Fuses and Circuit Breakers for EV Battery Protection

Fusible thermal interface material for traction battery packs that limits thermal runaway propagation in electric vehicle batteries. The material is placed between battery cells and heat exchangers. It transitions from conductive to insulative when temperature exceeds a threshold, preventing thermal propagation between cells. This prevents battery thermal events from spreading like a chain reaction. The fusible interface material prevents catastrophic cell-to-cell thermal runaway in packs.

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Battery system with improved thermal runaway detection and handling using embedded cell sensors and a two-level control method. The system has a battery pack with multiple cell groups and embedded cell sensors in each group. A battery controller network connects to the cell sensors and executes a two-level logic. In low-power mode, a continuous Level-1 logic in the battery controller monitors cell data from the sensors. If a thermal runaway condition is detected, Level-2 logic is triggered to isolate and contain the faulty cell group. This prevents thermal propagation and mitigates runaway spread. The two-level control strategy leverages embedded cell sensors and variable sampling rates to enable simplified thermal runaway detection and handling in battery systems.

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Detection and mitigation of thermal runaway propagation in a vehicle battery to prevent battery damage and safety hazards. The system uses sensors like gas, temperature, and infrared inside modules to detect conditions leading to thermal runaway. If thresholds are exceeded, active relays isolate the faulty module to stop propagation. The battery management system coordinates this based on sensor data. This allows proactive isolation before runaway instead of waiting for voltage/temp indicators.

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Battery system for electric aircraft that prevents thermal runaway propagation between modules to avoid total system failure. The system uses thermal barriers that transition to a lower conductivity state when cells exceed a certain temperature. This reduces heat transfer from compromised cells to the shared cooling structure, preventing thermal runaway spread. The barriers transition from a high initial thermal conductivity state to a lower state when cell temperatures exceed a threshold. This prevents thermal runaway propagation between modules by limiting heat transfer from overheated cells. The shared cooling structure is thermally coupled to all modules to dissipate cell heat.

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A safety device for protecting an electric circuit in a travel adapter that prevents overheating and overcurrent. The safety device has a thermal fuse to interrupt the circuit at a certain temperature and a fuse holder to accommodate a circuit breaker fuse for interrupting the circuit at a certain amperage. The thermal fuse and fuse holder are connected in series in the circuit and are adjacent. This allows the thermal fuse to interrupt the circuit before it overheats, while the fuse holder provides overcurrent protection.

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Fuse device for electric vehicle charging and discharging circuits that quickly extinguishes arcs to prevent fires when a fuse blows. The device has a housing, two sheet pins for circuit connection, a fuse made of temperature sensing material, and magnetic sheets. When the fuse melts due to high temperature, arcs are created. The magnetic sheets rapidly quench the arcs to prevent further damage and fires.

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Partition member for battery modules that prevents thermal runaway spread in packs with improved cooling capability. The partition member separates battery cells and has a fluid filling inside with a boiling point between 80-250°C. The fluid has a flow channel along the surface of the partition. This allows efficient heat transfer and cooling to prevent thermal runaway spread when a cell overheats. The fluid boils and absorbs heat from the hot cell, preventing nearby cells from reaching runaway temperatures. The partition member is hermetically sealed to contain the fluid. The fluid boiling point range allows it to absorb significant heat without vaporizing at normal temperatures.

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Battery disconnect bracket for electric vehicles that rapidly isolates overheating battery cells to prevent thermal propagation. The bracket is made of materials with different thermal expansion rates. When a cell experiences a thermal event, the bracket expands more on the hot side than the cold side, causing it to transition from a closed conductive position to an open isolation position. This disconnects the hot cell from the others to prevent further thermal propagation. The bracket can also have sensors and an electronic control unit to monitor and manage isolated cells.

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Battery electric vehicle system with improved thermal runaway propagation (TRP) control. The system uses diodes integrated into each battery module to automatically bypass faulty modules during TRP events. This allows the healthy modules to provide power to critical loads like cooling systems and propulsion functions when a module fails open. This prevents total pack failure and enables limited functionality during TRP events. The diodes bypass the faulty module cells while maintaining power to the bus and critical loads.

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An overload fuse protector for batteries in electric vehicles that prevents fires and electrical failures due to overload currents and excessive temperatures. The protector has multiple fuses in series inside an insulated housing. It uses both current fuses and temperature fuses to disconnect the battery circuit in response to overload currents and excessive temperatures. The fuses are housed separately inside insulated shells with sealing caps. This allows the fuses to be replaced individually if needed. The fuse housings connect to the battery terminals through conductive leads. This allows the fuses to be removed and replaced without disconnecting the battery.

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Battery management system for electric aircraft that mitigates thermal runaway risks. The system uses sensors to monitor gas and temperature parameters of the battery pack. If conditions indicate potential runaway, contacts are disengaged to isolate the affected cells. This prevents further propagation of thermal runaway within the pack. The system proactively isolates cells before runaway spreads, enhancing safety of electric aircraft.

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A battery pack design and control method to prevent thermal runaway propagation in electric vehicle battery packs. The battery pack has a case with a cavity containing the battery cells. A spray system is installed inside the case that can be activated in case of a thermal runaway event in one cell. The spray system sprays a fire suppressant into the cavity to extinguish the runaway cell and prevent further propagation. The suppressant is a material with a low melting point that turns into a liquid at the high temperatures encountered during runaway. This helps absorb and dissipate the heat from the runaway cell to contain it. The control method involves monitoring cell temperatures and activating the suppressant spray system if a cell reaches a certain threshold indicating runaway.

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Non-resettable safety device for battery systems that prevents user reset after system faults. The device uses a fuse, temperature switches, and BMS monitoring to protect the system. During normal operation, the BMS controls the fuse. If the battery faults, the BMS outputs a signal to disconnect the fuse, protecting the system. If temperature exceeds limits, the switches connect and fuse disconnects. The fuse irreversibly fuses, preventing user reset after faults.

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Power supply control device for wired power systems that mitigates wire overheating risks due to component failures. The device uses a fuse and semiconductor switch in series with the power wire. The fuse has multiple terminals connected to the circuit board by soldering. Two terminals are in the current path. The fusing portion between them blows when hot. If the wire temperature rises, the device switches off the semiconductor switch to prevent overheating. The fuse housing has high heat resistance for soldering. This allows attaching the fuse to the board with reflow soldering. The housing prevents melting or deformation from soldering heat.

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Active cell management system for battery packs in vehicles that allows isolating and actively discharging faulty cells to prevent propagation and thermal runaway while maintaining power to the vehicle. The system detects cell faults and isolates the faulty cell to discharge it separately. It actively discharges the faulty cell to a critical low state, preventing propagation, without losing power to other vehicle systems.

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Thermal fuse circuit for safely disconnecting DC voltage sources that prevents arcing and re-entry issues common in voltage-controlled fuses. The circuit has a temperature sensor, fuse, and heating element. When temperature exceeds a threshold, the sensor generates a digital signal to irreversibly deactivate the fuse's current path using thermal action. This prevents arcing and re-entry compared to voltage-controlled fuses.

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Thermal fuse assembly and circuit breaker for high voltage DC applications that provides reliable arc extinguishing and circuit disconnection in DC circuits with voltages up to 1000V. The assembly has a main thermal fuse, shut-off circuit, and arc-extinguishing circuit. When the thermal fuse melts due to overcurrent or overtemperature, the load is disconnected normally using the load itself as an arc extinguisher. If the overcurrent/overtemperature persists, the shut-off circuit is triggered to fully disconnect the circuit. This prevents arcing through the thermal fuse.

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Efficiently discharging battery modules in a vehicle battery pack when a module reaches a critical fault state to prevent thermal runaway and fire propagation. The method involves selectively discharging modules based on spatial distance and thermal resistance to the faulty module. This targets modules closest to the faulty one first to lower their state of charge. If necessary, it can chain discharge through the entire pack to lower all modules. The goal is to reduce cell capacity and prevent further overheating/fires from spreading.

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Battery electric vehicle system that can maintain critical loads and cooling during thermal runaway of battery modules. The system integrates diodes or switches in each module to automatically bypass faulted modules during runaway events. This allows power to continue flowing to essential loads like cooling systems and prevents a full pack shutdown. The bypassed module cells still charge and discharge normally, but the diodes/switches allow current to bypass them during runaway. The overall pack can still provide partial power and cooling during runaway conditions.

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Preventing sudden battery failure in high-density battery packs for electric vehicles, UAVs, etc. by sensing precursor conditions to thermal runaway at the level of individual battery cells. Infrared sensors are used to monitor entire rows of battery cells without requiring individual instrumentation on the cells. The infrared sensors detect temperature changes in the cells to anticipate thermal runaway with sufficient time to prevent sudden battery failure, or to detect and isolate thermal runaway to a particular cell to minimize damage. This allows direct, immediate monitoring of all the cells without cluttering the enclosure or requiring wiring to each cell.

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