E-Circuit Motors

By Brandon Naylor, Faculty Associate-Research, Energy Academic Group

On August 24 NPS had the honor of welcoming Steve Shaw of E-Circuit Motors to give a presentation on his company’s advancements in the field of printed circuit board (PCB) motors. Printed circuit board motors are not a new concept, but E-Circuit Motors has developed a suite of software tools that improve on the state of the art in allowing users to easily design custom motors and generate standard drawings that can be sent to any PCB manufacturer for rapid production. Compared to traditional motor manufacturing methods, the PCB motor manufacturing process allows users to design and produce motors optimized to their specific applications rather than picking a “best fit” motor out of a catalogue. This can simplify the design process for complex systems because designers are not limited to the form factor and performance specifications of a pre-existing motor, and efficiency gains can be seen in some applications by rightsizing a motor with custom stators to specific applications. PCB motor production also lends itself to a more versatile and resilient supply chain, as any PCB manufacturer can produce the copper and fiberglass composite structure that makes up the stators of a PCB motor. In the Navy, PCB motors are currently being used in unmanned vehicles to drive propellers and gimbals that house mission-critical sensors. The design tools offered by companies such as E-Circuit Motors will hopefully allow further proliferation and ease of design of unmanned systems as designers are given more flexibility in design and manufacture of these key components.

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Contact Brandon Naylor at blnaylor@nps.edu for more information