QUANTUM, e-AAM Included in Motor Trend ‘Promising Technologies’ List

Published on April 27, 2017

e-AAM e-RDM

Looking for scientific and manufacturing advances that promise to brighten the collective automobility future, the Motor Trend team visited the recent WCX17: SAE World Congress Experience show looking for exciting future technologies.

Their list of 12 technologies worth talking about included two AAM advanced technologies – QUANTUM™ and e-AAM™.

QUANTUM lightweight & efficient axle technology is scalable across a wide range of vehicle segments and provides substantial advantages regardless of vehicle size including reduced mass, increased power density, improved noise vibration and harshness (NVH) and efficiency gains in a more compact system package.

“This concept axle comprehensively rearranges the gears and bearings in a typical rear-drive axle to achieve a 20 percent increase in torque density with a 30-percent reduction in mass. It’s also smaller and more modular because many components and half the housing can remain the same while the other half provides the option of open gearing, electric or mechanical locking, or even torque vectoring,” according to Motor Trend.

“Cake icing: The shims that are used in a traditional axle to ensure that the hypoid gears are installed precisely for optimum durability and NVH get ash-canned while noise drops by 5 dB. AAM is in talks with several OEs targeting production in or before 2021.”

e-AAM hybrid and electric driveline systems deliver increased fuel efficiency, decreased tail pipe emissions and improvements in dynamic safety, acceleration and eAWD traction.

“Plenty of vehicles boast combustion front-wheel drive with an electric rear axle, but the e-AAM unit adds an interesting twist—to the outside wheel in a turn. Yes, there’s a torque-vectoring mode, but it works differently than most. The motor connects to the axle with a single-speed gear reduction of between 9:1 and 11:1, but there’s also a planetary gear set that enables three modes: neutral (to disconnect the electric motor at high speeds or when it’s not needed), open-differential mode, and torque-vectoring mode,” said Motor Trend.

“In this mode, spinning the motor in one direction or the other biases torque to the outside wheel in right- or left-hand turns. Note that the e-AAM isn’t providing any propulsion per se during such a torque-vectoring application.

AAM has another version in the works, which adds a second electric motor to permit simultaneous propulsion and torque vectoring. The system is not yet in production, but more than one OEM is working to bring the concept to production in one of its many size and torque capacities.”

To read the full article, visit: http://www.motortrend.com/news/12-future-car-technologies-sae-world-congress/.

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