Pioneer for e-mobility.

Production technology from GROB is used by over two thirds of all electric car manufacturers.

The Bavarian family-owned company has also earned this market-leading role through its high quality standards. This is why GROB has relied on the comprehensive ZEISS portfolio for many years.

How do you become a pioneer in electromobility?

Martin Negele is Head of Quality Assurance at the long-established Mindelheim-based company and has the answer: "At GROB, we recognized a few years ago that the future belongs to electric drives. It was still a controversial statement at the time, but we took the plunge. Today, we have a 67 percent market share in stator technology, among other things. If you look at an e-drivetrain, our production technology is very likely behind it."

GROB also earns this leading role with uncompromising quality. To ensure this, the company relies on the comprehensive ZEISS portfolio: "We combine microscopic, tactile and optical measurement technology to achieve optimum results," says Martin Negele. This means that even the production of a complex part such as a stator can be fully mapped - with maximum reliability and productivity.

Stator: simple design, complex production

The motor of an electric car has an impressively simple design: A rotating electromagnet (rotor) turns in the magnetic field of a stationary permanent magnet (stator). And the stator consists only of a sheet steel housing, the laminated core, and induction coils made of coated copper - although hairpins are increasingly being used today instead of winding wire coils.

"As advantageous as hairpins are as a finished product, their production is just as demanding, especially when it comes to bending and welding," explains Georg Knoll, supervisor of welding processes at GROB and head of the workshop test laboratory. "That's why we have to constantly check everything from incoming goods to the fully assembled part." This is because undetected defects can lead to a loss of performance or malfunction, and in the worst case even to fatal damage to the entire drive.

Continuous testing requires a combination of technologies

After the tensile test, a cross-section of the copper wire for the hairpins is first analyzed under a microscope to check the condition of the insulation coatings. As soon as the hairpins are assembled in the laminated core, the welded ends of the hairpins are inspected using a computer tomograph. The assembled and welded stator is then inspected tactilely and visually to ensure that the dimensions are correct and to rule out surface defects.

"With a few exceptions, we consistently rely on solutions from ZEISS," explains Martin Negele. "And there are several reasons for this: firstly, hardly any other supplier offers its industrial customers such a high level of service and understanding of the application. And: No other provider offers such a comprehensive portfolio, with which we can cover an entire process such as the production of a stator from a single source."

ZEISS solutions make quality assurance 30% more productive

GROB relies on ZEISS PRISMO - one of the most precise coordinate measuring machines of its kind. ZEISS ScanBox functions as an automated optical 3D measuring machine - it enables both high process reliability and high throughput. GROB also relies on proven ZEISS technology for microscopy with the ZEISS Axio Imager, an open microscope system for automated materials research.