Hx LIFE Foils manufacturing scale up for next generation automotive EV batteries

在政府的时间表上满足汽车行业日益增长的电气化需求，将要求提高电动汽车电池的安全性、可靠性、成本效益和可循环性。在Reaction Engines，我们开发了一种创新技术，可以实现电池的被动热管理。这项技术被称为Hx LIFE Foils，它是一种导热性非常高的材料，可以将自身插入电池之间以冷却电池，并且可以为大多数袋状、棱柱状和圆柱形电池塑造形状和大小。我们已经在测试中证明了以下特性：*安全性：改善热失控的遏制性*高比功率和能量的低质量*高热量提取率：对大多数主动冷却系统具有卓越的热量提取能力在下一代汽车电池中部署箔片将显著提高汽车电动汽车的安全性和性能，并简化模块和电池组的设计和架构。Hx寿命箔被设计成以低成本大批量生产，以满足汽车电池组的需求。之前与MTC的合作强调了流程的改进，以降低风险和成本。因此，该项目包括优化工艺的构建模块，并通过建立一条中试生产线，启动第一次规模到中低规模的生产，该生产线将允许每年生产10000个铝箔，同时实现MRL6-7\。这将支持原型的生产，并为下一个大规模生产（每年100万片箔）的目标开发学习。该财团将由反应发动机公司领导，作为箔的开发商和制造商，并将包括制造技术中心（MTC）作为合作伙伴。该项目将于2022年9月1日开始，并于2023年12月底完成。

Meeting the increasing need of electrification for the automotive industry by the government timescales will require an increase in the safety, reliability, cost effectiveness and cyclability of EV batteries.At Reaction Engines we have developed an innovative technology that enables the passive thermal management of battery cells. The technology, called Hx LIFE Foils, is a very high thermal conductivity material that inserts itself between the cells to cool them and can be shaped and sized for most pouch, prismatic and cylindrical cells. We have demonstrated on test the following attributes:* Safety: Improve containment of thermal runaway* Low mass for high specific power and energy* High rate of heat extraction: superior heat extraction to most active cooling systemsDeploying the Foils in the next generation automotive batteries will significantly improve the safety and performance of automotive EV's as well as simplifying the design and architecture of the modules and packs.Hx Life Foils have been designed to be made in very high volume at low cost to meet the demand for automotive battery packs. Previous work with the MTC has highlighted improvements in the process to reduce risks and costs. The project therefore consists in optimising the building blocks of the process and initiating a first scale up to low-medium scale production by building a pilot line that will allow production of the Foils in the 10000 units per year whilst also achieving MRL6-7\. This will allow supporting the production for prototypes and develop the learning for the next scaling up that will target high volume production (\>1M Foils per year).The consortium will be led by Reaction Engines, as the developer and manufacturer of the Foils and will include the Manufacturing technology Centre (MTC) as partner.The programme will start on 1st September 2022 and complete by end of December 2023\.