Birmingham manufacturer Brandauer wins grant to make electric motor parts

Birmingham manufacturer Brandauer has been awarded £199,500 to develop a new way of making a key component inside electric vehicle motors.

The precision metal stamping and tooling specialist won the money from a regional supply chain transition programme, which helps manufacturers move into the industries of the future as cars switch from petrol and diesel to electric power.

What the money is for

Brandauer will use the funding to improve how it makes lamination stacks. These are the layers of ultra-thin electrical steel that form the magnetic core of an electric motor. Each stack is made from more than 3,000 individual laminations, and how precisely they are made directly affects how well a motor performs, how efficiently it uses energy and how reliable it is over time.

The company says its current process can be inconsistent, which means too many parts are scrapped and faults are often found too late in production. That makes it harder to compete for the larger, high-volume contracts offered by major vehicle makers and their main suppliers.

The 12-month project is being carried out with WMG, the manufacturing research group at the University of Warwick, and is due to finish in May 2027.

Why it matters

The switch to electric vehicles is changing the car industry's supply chain. Many of the parts made for petrol and diesel engines, such as pistons, fuel systems and exhausts, are not needed in an electric car, while new parts, including batteries, power electronics and electric motors, are in growing demand.

For the hundreds of small and medium-sized manufacturers around Birmingham that have supplied the motor industry for generations, that is both a threat and an opportunity. Programmes like this one are designed to help them adapt their skills and machinery so that the jobs stay in the region as the industry changes.

Being able to make electrical steel laminations reliably and at scale would put Brandauer in a position to compete for work with carmakers building electric vehicles.

About Brandauer

Brandauer is a long-established Birmingham company specialising in precision metal pressings, the small, highly accurate parts used in everything from cars to electronics and medical devices. It makes its own press tools, which lets it control the quality of parts from design to production.

The firm has been working on electric motor laminations for several years and has taken part in earlier research projects in the field. The new grant is intended to take that work from development towards full-scale production.

Birmingham's car industry has deep roots, from the Austin works at Longbridge to Jaguar Land Rover's plant at Castle Bromwich, and the supply chain around it remains one of the city's biggest employers in manufacturing.