China's rapid progress in material technology in recent years is the key competitiveness of the new energy vehicle industry.
Different from traditional fuel vehicles, the connectors, wiring harnesses, motor bearings, charging piles, lead frames, battery boxes and even IGBTs of electric vehicles have higher requirements on voltage, current, accuracy, durability, size and heat dissipation, and need to use a large number of High performance material.
High-performance material technology is a key indicator that determines the performance of the three-electrical system of electric vehicles. Fortunately, China has made arrangements in advance in new energy vehicle material technology and has achieved remarkable results.
China's leading high-performance copper alloy material manufacturer: NBBW Alloy Technology Corporation has now become a leading enterprise in China's high-end copper alloy materials.
The company has successively broken the technical barriers of overseas monopoly of high-end copper alloy materials such as copper-nickel-silicon and copper-chromium-zirconium. It has established nine manufacturing bases in Germany, Canada and other countries, and has national innovation platforms such as nationally recognized enterprise technology centers, national post-doctoral research stations, national CNAS accredited laboratories, and national and local joint engineering research centers.
The company has entered the global supply chain of leading electric vehicle connector manufacturers, and its end customers include many Chinese and foreign top 500 new energy vehicle manufacturers.
The necessary conditions for fast charging are high voltage and high current, and the premise is that the charging components are small in size, high in conversion efficiency, low in losses, strong in tolerance, and low in the risk of safety accidents.
For this purpose, NBBW has developed a copper-nickel-silicon alloy, which is suitable for high-current connectors
Application characteristics: Excellent comprehensive properties are obtained through cold working and solid solution aging strengthening heat treatment. The copper-nickel-silicon alloy has excellent bending properties, high strength and good corrosion resistance. The alloy has excellent stress relaxation resistance due to the NiSi wash-out strengthening phase.
Applications: CuNiSi alloys are standard high-performance copper alloys for automotive and semiconductor applications, ideal for high-speed connectors such as: Press-Fit, USB Type-C, relay reeds, etc.
Copper-nickel-silicon alloys have yield strength and excellent formability to meet application requirements. While meeting the lightweight requirements of automobiles, its excellent high temperature resistance ensures that the component connectors can complete signal transmission stably for a long time, and ensure the continuity of the electronic control system, battery management system and charging pile.
Of course, the core problem is that the maximum power of the fast charging system has been increased to 450kW or even 1200kW. The charging gun interface terminal faces the problem of high voltage and high current.
What material the charging gun interface terminal is made of is the key.
To this end, NBBW has specially developed tellurium-copper alloy and copper-nickel-phosphorus alloy for the manufacture of high-performance charging gun interface terminals.
Tellurium-copper alloy has high electrical conductivity greater than 85% IACS, cutting performance close to C36000, fast cutting speed, excellent deformation performance in turning and cold heading, no cracks in riveting, excellent anti-arc and anti-plug performance, no sparks when plugging leaks. The safety of the charging system is improved.
Copper-nickel-phosphorus alloy is a precipitation-strengthened alloy. It is a balanced alloy of strength, conductivity and machinability.
The strength of copper-nickel-phosphorus alloy exceeds 600MPa, and the electrical conductivity is close to 60% IACS. It is especially suitable for high-current terminals with high insertion and removal life. The charging gun female end material is one of the ideal materials for the new energy vehicle industry to respond to future trends.
NBBW has also developed and launched a series of high-performance copper alloys for high-voltage and high-current connectors such as red copper, oxygen-free copper, and chrome picks. Chromium zirconium copper meets the requirements of the fast charging system for yield strength, coefficient of thermal expansion, thermal stress relaxation, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, processing difficulty, corrosion resistance, and takes into account the requirements of material cost.
High-end body materials optimize electronic control performance
In the new energy vehicle body with fast charging interface, considering that the internal circuit is more complicated than traditional fuel vehicles, the wiring harness is the main body of the vehicle circuit network, which is composed of multiple connectors and wires, and the cables are crimped.
How to reduce the weight of connectors, improve reliability and durability, take into account the cost of materials, and help car manufacturers to arrange circuits more efficiently and reasonably is a huge test for material manufacturers.
NBBW has developed a chrome-zirconium-copper alloy material specifically for the manufacture of automotive connector terminals.
Upsetting deformability, comprehensive material mechanics, heat resistance, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, formability, corrosion resistance, material cost and other dimensions meet the requirements of automobile manufacturers to improve product performance.
In addition to the hard work on harness connector materials, NBBW also proposed a better solution for the selection of high-voltage DC relays, one of the core components of new energy vehicles. HVDC relays are of great significance to the safety of new energy vehicles. When the battery or electronic control system fails or malfunctions, the relay can cut the line to prevent surges.
To protect battery life, in the event of fire, the relay can prevent short-circuit electric shock and ensure personnel safety. Therefore, in the selection of high-voltage DC relays, NBBW uses self-developed tellurium-copper alloys to achieve arc extinguishing, anti-lock performance, energization performance, high-temperature brazing and production of high-voltage DC relays. Meet the processing performance requirements, and realize the functions of agile automatic adjustment, safety protection and conversion circuits of new energy vehicle circuits.
In addition, NBBW has specially developed disperse copper for use as a material for a new generation of HVDC relays. Long-term suction does not deform or stick, which greatly improves the service life of contacts/contact sheets.
Overcome the pain points of the core components of the three major power systems
One of the core components of new energy vehicles is the motor. The motor determines the load capacity, acceleration ability, climbing ability and maximum speed of the new energy vehicle, and also affects the energy consumption and cruising range of the new energy vehicle to a certain extent.
The high-strength, wear-resistant and corrosion-resistant copper-nickel-tin alloys developed by NBBW can meet complex and harsh operating conditions. It has corrosion resistance, extremely low coefficient of friction and high strength. It is an ideal bearing material for 800V motors.
In terms of battery materials, NBBW also introduced copper-nickel-phosphorus alloys as probe materials for power batteries. After 30,000 wears, the contact resistance and temperature rise are still comparable to beryllium copper.
In the packaging process of the battery box, NBBW provides developed high-quality aluminum welding materials with low melting point and high fluidity, ensuring high-strength sealing and effectively solving the problem of battery leakage in new energy vehicles. Liquid and lithium precipitation solve the safety problems of new energy vehicle batteries.