Modular Profile Seal with Corner Connectors for Battery Housing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current sealing solutions for large-format battery housings and other applications face challenges in flexibility, adaptability, and cost-effectiveness, particularly for small to medium quantities, as they require expensive tools and result in material waste and limited tolerance compensation, making them unsuitable for repeated opening and varying dimensions.
Innovation Solution
A modular seal system using connected profile seals and corner connectors that allow for flexible design and tolerance compensation, enabling secure sealing across varying dimensions and repeated openings without damage, and can be optimized for different stiffness and materials to suit specific applications.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If profile seals are manually cut to length, then small quantities can be produced without expensive tools, but high tolerances and sealing problems occur at corners
Solution Approach 1:
The seal is divided into multiple profile seal segments that are connected at corners using corner connectors. This segmentation allows each segment to be manufactured separately with standard tolerances, while the corner connectors provide precise alignment and sealing at the critical corner joints, eliminating the need for high-precision manual cutting of continuous profiles.
Solution Approach 2:
Corner connectors serve as intermediary components that join profile seal segments at corners. These connectors compensate for tolerance accumulations from manual cutting and provide the precise geometric control needed for sealing, acting as a mediator between the manually-cut segments and the sealing requirement.
2Reliability
If profile seals are attached over corners, then continuous sealing is achieved, but material displacement impairs sealing properties
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of forcing a continuous profile seal over a corner (which causes material displacement), the seal is segmented into straight sections connected by corner connectors. This avoids the material displacement problem while maintaining continuous sealing through the corner connector's sealing elements.
Solution Approach 2:
Rather than bending the profile seal around the corner (traditional approach), the corner connector is designed with the sealing elements that actively engage with the housing corners, inverting the approach from passive bending to active sealing engagement.
3Ease of manufacture
If flat gaskets are manufactured for small quantities, then material waste occurs and profile adaptation is difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The seal system uses standardized profile seal segments that can be easily cut to different lengths and combined with corner connectors to create seals for various housing sizes and shapes. This modular approach enables small-quantity production without material waste while maintaining full adaptability to different profiles.
Solution Approach 2:
The system allows easy adjustment of seal parameters (length, number of segments) by simply changing the configuration of modular components rather than manufacturing entirely different profiles, enabling adaptation to different applications without retooling.
4Duration of action of stationary object
If elastomers are stored for extended periods, then shrinkage occurs reducing sealing effectiveness
Solution Approach 1:
The profile seal segments are cut to length shortly before use rather than being pre-cut and stored, eliminating the shrinkage problem. The modular design allows for just-in-time preparation of seal segments.
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 modular seal system provides reliable, flexible sealing that adapts to dimensional variations and tolerances, ensuring long-term functionality and cost-effectiveness, even in small to medium quantities, while maintaining IP67 and IP68 protection standards.
Implementation Method 1
Profile seals allow optimal mechanical design with regard to pressure or setting behavior. This makes it possible, for example, to reduce the distance between fastening screws without having to expect mechanical tension between two components.
Implementation Method 2
The purpose of the battery housing is to protect the internal components from the environment. In particular, the penetration of water or other conductive liquids into the battery housing is harmful
Implementation Method 3
at least two profile seals are connected to one another by a corner connector at one of their ends
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3~4
AI summary
A seal (2) for a housing, in particular for a battery housing or for another electrochemical energy storage device, comprising a base body (5), wherein the base body (5) has profile seals (6) with profiled sealing surfaces (7) and wherein the profile seals (6) have first ends (6a) and second ends (6b), is characterized, with regard to the objective of providing a modular seal which combines the advantages of a profile seal with those of a flexible structure, in that at least two profile seals (6) are connected to each other by a corner connector (8) at each of their ends (6a, 6b).