05/03/2020 | Story
Sustainable – Using electrical energy more efficiently
Part two:
What does Rheinmetall actually do... to reduce pollutant emissions?
Hybrids and electric cars can make an important contribution towards making car traffic more environmentally and climate-friendly. The range of electrically powered vehicles has a great deal of potential.
Increasing the range of electric cars
In electric cars, air-conditioning compressors run via an electric motor that is integrated into the vehicle's high-voltage network. Drawing on its many years of expertise as a supplier of mechatronic components, Rheinmetall has developed an electric air-conditioning processor (eCC) specifically for electric vehicles. During the development process, special emphasis was placed on economical use of electrical energy given that the energy efficiency of electric cars is significantly influenced by auxiliary units – including the eCC. Depending on requirements, energy flow from the high-voltage storage unit can be reduced when cooling or heating the driver's cab. This increases the range of the electric vehicle.
Saving energy thanks to self-locking effect
Specially developed for energy-saving use in hybrid and electric cars, the multi-purpose actuator (MPA) can show off its power-saving strength especially when holding the position of flaps and valves. Here, the selected gear combination helps to use a defined self-locking effect of the drive shaft in order to be able to reduce the required holding energy to a minimum (or even to zero) after reaching the desired position until a new positioning command reaches the actuator.
This way, the overall energy balance in hybrid and electric vehicles can be improved. This applies both to all necessary control elements of the exhaust gas treatment, such as exhaust flaps and valves, and to thermal management via coolant valves or to the improvement of the air resistance (cw value) via active radiator grille lamellas.
Filling up with less electricity means less pollution for the environment. Similarly, efficient energy management is indispensable for the development and existence of electric mobility.
In part one you can read about the environmentally friendly products that Rheinmetall produces for the important combustion engine.