Composite Battery Shell for Lightweight Puncture Resistance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing battery shells for electric vehicles face challenges in providing robust and lightweight protection for high-mass battery modules under high acceleration and in withstanding potential accidents, as they require a balance between weight and puncture resistance.
Innovation Solution
A battery shell with a reinforcing nonwoven of long fibers embedded in a polymer matrix, produced using a pressing method that allows for complex geometries and homogeneous material distribution, enhancing stiffness and puncture resistance while maintaining a low weight, and optionally incorporating metal inserts for secure fastening.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional battery housing structures are used to store high mass of battery modules under high acceleration, then the housing provides robust protection, but the housing mass increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The battery shell is constructed as a composite component consisting of a polymer matrix (thermoplastic or thermosetting plastic) combined with a reinforcing nonwoven made of long fibers (glass fiber, carbon fiber, aramid fiber, or steel fiber). This composite structure provides high strength and puncture resistance while maintaining low weight, resolving the contradiction between protection capability and housing mass.
2Strength
If the battery shell uses a reinforcing nonwoven of long fibers in a polymer matrix, then stiffness and puncture resistance are improved, but the manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The battery shell is produced as a monolithic composite component in a single manufacturing step using compression molding or injection molding. The polymer matrix and reinforcing nonwoven are combined and molded together in one process, eliminating the need for separate assembly steps and reducing manufacturing complexity despite the advanced composite material structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The manufacturing process utilizes controlled parameter changes including temperature (to melt and flow the polymer matrix), pressure (to compress and form the composite structure), and time (for cooling and solidification). These parameter changes enable the complex composite structure to be formed efficiently in a single molding operation.
3Manufacturing precision
If a pressing method is used to produce the battery shell with complex geometries, then the homogeneous material distribution is achieved, but the manufacturing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The reinforcing nonwoven is pre-formed and positioned within the molding cavity before the polymer matrix is introduced. This preliminary arrangement ensures that the fibers are properly distributed and oriented before molding begins, allowing for homogeneous material distribution to be achieved during the single compression or injection molding cycle without requiring additional post-processing steps.
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 achieves a robust and lightweight battery shell with improved tensile strength and puncture resistance, effectively protecting battery modules and ensuring secure fastening, even under varying load conditions.
Implementation Method 1
a reinforcing nonwoven is a structure of long fibers of irregular orientation bonded together by means of adhesion amidst a crystalline and/or molten polymer matrix
Implementation Method 2
As soon as the molding compound solidifies in the pressing tool, it binds the long fibers, resulting in a battery shell that has a comparatively homogeneously distributed reinforcing nonwoven
Data Source
AI summary
A battery shell includes a reinforcing nonwoven with long fibers and a polymer matrix.