In November 2020 Samuel Taylor Limited (STL), a member of Made in the Midlands, was awarded Innovate UK funding as part of the ‘Catalysing Green Innovation: Securing the Future of ZEV’ competition.
EVBus is an Innovate UK collaborative project between STL and TWI Ltd, aiming to investigate an innovative Copper to Aluminum bonding technique for use in zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) busbars.
Joining copper to aluminum would allow for the light-weighting of electric vehicle (EV) busbars while maintaining electrical properties. Busbars are an integral part of EV battery packs. 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 aluminum, 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 Aluminum directly or using interlayer materials.
This work will inform the industrial process feasibility and development being undertaken by STL. STL aims to use this process to manufacture and market busbars for electric vehicles (EVs) and ZEVs.
STL already has an in-house rolling facility manufacturing Silver to Copper bonded bimetal, supplying many tons of strip for fuselink applications each year. There is a significant challenge in producing an aluminum product range, but success in this technology will assist in developing the lighter, greener vehicles of the future.
Earlier this year, Redditch based metal contact and precision stamping specialists 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 & 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.
(Source: Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Technology International)