Light metal Age reports that some companies and institutions in the UK have jointly initiated a major research and development project to design new lightweight battery housings for the next generation of electric vehicles and ultra-low emission vehicles (ULEV). The members of the consortium include Ken United, Impression Technologies, BMW, Volvo, Innoval Technology, Brunel Center for Advanced Coagulation Technology (BCAST), Grainger & Worrall and Warwick WMG University. In addition, Innovate UK provided 3.3 million pounds of financial support for the project. Innovate UK is the "Innovate UK" project of the British Technology Strategy Committee. It is a digital economy strategy constructed by the British government to discover and promote technological innovation and promote economic growth.
Liberate project
In the lightweight and innovative battery case, recycled aluminum technology will be used. The purpose of the Liberate project is to design a battery case using high-strength and lightweight aluminum alloy. This new housing is 30% lighter than current designs, while reducing material costs by up to 60%.
The selected aluminum alloy will combine many characteristics, including strength, crash resistance, thermal management, unlimited recyclability and lightweight, and become an ideal material for the production of battery casings. By using advanced processing and connection technologies, the new design will help reduce the number of parts and assembly time, increase tolerances and reduce battery costs. All of these will make the battery housing system more suitable for mass market vehicles in the future.
The advanced technology of the Liberate project is the HFQ technology developed by Impression Technologies, which is a production method of stamping complex-shaped aluminum parts with high-strength and ultra-high-strength alloy plates. Jonathan Watkins, CEO of Impression Technologies, said: "HFQ technology enables OEM designers to combine complex geometries formed by high-strength aluminum panels, thereby combining weight and cost reduction with packaging efficiency. The project aims to develop HFQ to reduce the number of parts. Potential to simplify the design and solve the connection, sealing and assembly problems."
The HFQ process will be combined with extrusion and casting to form a new battery housing design, which will be able to incorporate a thermal management system to control the operating temperature of the battery to reduce energy loss. The design will also introduce new standards for safety, collision management, and energy efficiency. In addition, the use of aluminum structure to reduce the weight of the battery case will increase the power density of the entire battery system, because the lighter the case, the larger the battery itself.
The project consortium will design and test battery cases for two years to produce full-size battery cases for use in cars produced by BMW and Volvo.
Another long-term intention of the Liberate project is to build a UK-based manufacturing facility to produce world-leading, cost-saving aluminum battery casings. This type of battery uses a large number of fully recyclable aluminum alloys to provide land resources for the production of ultra-low emission vehicle (ULEV) parts.