Battery

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Adhesives: essential EV enablers

Adhesives are used in vehicles of all kinds, but they are particularly essential in electric vehicles (EVs) because they perform key functions within battery packs and help save weight in body structure, translating into performance and energy efficiency, as David Fetterman, PPG Industries’ global segment director for adhesives and sealants, explains to Peter Donaldson.

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Freudenberg PM’s Battery Pack Liquid Absorbers

Freudenberg Performance Materials has developed an absorbent pad technology for installation inside electric vehicle (EV) battery packs (and outside their modules). These Battery Pack Liquid Absorbers are intended to enable passive climate control through long-lasting moisture management, with repeatable absorption and redrying cycles.

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Dust busters

Dust explosions are a major hazard in many industries, and there are about 2,000 occurrences in factories and refineries across Europe per year. Battery electrode manufacturing is exposed to this type of risk and must take precautions that comply with explosive atmosphere (ATEX) directives.

PS

Extinguishing lithium battery fires

Our battery show report in this issue contains stories on various materials engineered to prevent a thermal runaway in a cell in a lithium-ion pack from spreading and cause a major fire (writes Peter Donaldson). Prevention is better than cure because, rare though they are, thermal runaways in EV lithium-ion batteries contain all four elements of the ‘fire tetrahedron’ – heat, oxygen, fuel and a chemical reaction – making them notoriously hard to extinguish. Putting them out is far from impossible, however.

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Amada Weld Tech highlights TP-AWS3-A touchscreen panel for weld monitoring

highlights their latest advancement in laser weld monitoring technology, the TP-AWS3-A Touchscreen Panel for Weld Monitoring. In today’s global commerce traceability and accountability is of utmost importance, an integrated, accessible, and all-inclusive monitoring system is necessary.

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Structural carbon fibre research

Researchers at Chalmers University in Sweden have shown how the manufacturing of carbon fibres can be tailored for developing structural batteries (writes Nick Flaherty). They worked with Carbon Nexus at Deakin University, in Australia, to build a variety of fibres that are strong enough to use in vehicles but can also store significant amounts of energy. However, the properties of the carbon fibre vary depending on the process parameters and which precursor is being used. Some types of carbon fibre can be very stiff, but have a far too low a storage capacity, and vice versa.

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Comau and Lina Energy unveil solid-state battery manufacturing system

Comau and Lina have designed a scalable manufacturing solution for solid-state sodium-metal-chloride batteries. The design allows solid-state sodium battery supplier Lina to automate its battery production process. Comau and LiNa...

Show Report

The Battery Show report

Peter Donaldson gives his round-up of the products on display at this show, where the focus was on tackling thermal issues This year’s Battery Show North America and Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Technology Expo, held in Novi in Michigan, had if anything an even greater emphasis on battery safety than usual, with many innovations aimed at stopping a thermal runaway in its tracks, as well as on thermal management.

In Conversation

Dr Tilo Schweers

Smart Europe’s vice-president of r&d shares some of his insights into developing the company’s distinctive battery EVs. By Rory Jackson While automotive OEMs might now agree that electric powertrains are effectively the future of all mobility, it should be remembered that only 20 years ago, many of them saw electrifying vehicles as a peculiarity at best, and a waste of resources at worst.

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Battery advance extends RV range

US start-up Grounded has developed a modular electric recreation vehicle (RV) with a range of 250 miles (writes Nick Flaherty). The G2 increases the range from the 100 miles of the original version, the G1, by using a larger and more efficient battery pack.