AOC resins Applied to BMW IX3 Battery Pack for Weight Reduction
The key component of electric vehicles is the power battery, the cost of which usually accounts for about 30% to 50% of the vehicle cost, and the battery weight accounts for 20-40%. The charging efficiency, energy density, and range of the power battery are closely related to the immediate needs of consumers of electric vehicles. Their designers are faced with a more urgent need for weight reduction than traditional fuel vehicles. The battery pack lies in the chassis of an EV, as a core component. Being the power source of a vehicle, it occupies a large proportion of the vehicle's mass, making it the primary target for lightweighting.
Battery pack shell is usually composed of the upper cover and lower shell. In order to keep lithium batteries from collision and ensure it does not damage in extrusion, the vast majority of pure EV has a strict requirement in airtightness, corrosion resistance, insulation, waterproof and dustproof. Steel or aluminum alloy material shell are chosen as a protection of the battery pack.
With the development of energy saving and lightweight for the automobile, GFRP and SMC sheet materials and others appear to be chosen as the upper shell materials.
AOC Resin Applied to BMW IX3
As a global leader in composites application, AOC has accumulated profound experience in the field of SMC composites application, and has been focusing on and participating in the direction of automotive lightweight materials application. AOC has integrated the characteristics and application experience of SMC process technology in Europe and the U.S.A., and developed a full range of SMC resins and low-shrinkage/low-profile additives to meet the characteristics of different applications, with high consistency in the reactivity, stability and thickening characteristics.
SMCs made from AOC resins are widely used in automotive body parts, structural parts and functional parts for their excellent mechanical strength, high rigidity, high flame retardancy, corrosion resistance, dimensional stability, UV resistance, low specific gravity and many other superior properties. which are recognized by OEMs and component manufacturers. Among them, BMW IX3 is a typical lightweighting application of AOC resins in new energy vehicles.
IX3 is an electric SUV produced by BMW, which goes on sale on September 10, 2021 in China. As BMW's main market model, the IX3 has received a lot of attention since its launch. BMW's IX3 uses SMC material for the upper shell of the battery box, which is manufactured by Victall（formerly Teijin China/CSP China), selecting AOC SMC resin and low shrinkage additives.
Popular Lightweight Material for Battery Pack Cases
CSP China and AOC have been global partners for many years, and have realized automation, intelligence and industrialization of SMC molding on the supply side of composite materials, which improves production efficiency and guarantees the stability of product quality at the same time.
AOC has been taking the battery pack SMC upper shell as an important end-use market, and cooperate deeply with material suppliers and molding suppliers. It satisfies the end-use demand, meets the national standards, and matches the SMC solution through the characteristics of the resin and the customization of the process, so as to fully assist in the lightweighting development of the automotive industry chain.
The SMC upper shell of the battery pack of BMW iX3 is another new breakthrough of composite materials in new energy vehicle sector. Increasing the range as much as possible by increasing the proportion of lightweight materials is one of the effective solutions to the battery energy bottleneck which cannot be quickly broken through at this stage. Applying vinyl molding resin solution to SMC upper shell can meet the strength and stiffness as well as the design requirements of the electrical equipment shell protection level IP67, while it also has a better performance in collision protection, corrosion prevention, insulation, airtightness, flame retardant V0 grade and GBT+31467.3-2015 fire test, etc. The unique advantages of SMC material make it become more popular at present. The unique advantages of SMC material make it a popular lightweight material for battery pack shells.
