Linear Bus Bar Battery Assembly Thermal Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing battery pack designs with bus bars at both ends of cylindrical cells hinder efficient thermal management and introduce manufacturing complexities and reliability issues due to parasitic resistance and complex assembly processes.
Innovation Solution
A compact battery assembly design featuring non-overlapping, linear bus bars of alternating polarity attached to an upper tray member, with access apertures for terminals, and a battery separating member with six-sided cavities, allowing efficient electrical connections and thermal management without contact fingers, and using wire bonds for interconnects.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If bus bars are connected to the bottoms of the cells, then electrical connections are established, but the cooling system operation is hindered and manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of connecting bus bars to the bottoms of the cells as in conventional designs, this patent inverts the approach by connecting all bus bars to the tops of the cells only. This inversion eliminates the need for bottom connections, simplifying the cooling system design and assembly process while maintaining reliable electrical connections through the use of interconnectors that bridge between cells at the top level.
2Reliability
If wire interconnects are used to connect bottoms of cells to bus bars, then electrical connections are made, but parasitic resistance increases and manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
This patent extracts and eliminates the wire interconnects that were previously used to connect the bottoms of cells to bus bars. By removing these wire connections entirely and replacing them with direct mechanical interconnectors between adjacent cells at the top level, the design eliminates the parasitic resistance associated with wire connections while reducing manufacturing complexity and cost.
3Power
If bus bars are positioned at both ends of cells, then electrical distribution is achieved, but thermal management efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
This patent inverts the conventional bus bar positioning by placing all bus bars at the tops of the cells rather than at both ends. This repositioning allows cooling channels to be implemented at the bottoms of the cells without obstruction, significantly improving thermal management efficiency while electrical power distribution is maintained through the top-mounted bus bar configuration that connects to all cells uniformly.
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
This design simplifies the assembly process, reduces material and fabrication costs, minimizes parasitic resistance, and enables efficient thermal management by allowing heat sinks to be attached without obstructing coolant flow, enhancing the reliability and efficiency of the battery pack.
Implementation Method 1
where the wire bonds may utilize a bonding technique selected from the group consisting of ultrasonic bonding, resistance bonding, thermocompression bonding and thermosonic bonding
Data Source
AI summary
A battery assembly utilizing a compact and robust bus bar configuration is provided. The batteries within the assembly are divided into groups, where the batteries within each battery group are connected in parallel and the groups are connected in series. The batteries are interconnected using a repetitive sequence of non-overlapping, alternating polarity bus bars. The bus bars, which are integrated into a battery assembly upper tray member, are devoid of contact fingers and positioned such that there is a single bus bar located adjacent to either side of each battery group.