Battery Module With Protrusion Contact Plates
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing battery modules composed of round cells face challenges in achieving high energy density relative to weight, volume, and production costs while ensuring safety from explosion risks and maintaining operational lifespan, due to limitations in current and voltage distribution and the complexity of welding connections.
Innovation Solution
A battery module design featuring round cells arranged in series with contact plates having protrusions that press onto the cell poles without welding, ensuring uniform current and voltage distribution through non-integral contact, allowing for easy and cost-effective production and reducing the need for complex cooling and management systems.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If round cells are connected by welding conductor wires to conductor rails, then electrical connection is achieved, but device complexity and manufacturing cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The contact plate integrates multiple functions: it serves as both the electrical conductor and the mechanical support structure. The protrusions on the contact plate directly contact the cell poles, eliminating the need for separate conductor wires and rails, thus reducing device complexity while maintaining reliable electrical connection
Solution Approach 2:
The contact plate performs multiple functions simultaneously: it provides electrical connection, mechanical support, and structural alignment. This multi-functional design replaces the traditional multi-component connection system (conductor wires + conductor rails + mounting structures), simplifying the overall device while ensuring reliable electrical connectivity
2Temperature
If cooling lines are passed through between round cells, then overheating is prevented, but device complexity and manufacturing cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling system is extracted from the traditional complex piping infrastructure and simplified to flat cooling lines that can be directly integrated between cell layers. This extraction approach maintains effective heat removal while dramatically reducing system complexity and manufacturing cost
Solution Approach 2:
Cooling lines are positioned locally between specific cell layers where heat generation is most intense. This localized cooling approach provides effective temperature control only where needed, eliminating the need for comprehensive complex cooling systems while maintaining thermal management effectiveness
3Power
If intermediate switch lines are used to interconnect battery blocks, then high voltage is achieved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The contact plates serve dual purposes: they provide local electrical connection within cell stacks and simultaneously function as intermediate switch lines for interconnecting battery blocks in series. This merging of functions eliminates the need for separate intermediate switch lines, achieving high voltage output while reducing interconnection structure complexity
Data Source
AI summary
A battery module has a plurality of round cells of identical dimensions, nominal charge capacity and voltage. They are grouped into a series of round cell stacks which are arranged one behind the other in a row and which all consist of an identical plurality of round cells which lie in each round cell stack axis-parallel to the stack row direction, adjacent and atop each other, in identical position in the stack row direction. There are contact plates arranged between adjacent round cell stacks, which electrically connect the round cells of each round cell stack in parallel to the poles thereof situated in the stack row direction. All round cells are arranged in such a way that all identical electrical poles face in the same direction and form a plurality of aligned round cell rows. The contact plates have protrusions of identical dimensions, each contacting a pole of a round cell but which are not integrally connected to the pole, such that all round cell poles are contacted via one of the protrusions. The contact plates are electrically conductive on the protrusions and in flat sections between the protrusions. A pole plate contacts the end-side contact plate on each of the two ends of the round cell stack row, and said pole plates are thicker-walled relative to the contact plates.