Battery Cap Assembly Guide Member for Full Safety Vent Opening

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Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional cylindrical battery safety vents do not fully open to secure a wide gas exhaust path when internal pressure increases, leading to difficulties in rapid gas release, and require welding to prevent escape, complicating manufacturing.

Innovation Solution

A cap assembly with a guide member attached to the cap plate inside the battery can, which prevents the safety vent's ruptured portion from escaping and ensures a wide gas exhaust path by completely separating the safety vent's bent portions, eliminating the need for welding.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If welding is used to prevent safety vent escape, then reliability is improved, but device complexity and manufacturing difficulty increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvesafety vent containmentVSAvoidmanufacturing process complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

A guide member is introduced as an intermediary component between the cap plate and the safety vent. This guide member prevents the safety vent from escaping laterally after rupture by providing a guiding path, eliminating the need for welding while maintaining reliability.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The cap assembly is segmented into distinct functional components: the cap plate, the safety vent, and the guide member. This segmentation allows each component to perform its specific function independently, with the guide member specifically tasked with preventing escape, thereby simplifying the overall manufacturing process.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

2Productivity

If safety vent is completely separated, then gas exhaust efficiency is improved, but safety vent may escape and collide with cap plate

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvegas exhaust efficiencyVSAvoidsafety vent collision hazard
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The guide member serves as a mediator that allows the safety vent to be completely separated for efficient gas exhaust while simultaneously preventing it from escaping laterally and colliding with the cap plate. The guide member provides a controlled path for the safety vent.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The guide member extends in a direction perpendicular to the main gas exhaust path, providing lateral constraint in a different dimension. This allows the safety vent to move freely in the vertical dimension for gas exhaust while being constrained in the horizontal dimension to prevent collision.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

Data Source

PatentEP3565027B1Cap assembly comprising guide member for preventing escape of safety vent
Publication Date: 2023.09.13 LG ENERGY SOLUTION LTD
  • EP3565027B1 patent drawingFigure 1~2
  • EP3565027B1 patent drawingFigure 3~4
  • EP3565027B1 patent drawingFigure 5~6

AI summary

Disclosed herein is a cap assembly loaded on an open upper end part of a cylindrical can of a battery, the battery being configured to have a structure in which an electrode assembly is mounted in the cylindrical can, the cap assembly including a safety vent configured to rupture in order to exhaust gas when the interior pressure of the battery increases, an upward-protrusion type cap plate loaded on the upper part of the safety vent, the cap plate being provided with a through-opening, through which gas is exhausted, a current interrupt member attached to the lower end of the safety vent for interrupting electric current when the interior pressure of the battery increases, and a guide member attached to the inside of the cap plate for preventing escape of a ruptured portion of the safety vent, which is ruptured as a result of an increase in the interior pressure of the battery.