Fork-Shaped Sealing Material for Thin Plate Battery Cells
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional sealing structures for secondary batteries, such as fuel cells, require complex and costly production steps, increased weight, and reduced cell capacity due to the need for multiple seal grooves and sealing materials, complicating assembly and increasing the size and weight of the device.
Innovation Solution
A thinner, annular sealing material with fork-shaped sealing legs on the front and back surfaces and a lateral sealing body that eliminates the need for seal grooves, providing double sealing and facilitating easier assembly while reducing weight and cost, and allowing for more cells to be stacked.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple seal grooves and sealing materials are used, then sealing reliability is improved, but device complexity and manufacturing cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The invention merges multiple sealing functions into a single integrated sealing member. This sealing member includes a sealing body with first and second sealing portions that perform multiple sealing operations simultaneously, eliminating the need for separate seal grooves and multiple sealing materials. The consolidation reduces structural complexity while maintaining comprehensive sealing coverage.
Solution Approach 2:
The sealing member is designed with multi-functionality, where a single component performs both first and second sealing functions. The sealing body incorporates both sealing portions that can address different sealing requirements in various regions, making one component serve multiple purposes and reducing the overall number of parts needed.
2Reliability
If multiple seal grooves are formed on cell frames, then sealing performance is improved, but manufacturing cost and production steps increase
Solution Approach 1:
The invention consolidates multiple sealing operations into a single sealing member that can be applied in one manufacturing step. The sealing body with its multiple sealing portions replaces the need for forming multiple seal grooves on cell frames, thereby reducing the number of production steps and lowering manufacturing costs while maintaining effective sealing.
3Reliability
If multiple sealing materials are attached to seal grooves, then sealing coverage is improved, but assembly complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention combines multiple sealing materials into a single integrated sealing member. This sealing member includes both sealing portions that provide comprehensive sealing coverage, eliminating the need to attach multiple separate sealing materials to different grooves. The unified structure simplifies the assembly process while ensuring complete sealing coverage.
4Reliability
If cell frames are thickened to accommodate seal grooves, then sealing capacity is improved, but device weight and size increase
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the sealing function from the cell frame structure itself. Instead of incorporating seal grooves into the cell frames (which would require thickening them), the sealing function is transferred to a separate sealing member. This allows the cell frames to remain thin and lightweight while still achieving effective sealing through the attached sealing member.
Data Source
AI summary
There is provided a sealing material for a thin plate member which eliminates the need to form seal grooves as in prior art when applied to a thin plate member such as a cell of a secondary battery such as a redox flow battery, a fuel cell and a lead storage battery, and which provides satisfactory sealing and can compactify and reduce in weight a device to be used and facilitate assembling with reduced cost as well as allowing more cells to be stacked resulting in improving fuel capacity. The annular sealing material for a thin plate member that provides sealing between thin plate members includes a lateral sealing body disposed on a lateral of the thin plate member, and a pair of sealing legs branching from the lateral sealing body in a fork shape and disposed on the front surface and the back surface of the thin plate member.