Basic Motors has plans to function 4 battery vegetation, with one in Lordstown, Ohio already pumping out cells. With the flexibility to make its personal batteries comes the potential for customized configurations and type components, one thing the corporate is contemplating taking to the intense. A current patent from GM reveals batteries not formed like rectangles or cylinders, however Tetris-like blocks meant to accommodate extra environment friendly cooling channels.
The doc is at present simply an software, nevertheless it was printed very lately in late February, with a current file date as nicely. All of this appears to point it is a new thought out of the automaker that it could have needed to guard rapidly. It begins by saying how battery cells are at present cooled, at the very least in GM’s case. In vehicles just like the Hummer EV, we all know that is achieved on a module-by-module foundation with a cooling plate on the backside of the cells. On this patent, GM claims this technique can result in uneven cooling, which ends up in untimely battery degradation. As a aspect notice, different firms use different cooling strategies to fight this phenomenon.
GM’s thought is to make the cells in a tough “L” or “C” form in order that two cells mixed will go away a number of tunnels between the cells the place a cooling channel may be added. GM even has some uncommon diagonal shapes in there.
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I am not conscious of every other battery cell, at the very least in automotive use, that’s formed something like this. I’ve personally solely ever seen rectangular prisms or cylinders. There is likely to be appreciable manufacturing challenges related to making these unusual cells, although it is robust to inform going solely by this software.
To that finish, the corporate suggests different attainable configurations utilizing rectangular prismatic cells however attaining an identical impact. Two of the cells in a proposed four-cell group could be shorter and fatter, whereas the opposite pair could be longer and skinnier. This could permit for an oblong or H-shaped cooling channel. Longer and skinnier cells like which are much less widespread, however there’s one China-based firm, Topband, that makes considerably comparable lengthy slender lithium iron-phosphate cells.
In any case, GM’s thought is an uncommon one which will have some advantage, nevertheless it’s unclear if growing a completely new cell format within the identify of cooling could be an efficient strategy to bettering electrical autos. If the corporate patented it, it is possible value exploring, at the very least conceptually.
