What are the advantages of aluminum material for new energy battery shells?

abstract

With the development of new energy vehicles, especially pure electric vehicles, higher requirements have been put forward for the development of lightweight vehicles. The urgent demand for the development of lightweight energy vehicles has spawned the application of aluminum alloy battery shells. All OEMs and battery pack manufacturers in the industry are researching and developing new lightweight solutions for battery shells. From the current development point of view, the aluminum alloy battery shell solution has a relatively lightweight prospect. The comprehensive application cost of aluminum alloy battery shells is low, the performance meets the requirements, and the integration of the circulating water channel of water-cooled batteries can be realized.

What material shells are used for battery shells on the market? It is understood that the best-selling shells on the market should be aluminum shells, and aluminum alloys are also one of the metal types. Aluminum alloys have low density, but relatively high strength, close to or exceeding steel, have good plasticity, can be processed into various profiles, and have excellent conductivity, thermal conductivity, and corrosion resistance. They are widely used in industry, and their usage is second only to steel.

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There is also a stainless steel shell, and battery shells made of this material are also quite common. Stainless steel is the abbreviation of stainless acid-resistant steel. Steels that are resistant to weak corrosive media such as air, steam, and water or have stainless properties are called stainless steel; and steels that are resistant to chemical corrosive media (acids, alkalis, salts, etc.) are called acid-resistant steel.

Aluminum alloy has become a star material in the automotive industry in recent years due to its lighter weight and better performance. Relevant data show that my country's cumulative annual aluminum consumption in automobile terminals has reached 3.711 million tons. Cast aluminum alloys, forged aluminum alloys, aluminum extruded profiles, aluminum plates, and other types of aluminum are widely used in systems such as body and chassis. In addition, with the outbreak of the new energy vehicle market, all-aluminum bodies, aluminum alloy battery packs, and other aspects have also ushered in a climax of development and application.

Lightweight and high safety make aluminum alloy battery pack shells the mainstream power battery shells. The power battery shell uses aluminum materials with easy processing and forming, good high-temperature corrosion resistance, good heat transfer, and conductivity. Therefore, the battery shell using aluminum alloy is thinner and relatively lighter than the steel shell under the same capacity. In addition, once the battery explodes, the explosion force of the lithium battery aluminum shell is weaker than that of the steel shell, and the harm caused by the aluminum shell power battery is relatively lower.

New energy lithium battery aluminum casing production process flow chart

The aluminum alloy battery shell effectively solves the quality energy density requirements of new energy vehicles, meets the subsidy policy, and is favored by automobile manufacturers. Before the introduction of the new subsidy policy, new energy vehicle manufacturers usually used steel as the material for the battery box to greatly reduce the production cost of the whole vehicle, but it also led to problems such as the weight of the new energy vehicle battery system is too large and the energy density of the battery system is low. The issuance of the new energy subsidy policy has helped new energy vehicle manufacturers reduce the cost of using aluminum alloys so that automobile manufacturers have effectively reduced the weight of new energy vehicles and reduced energy consumption requirements.

The aluminum alloy battery shell is an important supporting industry in the new energy vehicle industry. Under the established product structure and technical level, there is a fixed ratio of 1:1 between the aluminum alloy battery shell and the new energy vehicle. Therefore, the market demand, industry scale, and development space of the aluminum alloy battery shell are closely related to the downstream, and the prospects are broad.

Aluminum will not burn, spontaneously combust, or release harmful gases when burning. At the same time, it has very good ductility. It is very suitable for the development of electric vehicles at present. I believe that aluminum will also be rapidly applied in battery shells in the future.

summary

Aluminum alloy shell: convenient processing, high flexibility, high grade, after processing and adding certain alloy elements, you can get forged aluminum alloy with excellent forging performance or deformed aluminum alloy with good processing plasticity. It has good electrical and thermal conductivity, second only to silver, copper, and gold. After a certain degree of cold processing, the matrix strength can be strengthened. Some brands of aluminum alloy can also be strengthened by heat treatment. The density of aluminum and aluminum alloy is close to 2.7g/, which is about 1/3 of iron or copper.