Abstract of the Offer
Structural Batteries are the strongest, lightest and safest means of integrating energy storage. Utilising existing mass-produced cells, the product allows a paradigm shift in design methodology, enabling larger payloads and more robust products. Designed and built in the UK by The Structural Battery Company, an SME, we can design a battery tailored to your requirements, sell you one of our existing batteries, or license the technology so that you can manufacture yourself.
Description
Structural Batteries replace load-bearing members of a chassis, or airframe, or hull, removing material and hence mass and volume from the existing structure. This contrasts with the conventional approach to adding energy storage which requires the addition of material to the structure to provide a support location that is strong enough to cope with the mass of a battery.
Structural Batteries build on conventional composite panel design – where two strong outer skins are separated by a core material (traditionally aluminium honeycomb, or foam, or cardboard). The core acts to increase the second moment of area of the outer skin materials which take the structural loads, whilst providing support to prevent buckling or breathing, which does not require significant force. Our batteries use existing mass-produced cylindrical cells, arrayed in a hexagonal pattern, as the core of a structural panel. Unlike prismatic or pouch cells, cylindrical cells are produced consistently in the same sizes for long periods of time, allowing the product to benefit from new or improved chemistries without significant redesign, whilst the steel housing of the cylinder forms the structure of the core material.
A Battery Management System (BMS) is available with access to root firmware for customisation options providing a safe, secure means of integrating with the control system of your product.
The technology can be tailored to electrical and mechanical requirements of a product as required, for example:
- The technology is at TRL6 in aerospace, having flown with CAA approval as the mechanical and electrical spine of a heavy-lift drone (250kg lift for 100km). In this application it is a 360V, 7.5kWh, 81kW battery.
- For a robotics application we have a battery that is 50V, 1.5kWh, 11kW.
Advantages and Innovations
In replacing structural components with the battery, instead of adding the battery to existing structural members, it is possible for products to add a battery for no additional weight.
The technology includes an innovative means of managing thermal runaway such that a runaway event does not cause the battery to cease electrical or structural functions. Instead the energy released is rapidly spread and absorbed to prevent propagation, and the battery will continue operating, albeit at reduced capacity.