Scaling Up: A High-Current BLDC Pump Controller for Demanding Applications
This case study covers a further development of the BLDC pump motor controller platform previously built for a global market-leading pump manufacturer — this time driven not by a request for more features, but by a request for significantly more power. Following strong reception of the earlier, more fully-featured version of the controller, the client came back with a new requirement: a variant of the same platform capable of handling up to 30A running current, a substantial step up from the original design's capability, to allow them to address a more demanding tier of pump applications.
This project is a good illustration of a common trajectory in bespoke motor control work — a successful, well-proven controller platform becoming the foundation for further variants, each extending its reach into new parts of a client's product range, rather than every new requirement triggering a clean-sheet redesign.
Project Background and Objectives
Having already deployed a controller with a deep programmable feature set — analogue input setup, preset speeds, constant-speed-under-load, pulse outputs, current monitoring, and self-optimising setup — the client's next commercial priority wasn't more features. It was more power. Their product range included pumps operating in more demanding applications than the original controller had been designed to serve, and rather than sourcing a different controller platform entirely for that tier of product, the client wanted the same proven control platform, programmability, and behaviour — just capable of driving significantly higher current.
Key objectives for this phase of the project included:
- Increasing the controller's running current capability up to 30A, a major step up from the original design
- Retaining the full programmable feature set of the previous version — analogue input setup, preset speeds, constant speed under changing load, pulse outputs, current monitoring, and self-optimising setup — so customers already familiar with the platform would see no change in how it behaved or was configured
- Ensuring the simple power-on, startup, and run behaviour remained intact for installers who didn't need the advanced feature set
- Managing the increased thermal and power-handling demands that come with a substantial current increase, without compromising the reliability the original design had already established in the field
- Maintaining commonality with the existing platform wherever possible, to minimise the engineering and validation burden of introducing what was, in effect, a new power tier rather than a new product
The initial pump controller platform was such a success that a higher power option was requested
Why Scale an Existing Platform Rather Than Start Again
Once a controller platform has proven itself in the field — reliable, well-received, and already trusted by a client's own customers — there's a strong commercial and technical case for extending it rather than replacing it. The client's request wasn't "build us something different," it was "give us more of what already works." That distinction matters: it meant the underlying control strategy, the programmable feature set, and the commissioning experience customers were already used to could all be carried forward largely unchanged, while the engineering effort from the custom design team concentrated specifically on the power stage.
This approach also reduces risk for the client. A pump manufacturer selling into a global market can't afford unpredictable behaviour from a "new" controller — by scaling a known, trusted platform rather than introducing an unrelated one, the client could offer a higher-power option to their customers with confidence that its behaviour, configuration, and reliability would match what their existing customer base already knew.
Engineering the Step Up to 30A
Increasing running current from the original design up to 30A is not a simple matter of re-rating a few components — it represents a substantial increase in the power the controller's drive stage, PCB, and supporting components all need to handle reliably and continuously. Higher current brings with it greater resistive losses, more heat to manage, and tighter tolerances on the parts of the design responsible for switching and conducting that current cleanly.
Addressing this meant the custom design team revisiting the power stage of the controller specifically — component selection, current path design, and thermal management all had to be reworked to support the new rating, while the control and firmware layers that customers already relied on for programmability and self-optimising setup remained consistent with the earlier version. This separation — treating the power-handling capability and the control/feature layer as distinct concerns — is what allowed the increase in current capability to be delivered without disrupting the parts of the platform that were already proven and trusted.
Preserving the Feature Set That Made the Original Successful
It would have been possible to treat this as an opportunity to simplify the design and offer a lower-cost, feature-reduced controller purely for high-power applications. That wasn't what the client wanted, and it wasn't the approach taken. The full programmable capability of the earlier controller — including the self-optimising setup that had proven so valuable for rapid commissioning across a range of pump models — was carried through into the higher-current version. This meant customers moving to the more powerful variant for demanding applications didn't have to sacrifice any of the configurability or ease of commissioning that had made the original platform successful in the first place.
The new controller took the core principles included in the initial design and scaled them up to a significantly higher current range
Outcome
The result is a higher-power variant of an already-proven controller platform, capable of up to 30A running current, that preserves the full feature set — programmable configuration, constant speed under load, current monitoring, pulse outputs, and self-optimising setup — that had already made the original design successful with the client's customer base. Rather than requiring the client to introduce and support a separate controller family for their more demanding applications, this development extended the reach of a single trusted platform into a new power tier.
This project reflects one of the clearer commercial benefits of a well-engineered bespoke controller platform: once proven, it becomes a foundation that can be extended to meet new requirements — whether that's more features, as with the earlier redevelopment, or more power, as here — without the client having to start from zero each time their product range grows.ng here...