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Electric motor manufacturer Wellington Drive Technology hopes to have the next generation of its smart motors ready by the end of next year, thanks to a Government funding boost.
The Auckland-based company has received a $1.75 million grant from the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology as part of the Technology for Business Growth scheme, which partially funds technically challenging research and development projects.
Chief executive Ross Green said the grant would enable the company to take its motors to the next level.
"It's going to make the electronics and the software just disappear into the product.
"For most customers, once we deploy these new designs that we're doing, they really won't know unless they absolutely want to that there's electronics there at all. This is actually a long held goal for the advanced electric motor industry."
Green said the company has been doing preliminary work on these new motors for the past nine months, but additional funding was needed to start major development.
The work falls into the sphere of Advanced Fabrication, which moves electronics construction beyond printed circuit boards to specially designed silicon devices. It has enabled sophisticated consumer products such as mobile phones to appear on the market in recent years.
The company's motors are used in equipment such as refrigeration units, vending machines and ventilation systems. The electric motors use less steel and copper and a third of the energy of conventional motors.
