HydRess: Resource-saving circulators

Circulation pumps have a high energy requirement. The aim of the HydRess joint project is to develop circulators with an improved environmental balance. The New Materials Cluster manages the project, which is funded by the BMBF as part of the "KMU NetC" program and started in January 2018, with a duration of three years.

Approximately 140 million so-called glandless circulators are operated in Europe, and their design makes them suitable for use in washing machines and dishwashers, as feed pumps, or in hydrology. However, current pump generations show strong potential for optimization in the area of energy and material efficiency. Mechanical wear reduces the life cycle of such pumps to an average of ten years. Resource-saving design and improvements in energy efficiency can contribute to a significantly improved environmental balance.

The HydRess joint project, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the KMU NetC program, stands for "Development of new concepts for hydromechatronic aggregates to significantly increase resource efficiency". The aim is to research and develop a new concept for circulating pumps. The aim is to minimize the use of resources in both construction and operation and to improve energy efficiency. The aim is to reduce the size of the pumps while maintaining at least the same, and ideally even increasing, performance. Another aim is to make the production process more efficient and use sustainable materials in manufacturing. For example, rare earth metals or stainless steel are to be replaced by engineering plastics.

HydRess: funding until 2020

HydRess is funded by the BMBF as part of the KMU NetC program. The joint project, which started in January 2018, has a planned duration of three years until the end of 2020.

The project, initiated by the New Materials Cluster together with its partners, ideally maps strategy of the cluster, which works on the key topics of energy and material efficiency, multi-material design and functionalization , among others. It deepens these guiding themes with its successful networks and a cross-industry and cross-technology knowledge and technology transfer.

Circulator pump prototype

During the project, a working prototype will be developed and built, which will undergo various tests and investigations. The development of a new concept of circulating pumps includes the following objectives:

• The use of resources in construction and operation will be reduced.
• The manufacturing process will dispense with critical materials.
• The manufacturing process will be more efficient.
• The energy efficiency will be increased.

The electric drives to be developed in the project are also to be transferred to other areas of application in different branches of industry and to develop their potential in terms of increased energy efficiency. Conceivable applications include, for example, use in compressors and fans as well as in various auxiliary drives of motor vehicles.

HydRess: division of tasks between SMEs and universities

In the HydRess joint project, the participating SMEs and universities take on different tasks:

Injection molding of soft magnetic material

Schiessmeyer GmbH develops and manufactures technical plastic injection molded parts including the tools required for this purpose. Its task is to develop a suitable process for injection molding soft magnetic material.

Sealing the motor winding

CirComp GmbH specializes in the development of high-performance fiber composites . It focuses on the hermetic sealing of the motor winding against the pumped medium using alternative materials made of plastic or magnetic compounds.

Fast-Running Electric Motors

The Chair of Electrotechnical Systems of Mechatronics at Kaiserslautern University of Applied Sciences specializes in modeling, simulation, optimization and testing of mechatronic systems. The focus of this project partner is the research of high-speed electric motors.

Investigation of interdependencies

The Chair of Plastics Engineering at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg conducts research in the areas of plastics-specific processing, additive manufacturing , joining technology and tribology, fiber-reinforced plastics and lightweight construction, and the cross-cutting topics of simulation and failure analysis. It investigates cause-effect relationships on the overall system using new and plastic-based materials.

KSB SE & Co. KGaA is involved in the project as an associated partner. As a member of the New Materials Cluster, it played a key role in initiating contact between the partners and in supporting the application process.