Method and apparatus for mounting, cooling, connecting and protecting batteries

Abstract

A system and method mounts batteries in a substrate or insert to a substrate, electrically connects them via a set of conductors, and cools them using air, or cooling tubes having a flow of air or coolant running in opposite directions past each of the batteries.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention is related to battery systems and more specifically to systems containing multiple batteries. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Portable electric devices can make use of batteries as a source of power. For example, conventional lithium-ion batteries may be used to power portable or mobile devices. [0003] Conventional batteries generate significant heat from their cores. Exposing a battery to heat can significantly shorten its life, and thus, it is desirable to dissipate the heat from a battery. [0004] To obtain higher current, voltage, or both, from a battery, the battery can be made larger. However, as batteries become larger in size, the ratio of surface area to volume decreases, causing the battery to retain more heat, decreasing its life. As a result, a standard size battery has been developed, referred to as “18650”, having dimensions of 18 millimeters by 65 millimeters. Because standard sized batteries can be less expensive ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0014] A system and method sandwiches batteries between a rigid substrate that can distribute force across multiple batteries or other structures such as walls placed among the batteries, making them less likely to be crushed when resisting a force applied to the substrate. The substrate can be shaped to approximately fit the cross section of the available space, maximizing the use of the available space. Multiple conductors connected to the batteries via holes in the substrate draw power as well as connect the batteries in parallel, series, or both, to provide the proper current and voltage. However, the holes in the substrate are designed to lessen the likelihood that the conductor connected to the positive terminal will be shorted to the negative body of the battery in the event a force is applied that brings the batteries closer to any of the conductors. Cooling may be accomplished via air cooling or water cooling. Air may be blown among the batteries via holes in the substrates and conductors, and optionally an insert with mounts for the batteries containing integrated air holes to save space. Alternatively, o...

Problems solved by technology

However, as batteries become larger in size, the ratio of surface area to volume decreases, causing the battery to retain more heat, decreasing its life.

Assembling banks of batteries in a plastic housing can be cumbersome and bulky, so one manufacturer has built banks of conventional batteries in an alternative fashion by gluing batteries together in a side-by-side stack, like stacked firewood, and then connecting the terminals in each battery in the stack using a flexible nickel reed.

However, there are significant problems with this technique.

One such problem is that each of the stacks is not physically stable, because the form factor of each battery is not perfectly cylindrical.

Instead, each battery is slightly conical, and so the ends of each of the batteries in a stack can shift slightly, causing the joints between the batteries to fail.

This makes the glued stacks approach particularly unsuitable for environments in which significant vibration can occur, such as automotive applications.

The narrower ends of the batteries can be wrapped with tape to even out the diameter of each end of the batteries, but such wrapping is labor intensive, prone to error and subject to failure.

Another problem with stacks of glued batteries is mechanical strength.

If the end of a single battery is crushed, the chemicals in the battery can be compressed, causing a short circuit or other reaction that can heat the battery to an extent that a thermal runaway occurs, in which the heat from the initial reaction causes a thermal reaction to become self sustaining and propagate until the battery fails.

The heat from the battery can cause the adjacent batteries to incur the same thermal reaction until many or all of the batteries in the stack have failed.

Turning the batteries on their sides like stacks of firewood can make the problem worse in certain environments, such as when the stack has a large numbe...

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