Hirst Magnetics optimise manufacturing of magnets for electric vehicles

Introduction

There is a very rapid growth in electric vehicle demand due to environmental drivers. At the core of all these products, are permanent magnets, all of which require manufacturing and
characterisation.

Hirst has been designing and manufacturing equipment to carry this out for the last 30 years. The technology developed has several advantages over other systems,
allowing high accuracy and rapid cycle times. Hirst design machines from first principles, manufacture bespoke components and complete the full assembly and testing of products, prior to dispatch to a customer. Hirst customers are located across the globe, especially in China, where the bulk of the world’s magnetic products are produced. Hirst aim to implement a new file management system to increase business efficiency. To achieve this, a new software system was identified. Tevi supported this grant fund to support business growth alongside the optimisation of manufacturing processes.

Grant awarded: £5,977.41
Used to purchase: DDM (Design Data Manager) 1.8TB Hard Drive x4 Samsung PM983 SSD Memory module x2

Impact Summary

Through better management of data and more efficient use of staff and resources, Hirst will be able to increase their production capacity, and produce more machines. Ultimately this will drive growth and most importantly profitability of the business, allowing it to invest more back into the company and further improve their products.

This project aims to reduce the materials and energy required in producing Hirst products. This has been achieved through streamlining manufacturing processes resulting in reduction of wasted material and time in the production of each machine. Furthermore, this efficiency should enable Hirst to produce more machines with the existing labour and shop floor space, thereby reducing the energy and material consumption required for each product.

“Tevi business assistance helped us to identify opportunities to streamline our processes and reduce unnecessary wastage as well as implementing new file management methods that will help our business grow”.

Russ Henman, Project Manager

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