Battery Contact Adapter and Busbar for Reversible Plugged Packs
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for connecting a plurality of battery cells, such as welding or gluing, are inefficient, costly, and lack reversibility, particularly for battery packs with more than 1000 cells, in terms of process time, post-processing, and quality.
Innovation Solution
A contacting system comprising a contact adapter and busbar that allows for a plug connection between batteries, enabling a modular and compact design with a serial connection, using a central and peripheral contact adapter to change the contacting direction from axial to radial, and a busbar with bending portions to compensate for height differences, allowing for easy adaptation and tolerance compensation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If welding or gluing is used to connect battery cells, then electrical connection is achieved, but process time increases and reversibility is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The connection system is segmented into modular components: contact adapters attached to individual battery terminals and busbars for interconnection. This allows independent assembly and disassembly of battery cells without requiring time-consuming welding or gluing processes, while maintaining reliable electrical connections through the modular contact structure.
Solution Approach 2:
Contact adapters serve as intermediary components between battery terminals and busbars. These adapters provide a standardized interface that enables quick connection and disconnection, eliminating the need for direct welding or gluing between battery cells and busbars, thereby reducing process time while maintaining connection reliability.
2Reliability
If welding or gluing is used to connect battery cells, then electrical connection is achieved, but reversibility is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The connection system transitions from static permanent connections (welding/gluing) to dynamic reversible connections. The contact adapters and busbars are designed to be easily assembled and disassembled, allowing the battery pack configuration to be changed, reconfigured, or repaired without permanent damage, thereby providing full reversibility while maintaining reliable electrical connections.
Solution Approach 2:
By segmenting the connection system into separate, standardized components (contact adapters and busbars), the design enables reversible connections that can be easily assembled and disassembled. This modular approach allows for reconfiguration of battery packs and recovery of individual cells, providing adaptability and versatility that permanent connections cannot offer.
3Adaptability or versatility
If contact adapters are added to battery terminals, then contacting direction can be changed from axial to radial, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of changing the battery terminal orientation or the busbar approach direction, the contact adapters invert the contacting direction by providing a radial contact interface on the battery terminal. This allows the busbar to approach from a convenient direction while the adapter handles the direction transformation, achieving flexibility without significantly increasing overall system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The contact adapters are designed as universal components that can be attached to standard battery terminals and provide multiple contact directions. This multi-functional adapter serves both as a terminal extension and a direction converter, reducing the need for specialized components for different contact configurations and thereby limiting the increase in device complexity.
4Manufacturing precision
If busbar with bending portions is used, then height differences can be compensated, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The busbar design incorporates bending portions that change the geometric parameters of the busbar profile. These bends allow the busbar to accommodate height differences between battery cells by adjusting its own shape, providing precision in height compensation while using a relatively simple manufacturing process of bending a conductive strip, rather than requiring complex multi-component assemblies.
Data Source
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AI summary
The present invention relates to a contacting system (10), a contact adapter (100) and a busbar (200). The contact adapter comprises a central contact adapter (110) extending in the axial direction (A) and having a bottom surface (112) for attachment to a central terminal (1110) of the battery (1100), an opposite tip (114) for passing through a central contact opening of the busbar (200), wherein the tip (114) rises from the bottom surface (112) to a central contact height (Hz), and a side surface extending between the tip (114) and the bottom surface (112) having a central contacting portion (118) for contacting a central terminal (218) of the central contact opening (222) of the busbar (200) in a radial direction (R). Further, the contact adapter comprises a peripheral contact adapter (120) for arranging around the central contact adapter (110), the peripheral contact adapter (120) having a bottom plate (122) for attaching to an annular terminal (1120) of the battery (1100) and a hollow contact cylinder (124), which rises in the axial direction (A) from the bottom plate (122) to a peripheral contact height (Hp), having a peripheral contacting portion (128) for contacting a peripheral terminal (228) of a peripheral contact opening (220) of the bus bar (200) in the radial direction (R). The central contact height (Hz) is greater than the peripheral contact height (Hp).