Battery Module Resin Filling for Impact and Thermal Runaway Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional battery modules face challenges in impact resistance and safety, particularly in preventing chain fires and thermal runaway, due to gaps that allow movement and heat transfer between battery cells, limiting their directional installation and increasing the risk of adjacent cell explosions.
Innovation Solution
A battery module design featuring a resin layer that fills empty spaces around the battery cells and busbars, a thermally conductive pad for heat dissipation, and strategically placed space portions in the pad to contain and dissipate heat and gases, allowing for flexible installation directions and enhanced safety.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If empty spaces are provided around battery cells and busbars, then ease of assembly is improved, but impact resistance deteriorates and parts can move
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a resin layer that fills the empty spaces around battery cells and busbars, changing the physical state from air-filled voids to solid-filled spaces. This eliminates part movement while maintaining assembly ease, as the resin can be injected to fill gaps without requiring precise pre-positioning of components.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses a composite structure combining the rigid battery cells and busbars with the flexible resin matrix. The resin acts as a bonding medium that mechanically couples components together, providing both structural support and impact resistance while allowing for tolerance accommodation in the assembly process.
2Stability of the object's composition
If gaps are maintained between battery cells, then thermal expansion is accommodated, but heat transfer between cells increases
Solution Approach 1:
The resin layer serves as a thermal intermediary between battery cells. Rather than leaving direct air gaps that facilitate convective heat transfer, the resin provides controlled thermal conduction paths while maintaining physical separation. The resin's thermal conductivity can be engineered to balance heat dissipation with thermal isolation of individual cells.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the thermal management approach by replacing air gaps with resin-filled spaces. The resin's thermal properties can be tuned through material selection to provide optimal heat transfer characteristics, allowing thermal expansion accommodation while controlling heat flow between cells through parameter optimization of the resin material.
3Manufacturing precision
If wire bonding is used for electrical connection, then manufacturing precision is improved, but device complexity increases due to rib structures and empty spaces
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the electrical connection function with the structural support function. The resin layer simultaneously provides mechanical support for wires and busbars while enabling electrical connections through wire bonding. This eliminates the need for separate rib structures and empty space provisions, reducing overall device complexity while maintaining manufacturing precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The resin layer performs multiple functions: it provides structural support, enables wire bonding access, protects electrical connections, and manages thermal flow. This multi-functionality eliminates the need for dedicated structural ribs and empty spaces, simplifying the overall device design while maintaining precise electrical connections through wire bonding.
4Manufacturing precision
If battery cells are arranged in fixed orientation, then manufacturing precision is improved, but adaptability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The resin layer changes the boundary conditions for battery cell arrangement by providing a compliant, fillable medium rather than rigid fixed positions. This allows battery cells to be installed in various orientations while maintaining precise electrical connections through wire bonding, as the resin adapts to the final configuration and provides uniform support regardless of installation direction.
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
The solution enhances impact resistance and safety by preventing part movement, allowing flexible installation, rapid heat dissipation, and minimizing the transfer of heat and gases between cells, thereby reducing the risk of chain fires and improving overall module stability.
Implementation Method 1
a resin layer (700) provided above the battery cells (300)... the resin layer (700) may be provided so as to be brought into completely tight contact with upper surfaces of the battery cells (300), the busbars (400), the wires (500), and the rib structure (600)
Implementation Method 2
a thermally conductive pad for heat dissipation
Data Source
AI summary
A battery module has improved impact resistance and safety and a battery pack including the same. The battery module includes a first case having a receiving space, a plurality of battery cells received in the receiving space in an upright state such that a positive electrode terminal of each of the battery cells faces upwards, one or more busbars located in the vicinity of the positive electrode terminals of the battery cells, a wire configured to electrically connect each of the battery cells and a corresponding one of the busbars to each other, a rib structure located above the battery cells, the rib structure being provided with an upwardly protruding rib configured to protect the wire and an opening configured to allow the wire to extend therethrough, and a resin layer provided above the battery cells, and a battery pack including the same.