Adhesives for Electric Vehicles

The use of adhesives in electric vehicles is even more widespread than their use in conventional automobiles.  Adhesives offer many advantages to both types of vehicles, including; ease of use compared to welding, environmental resistance, sealing, distributing stress, and joining mis-matched materials – e.g. plastic to metal. The advantages of adhesives specific to electric vehicles include their ability to bond composites and low surface energy plastics, resulting in component weight reduction, improved thermal conductivity and electrical insulation.

Typical Applications:Electric vehicle being charged

  • Bonding battery boxes
  • Encapsulating with expandable thermally conductive filler
  • Bonding battery cells to casings
  • Bonding and potting sensors
  • Bonding magnets in electric motors
  • Bonding doors, hood, and trunk components
  • Threadlocking and retaining bolts, pins, and bearings
  • Bonding interior dashboard and trim
  • Sealing heat exchangers
  • Forming gaskets

Bonding Battery Boxes

Adhesives are often use to bond and seal the lid of the battery pack to the body. High-performance plastics help keep the battery lightweight and durable, as well as offer vibration, impact and weather resistance, however these plastics are often filled and can prove quite difficult to bond – special adhesives need to be used to offer the level of adhesion required.  Non-setting / blow-out gasket materials are also used for battery sealing applications, in the event that if there is a thermal-runout, pressure can be released from the battery without causing the casing to explode. In normal day to day operation the uncured “adhesive” material remains in situ, preventing moisture ingress or contamination of the battery, additionally it allows the battery to be serviced easily if required.

Potting / Filling Space Around Battery Cells

Permabond is proud to share news of its Patent-Pending thermally conductive expanding foam innovation. This exciting new material has been developed to expand and fill space around battery cells, whilst providing thermal management to help dissipate heat away from cells, therefore helping prevent thermal run out.  This expanding adhesive has a number of benefits:

  • Lightweight – helps improve vehicle performance, efficiency and makes lifting and handling the battery easier
  • High level of fire retardancy – inclusion of intumescent filler material
  • Excellent thermal conductivity
  • Cures at room temperature

Bonding Battery Cells to Cold-Plate

As part of a battery’s thermal management system, often a cold-plate or thermally conductive plate is used to drive heat away from the battery, therefore reducing the chance of thermal runaway and allowing faster charging (=more heat produced).  There is high demand for faster charging, undoubtably increasing the demand for better thermal management in batteries but in order to achieve this improved performance, thermally conductive adhesives are needed to bond battery cells to cold plates to help drive the heat away from the cell. Permabond has a range of different thermally conductive fillers to meet thermal conductivity performance requirements in line with battery manufacturers’ processes and costing requirements.

Key Features of the Permabond Range:

Permabond has a complete line of adhesives for conventional and electric vehicles, which allow engineers freedom to design for maximum performance, additionally a few of the key features of adhesives for this industry include:

  • Thermal Conductivity
  • Electrical Insulating
  • Excellent adhesion to composites, metals, plastics, including low surface energy plastics
  • Heat resistance
  • Environmental resistance
  • No odor adhesives
  • Halogen-free products available
  • Fire retardancy

Contact Permabond with details of your application – we will help assist you with a product recommendation to optimise your design and help you meet your production objectives. Permabond’s friendly and helpful technical team can’t wait to help you with your project.

For more information, see

https://www.permabond.com/resource-center/permabond-europe-launches-new-thermally-conductive-high-temperature-resistant-epoxy/

and

Permabond MT3836 – Flexible, Fire Retardant and Thermally Conductive Adhesive

and

Adhesives for Electric Vehicle Batteries

 

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