On December 10, Teijin Co., Ltd. announced that the entire group has successfully developed a multi-material composite battery box in order to contribute to improving the environmental efficiency and safety performance of batteries required for electric vehicles (EV) and hybrid vehicles (HV).
1. Background
(1) "CASE" (*1) is proposed as a mobile concept that can be realized in the near future. In the context of the rapid development of the electrification of vehicles to reduce the environmental load, the batteries installed in EVs and other vehicles must not only expand the capacity, but also need to expand the size, ensure a stable power storage capacity, strengthen lightweight, and improve collision safety performance.
(2) In the past, the battery box mainly used metal materials such as iron and aluminum to ensure its strength and rigidity. However, the battery box using these materials has the advantages of light weight, fire resistance and heat resistance required to protect the battery and occupants, and complex adaptation. There are many problems in the freedom of shape of the vehicle layout.
(3) The Teijin Group has long been committed to the development and design of multi-material composite auto parts using self-developed high-performance materials, engineering design technology, and molding technology. In order to meet the new demand, this time successfully developed a multi-material battery box.
(*1) "CASE": A concept proposed by former Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche in 2016 as the future direction of the automotive industry. Taken from the capital letters of Connected, Autonomous, Shared, and Electric.
2. About the battery box developed this time
(1) The battery box developed this time makes full use of the multi-material technology that Teijin has accumulated over the years, and combines composite materials (FRP) and metal materials under optimal conditions. In order to meet the individual needs of customers, carbon fiber or glass fiber can be used in FRP.
(2) By stamping and forming FRP, it is possible to realize the integral molding of complex shapes such as the tray and the outer cover that make up the battery box, so it is easy to ensure the sealing and safety, and also optimize the manufacturing cost.
(3) In addition, in order to ensure the same rigidity and impact resistance as previous battery boxes while reliably coping with various vehicle sizes, the frame uses metal materials.
(4) In addition to achieving the same weight reduction as traditional aluminum battery boxes, it also has excellent fire resistance, dimensional stability, and corrosion resistance that are essential for battery boxes. FRP trays and covers can also be provided with electromagnetic wave shielding performance.
3. Follow-up work
(1) Since Teijin acquired Continental Structural Plastics (CSP), the largest automotive composite parts manufacturer in North America in 2017, it has been developing the automotive composite business as a global Tier1 supplier. In February this year, Teijin Automotive Center EuroPE GmbH (TACE) was established in Wuppertal, Germany. As the group’s European automotive composite material planning, design and productization technology center, it will continue to carry out technological development and reduce the cost of automotive composite materials. Weight and cost, improve its strength and production efficiency.
(2) The battery box development this time also makes full use of the equipment and human resources of Japan’s domestic composite material R&D center, CSP, TACE and other institutions. In the future, we will continue to optimize and improve the design to meet customer needs, and strive to start Mass production from 2025.
(3) As a component supplier of multiple materials, Teijin will further strengthen its technological development capabilities and strive to expand the sales of its composite material products for automobiles to USD 2 billion around 2030.