Bosch Rexroth want to have us design a motor that could meet their needs all over the world.

As one of the world’s leading suppliers of driving and control technologies and a presence in more than 80 countries, Bosch Rexroth’s products are found in applications all over the world. Until recently, Bosch Rexroth need custom-made motors for many of their markets to meet the different international standards and provisions governing electrical equipment.

As each motor needed its own material, number, specifications and documentation, Bosch Rexroth’s sales teams had to keep track of different global approvals and provisions, depending on whether they were assisting customers in North America, Russia or China in meeting their demanding operating tasks. This also impaired the flexibility for the customers, as a product that was designed for one market could not be used elsewhere without further modification and documentation.

Reducing stocks to simplify the business

In attempt to simplify its business, Bosch Rexroth had a clear objective: Reduce the number of serial numbers and thus the number of variations in their stocks.

The task of overcoming this challenge for the group of electric motor products was carried out in close cooperation with Hoyer Motors, which has been an important supplier for Bosch Rexroth over the past fifteen years. By working together, both teams quickly discovered that the best approach was to develop a motor design that covered as much of the world as possible. So with Bosch Rexroth as its project partner, Hoyer started developing the World Efficiency Motor range.

“Our primary goal was to reduce the number of variations in our components. In this respect, a World Efficiency Motor is perfect because we can have one serial number for meeting the needs of all of the markets for which the motor is classified. This is an ideal solution from both a sales and technological perspective,” says Dominik Furth, Product Manager for accessories, Business Unit Industrial Hydraulics, Bosch Rexroth.

Specially designed to meet local standards

One of the first tasks in designing this new range of motors was to delve deeply into the technical details to determine which markets had to be covered. In practice it is not possible to comply with all the various standards for energy performance and mechanical requirements all over the world, so priorities had to be set.

“As part of a common development process, we involved Bosch Rexroth’s sales organisation to get their input. It was ultimately decided to combine the requirements for NEMA Premium and IEC Ecodesign. “This combination enables us to meet most of our global market,” Dominik Furth says.

In addition to NEMA and IEC, World Efficiency Motor is also approved in conformity with other local provisions, which makes it possible to use in North America, the EU, Russia, China, South Korea, Japan and Australia.

In order to take account of the differences in local efficiency requirements and different voltages, the electric motor has insulation system and terminal box that are certified to cURus, along with an improved energy efficiency rating compared to a standard IE3 motor.

First steps towards enhanced simplification

One of the biggest advantages of World Efficiency Motor for Bosch Rexroth is a simpler selling process and supply chain. Having only one motor design to meet the needs of most key markets made it possible to achieve the goal of reducing the variation in the number of materials and be capable of providing its customers with greater flexibility at the same time. And this is only the beginning for Bosch Rexroth.

“World Efficiency Motor is an excellent example of how we can work at component level to create more flexible products. We want to continue collaborating closely with Hoyer and our other suppliers to take this even further,” Dominik Furth says.