Fraunhofer LBF develops a traction battery with thermal storage capacity

The Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability LBF along with partners has developed a traction battery with thermal storage capacity.

The focus is on a novel sandwich battery housing made of continuous fibre reinforced thermoplastics (CFRTP), which helps to insulate stored heat in the traction battery for preconditioning.

The heat storage material can be used to precondition the temperature-sensitive battery cells in cold weather before the ride and to keep them at an optimum operating temperature using the thermally insulating CFRTP sandwich housing.

It offers high lightweight potential and enables high specific bending properties and impact resistance.

In addition, it provides a high level of protection against intrusion events, which play a major safety role especially in battery packs.

To meet automotive requirements, the material and structure concept has been developed with respect to high volume applications.

Felix Weidmann, who was responsible for the research project at the Fraunhofer LBF, said: “The material, structure and process technologies we have developed guarantee the driver a more reliable and consistent range of his BEV. In addition, vehicle developers and designers benefit from a new process technology for lightweight construction and functional integration.”