Lommel, Belgium

 

Flanders Make is the strategic research centre for the manufacturing industry. The roots of Flanders Make can be traced back to 2001 and to 2003 when respectively Flanders’ Drive and Flanders Mechatronics Technology Centre (FMTC) were established. Flanders Make is continuing the mission of Flanders’ Drive and FMTC as a bridge between the academic and industrial know-how in mechatronics, manufacturing and automotive sectors. From our sites all over Flanders, we stimulate open innovation through excellent research. As we bring together companies and research institutions, we help realise concrete product and production innovations in the vehicle industry, in complex electro-mechanical products and in production environments. Our goal is to contribute to the technological development of the vehicles, machines, and factories of the future. By doing so, we create added value for the manufacturing industry. Together we help companies innovate better and faster. In addition, we attach great importance to international cooperation in the field of innovation and to participation in European research projects.

 

Within the MotionS core lab, Flanders Make has built up an extensive experience in battery related activities such as battery systems architectural design, battery pack design and construction, design and integration of advanced thermal management systems, as well as battery state estimation and BMS. This is supported by extensive battery cell & pack testing capabilities, as well as MIL-SIL-HIL testing infrastructure for electrical drives, powertrains, and vehicles.

 

Additionally, Flanders Make has built up an industrial DC rapid prototyping setup to test novel DC microgrid hardware components, voltage stability and energy management systems (EMS) in a multi-vendor setting. The setup serves as a small-scale setup for future DC powered factories. It forms an increasingly important link between mechanical energy, inertia in large motors or potential energy, and energy storage, two domains which have been historically of great interest to FM. This trend has already been started with the electrification of vehicles at FM, but can now be expanded towards bigger clusters of machines, storage devices, renewables and grid connections, providing ever greater challenges for the EMS.