Rivian IP Holdings, LLC

Nathaniel C Wynn

Tyler David Collins

Kyle William Butterfield

Vignesh Sekar

Ehsan Baseri

Kyle O'Neil

Travis Cournoyer

Kyle Butterfield

Todd Putnam

Charles E Chang

Jorge Rodriguez

Tyler Jacobs

Anish Shah

Justin Rodenburg

Jagannathan Shankar Mahadevan

Emil Yu-ming Chao

Kai Yamamoto

Zubin Hareshkumar Padia

A battery system for providing electric power to a vehicle includes an assembly having battery cells. The battery system also includes a shear wall that is arranged along a lateral side of the assembly to provide structural support. The shear wall is two-part, including a first element and a second element, both of which may be formed from sheet metal and welded together. The first element has a first flange extending away from the lateral side of the assembly, and the second element has a second flange. The first flange and the second flange are layered together to form an interface. The flanges are welded together at the interface, proximal to the assembly, to form a resulting flange that is thicker than either individual flange and that may be mounted to a frame member. The battery system may also include another shear wall on the opposite lateral side.

Battery module wall

A high voltage distribution system is provided with multiple fuses. The high voltage distribution system includes multiple laminated busbars that are electrically coupled to a battery and to the multiple fuses. Busbars are electrically coupled to the one or more fuses via electrical connections between the busbars and the fuses. The electrical connections can pass through other busbars without having an electrical coupling to the other busbars. An insulating layer may be used between the busbars to prevent overcurrent events. The configuration, size, and position of each busbar is selected based on the electrical requirements of components that are electrically coupled to the busbar and based on the prevention of overcurrent events.

High voltage laminated power distribution system with integrated fuses

A battery module and a method of assembling the battery module are provided. The battery module includes a cooling surface having a first area and a second area with different cooling capacities, an adhesive including a first component having a first thermal conductivity and a second component having a second thermal conductivity, and a first battery and a second battery. The first battery is secured to the first area by a first portion of the adhesive and the second battery is secured to the second area by a second portion the adhesive. The first portion of the adhesive has a first ratio of the first component to the second component and the second portion of the adhesive has a second ratio of the first component to the second component. The first and second ratios are different and compensate for the different cooling capacities of the first and second areas.

Temperature gradient control with thermal interface material variation

An apparatus includes a component having an edge feature that has a radius of curvature. The apparatus includes an underlayer arranged over the edge feature and configured to increase the radius of curvature of the edge feature. The apparatus includes a powder coating arranged over the component and over the underlayer to form a continuous layer. The underlayer is configured to remain under the powder coating. The underlayer helps the powder coating achieve a more uniform thickness over the edge feature. The apparatus is formed by applying an underlayer to a first region of the component to form an underlaid component. The first region includes the edge feature. A powder coating is applied to the underlaid component. A masking layer may be applied to a region other than the first region, and after powder coating, the masking may be removed to expose a surface of the component.

Systems and methods for managing sharp transitions for powder coating

A battery enclosure is provided having unswitched positive and negative terminals that are physically separated. The unswitched positive and negative terminals may be connected to circuit protection components, such as contactors and fuses. The contactors are set to an opened or closed state via a contactor control module. The battery enclosure includes external terminals that electrically couple the battery and circuit protection devices to external components, such as charging ports and electrical loads.

Distribution system for unswitched high voltage power

An electric vehicle battery pack cover with a fiber reinforced multiple-ply composite body whose bottom surface is coated with a high-hardness, high-melting point, and fire- and abrasion-resistant coating. The coating can be any one or more materials that provide sufficient fire and abrasion resistance to allow the battery pack to contain a battery fire. As examples, the coating can be a nickel layer, a steel layer, a high temperature mineral layer such as a mica layer, or any combination of these materials. The composite body can be any composite body that is both compatible with the fire- and abrasion-resistant coating and provides sufficient strength to act as a battery cover. As examples, the composite body can be made of one or more glass fiber plies, carbon fiber plies, aramid fiber plies, or any combination of any number of these plies, with a crosslinked polymer or other matrix.

Electric vehicle battery pack cover having composite structure

A battery system includes a battery frame, a battery module, and a polymeric seat. The battery frame includes a horizontal bottom plate and a plurality of members that extend in a vertical direction from the bottom plate. The battery module includes at least one battery cell enclosed inside body of the battery module. The battery module also includes an attachment surface fixedly attached to the body and one or more supports that extend downward from to the body. The attachment surface is fixedly attached to one or more of plurality of members to generate a force on the one or more supports in a direction of the bottom plate. The polymeric seat is fixedly attached to either the one or more supports or the battery frame and removably contacts the other of the one or more supports or the battery frame. The polymeric seat is compressed in response to the force.

Battery module frame configuration

Efficiency of a battery module is achieved using an actively cooled high power electrical interface. The battery module comprises a plurality of battery cells, at least one busbar coupled to the battery cells, a connector electrically coupled to the at least one busbar, and at least one cooling component that is thermally coupled to the first connector. The battery cells may be arranged in two layers, each layer containing a plurality of battery cells connected by a busbar. The connector comprises a contact through which the battery module may be coupled to an external circuit. The at least one cooling component provided cooling for the battery cells and the connectors and may be placed on the surface of the battery module or between layers of battery cells.

Battery module with actively cooled high power electrical interface

A drain system is described for allowing fluid to drain from a battery pack while maintaining structural integrity of the battery pack. A frame of the battery pack is comprised of several retaining members in which valves are disposed to allow fluid to exit the battery pack. The valves are positioned such that forces normally experienced while driving a vehicle, such as acceleration, deceleration, and turning forces, cause the fluid to flow toward and through the valves.

Battery pack water drain system

A battery interconnect may include a desired current capacity, integrated fusible links, and be manufacturable using cost effective techniques. In some embodiments, a battery interconnect includes a busbar and relatively thinner links. A busbar carries larger currents and accordingly its cross-sectional areas are relatively larger to reduce ohmic losses. A link carries a much smaller current, and a fusible link is configured to break the circuit when the current is above a threshold, thus requiring a relatively small cross-sectional area. These sometime disparate length scales are addressed using several techniques such as layering a busbar and a foil sheet and pressing portions of a busbar to form the links. The links can be affixed to a plurality of battery cells to connect the cells in parallel or series.

Busbars having stamped fusible links

A circuit protection system is provided herein that minimizes the disconnection time of a circuit while protecting other electrical components. Some configurations comprise a set of parallel circuit interruption devices, each connected in series with respective fuses. A control device sets a state of the circuit interruption device based on a current of the circuit. Under certain current loads, the circuit is interrupted without causing a fuse to blow. Under other current loads, the circuit is interrupted by having one or more fuses blow.

Quick battery disconnect system for high current circuits

Multi-part battery module wall

An electric vehicle battery pack with a strike shield affixed to its bottom. The strike shield provides structural support to withstand ground strikes without damaging the batteries within the battery pack. The strike shield is a mixed material sandwich bottom plate structure having a composite top layer, a middle core with one or more hollow members adhesively connected or welded together, or a single integrated structure with elongated stiffeners and/or a base member with elongated channels for stiffness, and a composite bottom layer.

Electric vehicle battery pack having bottom strike shield

A battery system of a vehicle may include a main battery pack, a secondary battery pack, and one or more secondary contactors. The main battery pack is integrated into the vehicle and includes a first plurality of battery cells, a first DC bus coupled to the first plurality of battery cells, and main contactors coupled to the first DC bus to form a switched DC bus. The secondary battery pack includes a second plurality of battery cells, and a second DC bus coupled to the second plurality of battery cells. The second DC bus of the secondary battery pack is electrically coupled to the switched DC bus of the main battery pack via the secondary contactors. In some embodiments, the main battery pack includes control circuitry configured to communicate with control circuitry of the secondary battery pack to manage or monitor coupling of the battery packs.

Auxiliary energy system architecture

A frame is described for positioning a battery using a vision system to determine at least one weld point on the battery. The frame includes at least one visual reference feature detectable by the vision system. The reference feature is used by the vision system to determine the weld point(s). For example, the at least one visual reference feature includes a pair of stubs that define a line, and the at least one weld point is determined based on the line. In a further example, the pair of stubs correspond to respective batteries, which are arranged adjacent to one another within the frame. In a further example, respective centers of the stubs are lined up along a center line extending from respective centers of respective end faces of the respective batteries. The vision system includes vision circuitry, processing circuitry coupled to the vision circuitry, and a weld system.

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Tustin, CA, United States of America

Nathaniel C Wynn