Samuel Taylor Ltd (STL) showcased an innovative aluminium to copper bonding technique as part of a UK delegation co-ordinated by the Advanced Propulsion Centre at the Battery Show Europe 2024
The technique is for use in ZEV busbar technology. STL also In addition, STL presented its successfully sampled so-called spot welded aluminium to copper parts – a highly novel application of friction stir welding.
Busbars are an integral part of EV battery packs. Improving the busbar can lead to lighter packs, extended range, and greater power output.
STL’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 it can now use to produce aluminium-copper bimetal strip. And again 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, Director at STL, comments: “ We have a proven record in innovation, exampled 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.