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Compact motor start-up attracts €5m of funding

03 June, 2010

A German motor manufacturing start-up which says it makes the world’s most compact electric drives, has completed a €5m financing round to support its rapid growth plans. Compact Power Motors (CPM), which was founded in March 2008, claims that its motors are up to ten times more powerful, and significantly more energy-efficient, than competing products of a similar size or cost.

"Our smaller motors (shown above) are the size of a Coke can, yet produce more than 6kW – and our larger machines weigh only 9 kg but exceed 75kW,” says CPM’s CEO, Nico Windecker. “Our motors` outstanding strength, low cost and high efficiency save battery power, installation space and weight, making them ideally suited for electric mobility applications. This has enabled us to quickly enter the market and sell thousands of motors within only 18 months of the company`s inception.”

Soenke Mehrgardt and Rolf Nagel of one of CPM’s key investors, Munich Venture Partners, declare that “CPM has succeeded in reinventing the electric motor. Its team has fundamentally re-engineered the motor design to achieve a much higher performance than was thought possible before.”

CPM’s proprietary brushless, permanent-magnet synchronous motor technology has been applied to motors with power outputs from 500W–80kW, weighing 1.5–9kg and operating with claimed efficiencies of more than 96%.
The company`s portfolio includes:
♦ 
a range of 90mm-diameter machines weighing 1.3–2.5kg and delivering up to 6kW of power and 15Nm of torque at efficiencies above 90%;
♦  a series of patented twin-rotor, radial-flux motors with outputs from 10–80kW and torque ratings up to 200Nm, which use the generated magnetic field twice and operate with efficiencies of 90-96% over most of their range; and
♦  a family of devices that incorporate two motors connected to the drive shaft via a belt, allowing one or both motors to be used depending on speed and load requirements.

The twin-motor models (above) have built-in power controllers rated up to 10kW, and offer variable transmission ratios making them easy to adjust to suit the requirements of an application. The twin-motor design can help to increase efficiency or to provide power boosts. It can also help to prevent complete breakdowns in applications such as vehicles.

CPM is targeting electric vehicle applications in particular, but also sees uses for its machines in areas such as wind turbines, power tools and industrial applications.




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