ECM’s new video calls attention to the world’s electric motor sustainability crisis and the need for disruptive innovation to resolve it.
ECM released its new “Designing Sustainable Electric Motors” video at South by Southwest’s (SXSW) Innovation Awards Showcase—where ECM was a finalist in the Climate Change category for PrintStator.
“ECM needed to release this video on designing sustainable electric motors. In a world that will require over a billion optimized and sustainable electric motors a year, PrintStator motor CAD offers both a market and environmental solution.”
ECM CEO Brian Casey
Electric Motor Sustainability Crisis
ECM’s feature short underscores that within the world’s energy sustainability challenge there’s an electric motor sustainability crisis.
That’s because outdated motor systems—used in millions of everyday devices—consume over 50% of global electricity.
And without disruptive innovation, this sustainability problem will only get worse. Electrification and automation are propelling global market demand for electric motors to over a billion a year.
PrintStator and PCB Stator Technology
ECM’s new video “Designing Sustainable Electric Motors” illustrates how PrintStator motor CAD could shift this equation using PCB Stator technology.
PrintStator is ECM’s award-winning software platform that powers the design, manufacture of PCB Stator electric motors that are lighter, quieter, and more energy and space efficient
PCB Stators replace the bulky copper windings in traditional motors with an ultra-thin disc. PCB Stator motors designed via PrintStator are up to 70% lighter than conventional options, achieve efficiencies in excess of 90%, and require ≈ 80% less raw materials to produce.
MEPs for Millions of Motors?
Boosting average efficiency in the world’s billions of electric motors could cut over 100 million tons of carbon emissions annually and save citizens over $30 billion in utility costs each year, according to the European Commission and US Department of Energy.
To move in this direction, both the US and EU will aggressively pursue Minimum Efficiency Performance Standards—or MEPs—for electric motors.
The question is how to achieve these standards rapidly across multiple verticals and millions upon millions of machines?
SaaS as Solution for Designing Sustainable Electric Motors
ECM is confident that PrintStator, offered as SaaS, can provide a solution at scale. That’s why we released PrintStator as a public SaaS offering in January 2024.
As a design platform, PrintStator powers the design, optimization, and manufacture of PCB Stator electric motors that are lighter, quieter, and more energy and space efficient across multiple use cases.
All PrintStator electric motor solutions incorporate ECM’s PCB Stator technology.
When coupled to ECM’s PCB Stator science, PrintStator offers innovators unparalleled design flexibility. From the interface, PrintStator users can dial-in precise performance and dimensional specs—such as weight, size, torque, and efficiency—to create custom electric motor solutions integrated with PCB Stator technology.
For example, if an EU conveyor manufacturer needs a 1.05 kW electric motor that achieves 94% efficiency, conforms to an exact form factor, and complies with regional minimum energy performance (MEPs) requirements—that can be designed via PrintStator.
To enable these gains, ECM is working with global electronics companies to incorporate PrintStator design solutions into IE5 efficiency rated products and devices.
As illustrated in ECM’s new video, PrintStator Motor CAD and PCB Stator technology serves a critical market need, while offering a scalable solution to the global electric motor sustainability crisis.
Growing Recognition
As a 2024 SXSW Innovation Awards honoree in the Climate Change Category, ECM chose to air “Designing Sustainable Electric Motors” at SXSW’s Innovation Awards Showcase in Austin, Texas.
This recognition adds to a growing list of sustainability related distinctions for ECM’s PCB Stator innovation. In 2024, the CES Innovation Awards honored PrintStator motor CAD in its Sustainability, Eco-Design & Smart Energy category. And ECM won the 2023 International SaaS Awards Best SaaS Product For CSR, Sustainability And ESG.
