Redditch-based
Samuel Taylor Ltd (STL) has been successful in its’ application to represent the UK’s battery technology supply chain at the upcoming
Battery Show Europe 2024 in Germany. STL will feature as part of a UK delegation coordinated by the
Advanced Propulsion Centre UK.
The exhibition will see STL showcase its innovative new copper-to-aluminium bonding technique for use in ZEV busbar technology. In addition, the company will discuss its successfully sampled ‘spot-welded aluminium to copper parts’ – a highly novel application of friction stir welding. Busbars are an integral part of electric vehicle (EV) battery packs. Improving the busbar can lead to lighter packs, extended range, and greater power output.
The
Battery Show Europe 2024, held in Stuttgart, runs from the 18 to 20 June and is described as ‘the meeting place for the Advanced Battery and H/EV technology community’. The event will bring together battery manufacturers, suppliers, engineers, thought leaders and decision-makers for a conference and battery tech expo focused on the latest developments in the advanced battery and automotive industries.
Central to STL’s presence at the exhibition will be the showcasing of its innovative new bonding techniques, including bonded aluminium and copper (ALCu), bonded silver and copper (SilCu), and so-called spot-welded aluminium and copper. Both bonding techniques have great potential for industry, particularly within busbar technology found within the battery packs of EVs. This represents a significant opportunity, given the worldwide transition to EV and ZEV usage.
Future potentialSTL’s work to develop an optimised set of parameters for joining aluminium to copper was founded in the development of a bonding technique that overcomes the challenge of aluminium’s high reactivity to oxygen, making it very difficult to bond. Achieving this has enabled STL to create a proprietary cold-cladding process that they can now use to produce aluminium-copper bimetal strip. The spot-weld version bonds the materials cold to avoid the creation of resistive and brittle inter-metallics which can render other techniques non-viable. Both new joint types are suited to many different applications, offering significant future potential for further EV associated purposes beyond that of connectors.
Alastair Gordon, a director at STL, said: “In our 125th anniversary year, STL are proud to be at the forefront of innovation again, for use within the battery industry. We have a proven record in innovation, demonstrated in our recent work to develop a new production process to enable the production of over 70,000 busbars for the battery packs of the world’s first fully-electric British hypercar and the third fastest road around the Nürburgring. STL welcomes conversations with other organisations within the global EV supply chain at
Battery Show Europe 2024.”
Featuring as part of the UK’s APC UK delegation, STL will exhibit alongside other UK battery technology innovators. The APC UK collaborates with the UK Government, the automotive industry and academia, to accelerate the industrialisation of technologies that support the automotive industry to accelerate its transition to deliver the vehicles needed to meet ‘net zero’ targets.