Flexible Solutions

Improvements are being made to the lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles. Car makers are developing more powerful lithium-ion batteries that have increased range and charge more rapidly. Along with these improvements, enhancing safety is becoming increasingly urgent for electric vehicle development.  As mentioned in our previous blog post, 11 Considerations when Selecting Thermal Interface Materials for Electric Vehicle Li-Ion Batteries, Li-ion batteries produce a significant amount of heat while in use and while charging. Along with the use of thermal management materials, placing protective engineered flame retardant insulating materials between the components of the battery cell, module, and pack can offer additional thermal and electrical insulating protection. However, adding such materials can be challenging due to space and weight constraints.

In this post we outline four materials that can enhance the safety of lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles.  Some shared characteristics of these four materials are listed below. 

• ultra-thin
• light weight
• electrically and thermally insulating
• flame retardant
• can be die-cut and laminated with PSA

Read further for additional detail about each material.

Prototypes are typically produced in relatively small quantities and used by our customers to verify design, evaluate material choices, and build prototypes of their assembly.

When masking an area with precision and over-masking is unacceptable, custom die-cut masks prove to be the best solution. This video shows a direct comparison of the masking process with strips/knife versus masking with a die-cut part with a split liner. You'll see this demonstration proves that masking with a custom die-cut is easier, faster, more accurate, and safer. 

Our valued material supplier, Rogers Corporation, has released PORON® EVExtend 4701-43RL polyurethane foam material. This is an ideal battery pad material for EV/HEV li-ion pouch cell batteries.

Currently, lithium-ion (li-ion) batteries are the most common type of battery used to power electric vehicles. Today's market is demanding that batteries charge faster and last longer. Because li-ion batteries produce significant heat when in use and charging, thermal management is critical.  Excessive heat can cause irreparable damage to the battery. 

Technological advances in properties of soft, flexible foam and elastomeric materials have continued to advance. These thick, soft, flexible foams and elastomers are ideal materials for sealing, gasketing and cushioning across many industries and applications. They compress, form to irregular surfaces, bend, and flex within an application without damage or de-lamination, but from the perspective of the die cutter, may also introduce challenges when trying to achieve the tight dimensional tolerances common in metal and plastic-molded parts.

We have published a new success story!  In this story, the customer required a static seal for a navigation module that would be contained and used on the exterior of a recreational vehicle.  The exterior navigation/infotainment module would be exposed to outdoor elements including extreme temperature swings, rain, wind and dust.  The gasket was required to perform as designed for the life expectancy of the class A RV.  This can be more than 10 years!  

In this newly released application story, a global designer and manufacturer of critical intercommunication devices experienced a gasket failure allowing moisture to leak and compromise the internal components of their console.  

Thermal resistivity and thermal conductivity can be two very important physical features of foam materials to certain applications. Most devices containing electronics must be designed to deal with heat in one way or another. Electronic circuitry operates most reliably at lower temperatures. High operating temperatures decrease the service life of the device or module.  It is critical for designs to either conduct or isolate heat.

When choosing a foam for a product design, one feature that should be considered is the compression set resistance of the foam.  C-Set is one of the most important characteristics to consider, and this blog post answers three basic questions to explain why.