Schaeffler set to head ReDriveS research project for sustainable and circular use of electric axle drives

Schaeffler is coordinating the lighthouse project ReDriveS – funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy – with 25 partners from industry, SMEs, and academia. The objective of the project is to develop an industrial, automated, and scalable recycling concept for electric axle drive systems – from non-destructive disassembly to innovative recycling processes and digital data use.

ReDriveS has a project volume of over €25 million, with total funding exceeding €16 million. The project will run for a period of 36 months and will play a key role in driving sustainable transformation in the mobility and automotive industry.

Prof. Dr. Tim Hosenfeldt, Head of Central Technologies at Schaeffler AG, says: “With ReDriveS, we are launching a key project for the circular economy in electric mobility as consortium leader, together with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and strong partners. Our goal is to make electric axle drives significantly more resource-efficient through digital twins, automated disassembly, and high-quality recycling – thereby securing raw materials and supply chains, reducing CO₂ emissions, and strengthening Germany as a location overall.”

Through robot-guided non-destructive disassembly of electric axle drives, Schaeffler aims to pave the way for an ecologically and economically sound manufacturer-independent circular material flow for valuable materials – something that is not yet happening for electric axle drives. Rare earths in magnets, as well as copper, aluminum, steel, and electronic components, play an especially important role. The scalable disassembly concept will support the repair of the axle drive, the reuse of subcomponents, or their recycling. An evaluation matrix processes information about the condition and geometry of the respective electric axle drives and will be able to derive economic disassembly scenarios for the disassembly robot.

Schaeffler’s second key task alongside project management is to develop a demonstrator linked to a digital twin that collects and processes data over the entire lifecycle of an electric axle drive. Depending on the condition of the electric axle drive components, the electric axle drive can be dismantled only into its main units (typically: motor, inverter, transmission) or broken down to component level (for recycling). The generic digital twin created in the project can be used independently of manufacturer. Regarding further market development of electric axle drives as a cornerstone of sustainable mobility, ReDriveS will also develop new data-based business models for axle drives. The digital twin is an important prerequisite for this as well.