Patterned Battery Exterior Material for Flexible Bending Durability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Flexible batteries face durability issues due to repetitive bending, which can lead to damage of the exterior material, electrolyte leakage, and reduced capacity, necessitating a pattern processing method to disperse compressive stress and improve bending durability.
Innovation Solution
The exterior material of flexible batteries is patterned in the machine direction (MD) to enhance the fatigue life and minimize damage at the edge portions, thereby improving bending durability and safety.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a conventional coating method is used to form a pattern on the exterior material, then the manufacturing process is simple, but the pattern recognition accuracy is insufficient to distinguish identical patterns
Solution Approach 1:
The coating method applies different properties to different regions of the exterior material. Specifically, the patent uses a first coating material with different refractive index and/or absorption coefficient than the base material, creating local optical property variations that form machine-readable patterns. This local differentiation enables precise pattern recognition while maintaining manufacturing simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes optical property changes (analogous to color changes) by applying coating materials with different refractive indices and absorption coefficients. These optical property variations create detectable patterns that can be distinguished by recognition devices, effectively using optical 'color' differentiation to encode information on the exterior material.
2Stability of the object's composition
If the exterior material is wrapped around the battery at high temperature to prevent deformation, then the shape stability is improved, but the battery components may be damaged by heat
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the exterior material to the battery at room temperature before any heating processes occur. The material is then cured through UV irradiation or other methods at low temperatures. This preliminary application ensures the material is already in place to provide shape stability when the battery is subsequently heated during charging or operation, preventing both deformation and heat damage to internal components.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the conventional approach of using heat to set the coating with UV curing or other low-temperature curing methods. This substitution eliminates the need for high-temperature wrapping while achieving the same shape stabilization effect, thereby preventing heat damage to battery components during the curing process.
3Adaptability or versatility
If a single-layer exterior material is used, then the manufacturing process is simple, but the material cannot provide both flexibility and deformation prevention
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a composite exterior material consisting of a base material layer and a coating material layer. The base material provides flexibility and conformability to the battery shape, while the coating material with different optical properties provides the machine-readable pattern and additional protective functions. This composite structure achieves functional versatility while maintaining manufacturing simplicity through a straightforward two-layer configuration.
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 MD patterned exterior material effectively disperses stress, reducing edge damage and electrolyte leakage, enhancing the battery's bending durability and safety.
Implementation Method 1
the pattern formation step includes a phase separation step in which a pattern comprising a first region and a second region is formed on the exterior material through phase separation
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3
Figure 4A~4B
AI summary
An exterior material to be used for a battery comprises at least one pattern part formed in a machine direction (MD) of the exterior material, wherein the MD of the exterior material is a width direction of a battery including the exterior material, and a transverse direction (TD) of the exterior material is a longitudinal direction of the battery including the exterior material.