like a product that can be sold!" It seemed like he saw a glimmer of light in the seemingly endless dark night of research and development.
Looking back on this R&D road that lasted nearly four years, Wang Jianchang attributed it to R&D partners and industry allies, "This is the result of the joint efforts of Taiwan's industrial chain!"
In the modern industrial world, magnetically driven motors are the heart of many power equipment, accounting for more than 50% of the world's total electricity consumption. In order to squeeze out the maximum output from motors, the industry has turned to "permanent magnet motors" that are small, light, and efficient. Wang Jianchang said, "Rare earth magnets are like high-performance muscles in motors, which can provide strong magnetic force in a limited space." However, the core material of permanent magnet motors, "rare earths," has gradually been strictly controlled by supplying countries and has become the most vulnerable disconnection point in the global supply chain.
For example, the most widely used rare earth permanent magnet "Neodymium Iron Boron Magnet" has a magnetic force that is 5 to 12 times that of traditional black magnets. Therefore, the motor can be made smaller, lighter, and more efficient. This is very attractive for high-end fans, compressors, servo systems, electric vehicles and other products that require high efficiency and high power density.
The crisis of rare earth chain breakage increases and the world is in urgent need of zero rare earth solutions
But there is a fatal problem with rare earths. China controls up to 70% of the world's rare earth production and 90% of its refining capacity. In recent years, amid geopolitical disputes, rare earths have been classified as highly controlled strategic substances by various countries, and have also become a key bargaining chip in the trade and technological competition between China and the United States. When this highly concentrated supply chain faces a disconnection crisis, what follows will be crazy price increases, difficulty in obtaining materials, and even follow-up repair parts may be out of stock. Therefore, in recent years, global technology giants have turned their attention to "removing rare earths." "In the past, rare earths represented high efficiency. In the future, this high efficiency must also be coupled with low risk, availability, and sustainability."
Although there are already zero rare earth technologies in the world such as induction motors, synchronous reluctance or switched reluctance that do not use magnets at all, these methods have their own shortcomings. Wang Jianchang explained that synchronous reluctance motors, such as those used in high-end electric vehicles or industrial high-power equipment, generate astonishing internal heat during operation, and must be equipped with additional complex oil cooling systems for cooling. In addition, special controllers need to be independently developed, making it difficult to directly correspond to controllers popular in the market.
The ITRI team has been rooted in the field of refrigeration, air conditioning and fan air circulation for a long time. From the beginning, it targeted technologies with higher cost performance and seamless integration with the existing industrial ecology, and boldly chose the most common and most cost-effective "ferrite permanent magnet" solution.
A three-pronged approach breaks through the weak magnetic field and reaches IE5 energy efficiency standards
Wang Jianchang said that ferrite is a common material that does not contain rare earths and is only one-tenth of the price of rare earths. It has a natural advantage in equipment return on investment, but it has an inherent weakness. The magnetism of ferrite is weak, only one-fifth of rare earths. How to improve the magnetism of ferrite so that the motor can also have high energy efficiency has become the team's primary goal.
To this end, the team started from the magnetic circuit structure and underlying control algorithm, invested in research and development from scratch, and completed three major breakthroughs in succession. The first is the sine wave magnetic circuit design. "The most important thing about the motor is the magnetic circuit design. Through precise design techniques, the team makes the magnetic field inside the motor present a smooth and efficient rotating magnetic field, so that low-magnetic ferrite magnets can also exert an output effect close to that of rare earth permanent magnets."
The second key is the driver responsible for controlling the operation of the motor. Wang Jianchang said that in order to achieve a higher cost performance, the team adopted an innovative "unparalleled" subtraction design. Data centers are most afraid of downtime. The team abandoned two major components, "electrolytic capacitors" and "Hall ICs" that are prone to aging and failure, to significantly improve system reliability.
"But the cost of hardware subtraction is that the motor current will oscillate violently, resulting in reduced efficiency or unstable operation," Wang Jianchang explained. The team used a proportional resonance control algorithm to accurately track the motor current and match the sinusoidal magnetic circuit. It successfully controlled the motor to operate stably and efficiently under low magnetic conditions. A three-pronged approach allows ferrite permanent magnet motors with weak magnetic force to reach the top level of IE5 energy efficiency.
In order to be flexibly applicable to different fields, the team adopted a modular strategy to integrate the motor, driver and fan blades into a single 5kW core unit, allowing customers to flexibly assemble mainstream high-power specifications from 15kW to 50kW according to different needs, "just like stacking blocks."
The team also equipped this fan module with a smart "smart brain" that can automatically adjust the air volume and power consumption during low loads, and increase the motor torque under high loads. If the old IE3 motors commonly used in domestic factories are replaced with IE5 fan motor systems that can be dynamically adjusted with the load, it can bring about an astonishing power saving benefit of 40% on average and even up to 60%.
Optimize air ducts, impellers and modules to maximize every kilowatt hour of electricity
To save power for a fan, a smart and powerful motor alone is not enough. The team simultaneously optimized the air duct, impeller and module structure from a system integration perspective, so that every energy output by the motor can be more effectively converted into stable air supply capacity, creating an electronically commutated fan module that is both high-efficiency, high-reliability and easy-to-maintain.
Structurally, the team adopted a low-impedance air duct and efficient thermal management design to reduce pressure loss and eddy current interference when the airflow passes through the module. At the same time, it takes into account the requirements of low vibration and low noise, allowing the system to operate stably for a long time in harsh 24-hour environments such as commercial air-conditioning boxes, data centers or industrial ventilation.
In terms of impeller design, the team used precise airflow simulation analysis to repeatedly optimize the blade shape, angle and hub configuration, so that the fan can maintain stable and efficient air supply performance under different load operating conditions. In addition, the team integrated the motor, drive controller, impeller and frame system into a standardized module, which not only facilitates mass production, but also improves the efficiency of installation, maintenance, replacement and field verification.
The team's preliminary inventory shows that if this technology is introduced into the country's current data centers, semiconductor clean rooms, commercial air-conditioning boxes and biomedical factories, it is estimated that it can save Taiwan's huge electricity consumption of more than 150 million kilowatt-hours every year, which is equivalent to building one less power plant. "The fans are spinning every day, so every efficiency improvement will turn into long-term carbon reduction."
Leveraging Taiwan’s industrial chain, more than 90% of supply is local
After crossing the R&D level, what follows is the challenge of industrialization. Wang Jianchang said frankly that the most difficult part of industrialization is not only to produce the technology, but also to do it stably, cheaply, in large quantities, and so that customers are willing to pay. In order to truly implement the technology, the team made breakthroughs in four aspects.
The first is to modularize the technology, integrating motors, drives, fan blades and systems, and dismantling them into modules that can be transferred to technology, mass-produced, and verifiable. The second is to engineer the process. The team goes directly out of the laboratory and into the manufacturer's production line to assist the industry in establishing process parameters, testing standards, molds and quality control processes.
The third is to actually assist terminal equipment manufacturers to actually introduce commercial air conditioners, air conditioning boxes, fan modules and high-end environmental control systems. The fourth is to connect the supply chain. The team fulfills the most important core mission of ITRI and links related industries in Taiwan, including motor factories, drive controller factories, module factories and equipment factories, so that everyone can work together instead of working alone.
Wang Jianchang recalled that during the industrialization process, he often accompanied manufacturers to conduct actual machine testing and parameter calibration in the factory. He recalled that when he continued to fight with the manufacturer until the eighth month, one day the manufacturer suddenly said, "This thing looks like a product that can be sold!" This sentence came from the industry's most authentic recognition and was a great encouragement to the team!
Today, this zero-rare earth motor technology developed in the production line has established a 90% localized "MIT Motor Team" in Taiwan. In this industrial chain that is almost independently controlled by Taiwan, the motor body is produced by "Chuangheng Green Energy", a leading manufacturer of induction motors in Taiwan's air-conditioning industry. It has currently completed the construction of a production line with an annual output of 10,000 units, and the production line utilization rate has been maintained at more than 80%.
The medium and high-power motor controllers are handled by "CIMB Electronics", a subsidiary of TECO Group with international channel advantages, and have been shipped stably. Together with terminal equipment partners such as Continental Ventilation, Shui On, and Hongxu, the MIT industry chain of "parts + modules + equipment" has been formed, breaking through the bottleneck of relying on imports for high-efficiency motors, and successfully getting rid of the potential risks of geopolitical rare earth extortion and red supply chains.
Strengthening the resilience of the supply chain, MIT enters the international market with high quality
This complete solution with MIT label, high efficiency, energy saving and high reliability quickly attracted the attention of international customers. Wang Jianchang pointed out that international high-end equipment manufacturers pay special attention to "red exclusion clauses" and the sustainability of the supply chain when selecting products. This high-efficiency zero-rare earth motor has become a powerful weapon for Taiwanese manufacturers to go overseas. Currently, it has been used in AI data centers, fan units in high-tech factories or commercial air-conditioning boxes in Southeast Asian countries such as the Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia. It has successfully completed outpost exercises to enter the international market. In the future, it also plans to enter the European and American high-end markets.
Looking back on this research and development road that lasted nearly four years, Wang Jianchang attributed it to R&D partners and industrial allies, "This is the result of the joint efforts of Taiwan's industrial chain!" Facing the increasingly fierce geopolitics and net-zero carbon reduction competition in the future, Wang Jianchang is full of expectations for Taiwan's fan motor industry: "Zero rare earth technology has a strategic status at the national security level. Taiwan cannot just make parts, but should establish an independent industrial capability for a high-efficiency energy-saving system."
