On May 19, Toray of Japan announced the development of high-performance heat transfer technology, which improves the thermal conductivity of carbon fiber composites to the same level as metal materials. The technology effectively transfers heat generated inside the material outward through an internal path, helping to slow down battery aging in the mobile transportation sector.
Known for its light weight and high strength, carbon fiber is now used to make aerospace, automotive, construction parts, sports equipment and electronic equipment. Compared with alloy materials, thermal conductivity has always been a shortcoming, which has become a direction that scientists have been trying to improve for many years. Especially in the booming development of new energy vehicles that advocate interconnection, sharing, automation and electrification, carbon fiber composite material has become an indispensable power for energy saving and weight reduction of related components, especially battery pack components. Therefore, it has become an increasingly urgent proposition to make up for its shortcomings and effectively improve the thermal conductivity of CFRP.
Previously, scientists had attempted to conduct heat by adding layers of graphite. However, the graphite layer is easy to crack, shatter and damage, which will reduce the performance of carbon fiber composites.
To solve this problem, Toray created a three-dimensional network of porous CFRP with high hardness and shorted carbon fiber. To be specific, porous CFRP is used to support and protect the graphite layer to form a thermal conductivity structure, and then CFRP prepreg is laid on its surface, so that the thermal conductivity of conventional CFRP is difficult to achieve, even higher than that of some metal materials, without affecting the mechanical properties.
For the thickness and position of the graphite layer, that is, the path of heat conduction, Toray has realized the full freedom of design, to achieve the fine thermal management of parts.
With this proprietary technology, Toray retains the advantages of CFRP in terms of light weight and high strength, while effectively transferring heat from the battery pack and electronic circuits. The technology is expected to be used in areas such as mobile transportation, mobile electronics and wearable devices.
Post time: May-24-2021
