Co-development of busbars for battery packs and motor drive units
As an increasingly important vector of electrical current between the various electrical components of vehicles and locomotives, the cross-sections, shapes and materials of on-board busbars continually need to be rethought to meet safety and energy performance criteria.
The project
The design of busbars is one of the last operations carried out by design offices after the other components of a mechanical environment (battery, inverter, motor, fuses, etc.) have been installed. In the past, these busbars were traditionally used in infrastructure, but with the growth of electric mobility and the increase in on-board power and autonomy required, they are increasingly replacing cables. Cables had a number of advantages, such as their flexibility and circular shape, making it easy to follow a complex path to connect the various components close together. This is in line with the trend to reduce the size of electrical systems. However, the design rules for shaping busbars differ from those for cable harnesses, and this means that materials, tolerances, surface treatments and even insulation have to be adjusted.
The solution
Based on specifications (amperage, voltage, operating temperature, position of connection points, etc.), Gindre's teams work with design offices to adjust not only copper consumption in terms of cross-section, but also to propose a choice of suitable surface treatment and insulation. In fact, as we are fully integrated from waste to semi-finished product to component, we have full control over the production parameters required to produce a busbar with the best compromise between weight, shape and heat dissipation. In addition to answering these technical and economic questions, we are also responding to the growing issues of environmental sustainability by offering not only recycled copper but also biosourced thermoplastic insulation.
