Value-Added Services You Should Expect
To stay ahead of change and choose the right materials for EV applications, design and release engineers need to understand and verify material performance and capabilities. Reading and understanding a technical data sheet (TDS) is only the first step. The second step involves ensuring the product can meet specific application requirements, internal material standards or other guidelines. Understanding and leveraging value-added services that material suppliers can provide helps find optimal solutions and grow new ideas where ordinary isn’t enough.
To better understand the types of value-added services, we interviewed Patricia Adame, Senior Applications Engineer for Automotive and Electric Vehicles at Saint-Gobain®.
In terms of solutions for EV battery packs, can you share specifically what materials Tape Solutions offers?
Meeting both performance and safety expectations for electric battery pack protection, the Saint-Gobain Tape Solutions product portfolio consists of trusted solutions for thermal interface and thermal runaway protection, compression pads, pack seals and cushioning pads.
Based on your experience, what are some key value-added services that material suppliers can provide to optimize the material selection process for EV applications?
Customers should always be on the look-out for suppliers that are willing and able to provide four main services.These include:
- Material Technology: Suppliers should have dedicated R&D teams that have the knowledge and capability to support the application engineering team with the selection of off-the-shelf solutions and materials that best meet customer requirements.
- Product Customization: In a scenario where a critical property required by a customer is not being met by a current solution, suppliers should not only be willing to understand the details of the application and provide expertise, but also have a dedicated R&D team to help customize existing solutions or innovate material technologies to create unique solutions specific to customer needs.
- Testing Capabilities: Suppliers should understand the differences between test methods and should choose the appropriate test method for the material that is being proposed for a specific application.
- Simulation Capabilities: A variety of simulation software focused on thermal management, thermal runaway protection and mechanical swelling is available in the market. Customers can work with suppliers to define the critical and minimum properties to be simulated and obtain representative data in order to choose the best material for optimizing the thermal distribution inside the modules and/or battery packs.
How does Saint-Gobain Tape Solutions consider the voice of the customer to provide recommendations, customize or innovate new solutions?
Tape Solutions has the know-how to define exactly how much a property of a material can be customized without affecting the overall performance. And, when modifications to existing products do not work, we involve our R&D team to develop new, innovative solutions. The R&D team can also help to mediate supply chain issues by suggesting alternative materials to use. All of this support is available to our customers at both local and global levels to better serve our customers at their supply base.
Many new products and innovations occur because of our customers. For example, if you look at our Norseal® polyurethane materials for compression pads, PF27 and PF47 Series have been on the market for a while, but after discussion with a customer, we also designed a PF100 material. PF100 was designed because the customer was looking for a material that had a flatter CFD curve. Another example is the recent launch of PS-V0, which is a polyurethane-based foam that is V-0 rated against UL94 for flame resistance. While most of our polyurethane foams are rated for HBF, this one was specifically designed to achieve higher flame resistance based on customer and market needs.
It is well known that thermal runaway is a phenomenon that the EV industry is looking to mitigate. Can you speak to the role simulation can play in helping to mitigate it?
As the battery chemistries continue to evolve, mitigating propagation to adjacent cells is critical and simulation comes in handy to guide engineers on the material selection before doing physical validation. A simulation helps understand the thermal and mechanical behavior of the cells based on identified minimum input data. It also provides flexibility to change material properties like type, thickness, position, and geometry to help compare material performance. A simulation can measure the time from the start of the thermal runaway event until the final breakdown to identify the material that will meet regulations for thermal runaway events and identify a solution that will provide the protection needed.
What is your key takeaway regarding leveraging supplier value-added services?
Working with suppliers directly can aid in obtaining tangible feedback on how a product’s properties and functionality can impact the behavior and performance of your specific project. Additionally, it opens the door for product customization, co-development opportunities and even assembly process optimization.
Suppliers must deliver technical expertise and know-how through value-added benefits and services that also provide actionable, real-world, application feedback. At Saint-Gobain Tape Solutions, we are staying atuned to the latest innovations and potential challenges of electric vehicle development, battery storage, and energy distribution. We invite you to learn more about our portfolio of trusted products, designed to improve the performance, safety, and longevity of your electric vehicles.