Redditch-based
Samuel Taylor Ltd (STL), a metal contact and precision stamping specialist, has been awarded
Innovate UK funding as part of the recent ‘Catalysing Green Innovation: Securing the Future of ZEV’ competition.
EVBus is a collaborative project between STL and TWI Ltd, which aims to investigate an innovative copper-to-aluminium bonding technique for use in zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) busbars. Joining copper to aluminium would allow for light-weighting of electric vehicle (EV) busbars, an integral part of EV battery packs, while maintaining electrical properties. Improving the busbar can lead to lighter packs, therefore extending the range of ZEVs.
Successful bonding will allow the resulting product to be laser-welded to parent copper or aluminium, thereby solving the issues currently associated with laser welding dissimilar materials. The goals of the project are to investigate the feasibility of bonding copper to aluminium directly or using inter-layer materials.
This work will inform the industrial process feasibility and development being undertaken by STL which plans to use the process to manufacture and market busbars for electric vehicles (EVs) and ZEVs.
Significant area of potential growthSTL’s expertise in providing specialist busbars for EV and ZEV represents a significant area of potential growth for the company and it already has an in-house rolling facility manufacturing silver to copper-bonded bimetal, supplying many tons of strip for fuse-link applications each year.
Earlier this year, STL announced a significant contract win to support vehicle electrification, a first for the company. Following this, STL and TWI Ltd were selected alongside two other leading low-carbon technology innovators to participate in the UK pavilion at
The Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Technology Expo at the Messe Stuttgart, Germany in May 2021.
The pavilion is managed by the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC), in partnership with Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, Department for International Trade, SMMT and Innovate UK.