Battery Busbar Assembly With Integrated Gas Venting Channels
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing battery pack designs suffer from inefficiencies in volume, weight, and cost due to redundant mechanical structures, and there is a need for improved integration of battery cells as load-bearing components while ensuring electrical isolation and efficient gas evacuation during thermal events.
Innovation Solution
A busbar assembly with elongated support structure and central ridges that provides adhesive connections to the battery pack casing, forming gas channels for efficient gas evacuation and preventing sideways expansion, while integrating the battery cells as structural components.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If a traditional busbar carrier with large plastic subassembly is used, then electrical isolation and conductor support are achieved, but volume efficiency decreases and weight increases
Solution Approach 1:
The busbar support structure is merged directly with the casing, eliminating the separate busbar carrier subassembly. The casing itself provides both mechanical support and electrical isolation functions through integrated ridges and adhesive bonding, reducing overall component count and volume.
Solution Approach 2:
The casing serves multiple functions simultaneously: it provides mechanical protection, structural support, electrical isolation, and busbar mounting. The integrated ridges on the casing perform both structural reinforcement and busbar support functions, eliminating the need for dedicated carrier components.
2Weight of stationary object
If battery cells are integrated as load-bearing structural components, then weight and volume efficiency improve, but mechanical connection requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
Traditional mechanical fasteners connecting battery cells to the casing are replaced with adhesive bonding. The adhesive provides both mechanical strength and sealing functions, eliminating the need for separate mechanical connection elements while maintaining structural integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
The solution uses composite construction where the casing, adhesive layer, and battery cell terminals work together as an integrated structural system. The adhesive acts as a bonding layer that transfers mechanical loads between the casing and battery cells, creating a composite structure that achieves both weight reduction and mechanical strength.
3Strength
If adhesive connection is used to bond casing to battery cells, then mechanical strength and sealing improve, but manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The casing is pre-formed with integrated ridges and adhesive application surfaces during the casing manufacturing process. This preliminary preparation ensures consistent adhesive bonding surfaces and proper positioning features are available before battery cell assembly, reducing the precision requirements during final assembly.
Solution Approach 2:
The adhesive bonding system is designed to be self-aligning and self-leveling, where the adhesive naturally distributes itself to fill gaps and accommodate minor dimensional variations. The integrated ridges on the casing provide self-positioning features that guide the battery cells into correct positions during assembly.
4Productivity
If central ridges and sidewalls form gas channels, then gas evacuation efficiency improves, but structural complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The central ridges and sidewalls serve dual purposes: they provide mechanical structural support for the busbar assembly and simultaneously form gas evacuation channels. The same structural elements that reinforce the casing also create the pathways for gas flow, eliminating the need for separate gas channel components.
Solution Approach 2:
The gas channel function is merged with the structural support ridges. The ridges are designed with specific geometries that create channels between them, combining what would traditionally be separate structural and gas evacuation systems into a single integrated feature.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enhances the structural integrity of the battery pack, prevents buckling and thermal damage, and allows for a compact, lightweight design by integrating battery cells as structural elements.
Implementation Method 1
the sidewalls and the ridges each extending at a cover side from a bottom to a connecting plane and defining a top adhesive surface strip with respective widths Ws, Wc, the strips being situated in said connecting plane and adapted for adhesive connection to a top plate of a battery pack casing
Data Source
AI summary
A busbar assembly includes an elongated support structure witha bottom,two side walls, extending in a length direction (L) along longitudinal sides,two spaced-apart central ridges extending in the length direction (L),a signal line, connected to the support structure between the central ridges,conductor members positioned between the side walls and an adjacent central ridge, adapted for interconnecting terminals of battery cells that are adjacent when seen in the length direction (L). The sidewalls and the ridges each extend at a cover side of the bottom and define top adhesive surface strips with respective widths Ws, Wc, the strips being situated in a connecting plane and adapted for adhesive connection to a top plate of a battery pack casing.