Innovative Freudenberg Solution to Prevent Thermal Propagation in Prismatic Cell Batteries

Authors

Dr. T. Leichner, D. Möhring, Dr. P. Kritzer, Dr. S. Neuberger, Freudenberg Sealing Technologies, Weinheim:

Year

2023

Print Info

Production/Publication ÖVK

Summary

With the upcoming change of technology in the automotive industry towards electrically powered vehicles, Freudenberg has developed a wide range of products that enable car manufacturers to pass on their products to the end customer with a long service life and minimum of maintenance costs. One example of this is the “eCON” electrical bypass, which reliably enables voltage potentials to be dissipated in the electric motor, so that they do not damage any bearings. With this document, Freudenberg would like to introduce a new product in its portfolio, that drastically reduces battery fires and prevents completely so-called thermal propagation, i.e. cell thermal runaway in a chain reaction. In this document, we present an inter cell element that can be assembled individually according to customer specifications using a modular system. This enables Freudenberg to respond quickly and specifically to customer needs, providing inter cell elements that are designed either for mechanical properties—as required for LFS cells and Solid-State cells— or for thermal insulating properties, as required for hot-burning NMC cells. Of course, it is also possible to meet both requirements at the same time, but this makes an intermediate cell element much more complex. Freudenberg takes a unique approach to the development of intermediate cell elements, which sets us apart from our competitors: We generate the compressibility, required for compressing the battery cells to each other, by the use of a sophisticated geometry using the effect of bending and shearing specially designed rubber elements. This has the great advantage, that the degree of compressibility no longer depends only on the material properties, but to a large extent on the geometric design. This paper reports on the modular system, how it can be used to create effective intermediate cell elements, how the functionalities "fire barrier" and "thermal insulation", but especially how the adjustable compressibility is created.

ISBN

978-3-9504969-2-5