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

为了满足政府对汽车行业日益增长的电气化需求，需要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，是一种导热率非常高的材料，可以插入电池之间进行冷却，并且可以为大多数袋装，棱柱形和圆柱形电池进行形状和尺寸设计。我们已经在测试中证明了以下属性：* 安全性：改善热失控的遏制 * 低质量，高比功率和能量 * 高排热率：与大多数主动冷却系统相比，它具有上级排热性能在下一代汽车电池中部署铝箔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。已经被设计成以低成本大量生产，以满足汽车电池组的需求。以前与海运委员会开展的工作突出表明了在减少风险和费用的过程中所作的改进。因此，该项目包括优化该工艺的构建模块，并通过建立一条试验生产线启动第一次规模到中低规模生产，该生产线将允许每年生产10000个单位的箔，同时还实现MRL 6 -7\。这将允许支持原型生产并为下一次以大批量生产为目标的扩大规模开发学习（每年100万箔）。该财团将由反应发动机，作为铝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。该计划将于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\.