Battery Module Bracket Layout for Terminal Short-Circuit Prevention
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing battery cell stacking configurations are prone to short circuits due to inadequate spacing between terminals, posing safety hazards.
Innovation Solution
A battery module design featuring a bracket with strategically arranged through-holes and protruding portions that increase the distance between terminals, enhance connection areas, and guide terminal placement to prevent short circuits, while also facilitating welding and assembly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If tabs of two adjacent cells are disposed close to each other during stacking, then the compactness of the battery module is improved, but the risk of short circuit between terminals increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a bracket as an intermediary component between adjacent cells. The bracket includes through-holes that guide terminal positioning and protruding portions that act as physical barriers. This intermediary structure maintains safe spacing between terminals of adjacent cells while enabling compact stacking arrangement, thus resolving the contradiction between compactness and short circuit risk.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the terminal positioning and spacing function from the cell stacking process itself and assigns it to a separate bracket component. The bracket takes out the responsibility of maintaining terminal spacing, allowing the cells to be stacked more closely while the bracket ensures terminals remain adequately separated, thereby improving compactness without increasing short circuit risk.
2Reliability
If the distance between through-holes is increased to reduce short circuit risk, then the safety is improved, but the connection area for welding is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by designing the bracket with different structural features at different locations. The through-holes are positioned to provide adequate spacing for safety, while the protruding portions locally extend to maintain or enhance connection areas for welding. This localized structural variation allows the bracket to simultaneously achieve safety through increased distance and adequate welding area through localized material presence.
3Ease of manufacture
If the bracket structure is simplified to reduce manufacturing complexity, then the ease of manufacture is improved, but the ability to guide terminal placement and maintain spacing is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The bracket is designed as a multi-functional component that simultaneously performs several functions: maintaining terminal spacing, guiding terminal placement through through-holes, providing welding surfaces, and acting as a physical barrier between cells. By consolidating multiple functions into a single bracket structure, the design achieves adequate terminal guidance and spacing maintenance without requiring multiple separate components, thus balancing manufacturing simplicity with operational effectiveness.
Data Source
AI summary
A battery module includes multiple cells and a bracket. The multiple cells are stacked along a first direction. Each cell includes a first terminal and a second terminal. The bracket includes multiple groups of through-holes. Each group of through-holes includes a first terminal through-hole and a second terminal through-hole. The first terminal and the second terminal of a same cell pass through the first terminal through-hole and the second terminal through-hole in a same group of through-holes. The multiple groups of through-holes include a first group of through-holes, a second group of through-holes, and third groups of through-holes. Along the first direction, a distance D1 between the first terminal through-hole in the first group of through-holes and the second terminal through-hole in a third group of through-holes adjacent to the first group of through-holes is greater than a distance D3 between two adjacent third groups of through-holes.