Global Reach, Local Impact: Boyd’s EV Commitment

Improving Inverter Cooling Safety and Reliability with Advanced Technologies

Enhancing EV Safety and Reliability

Boyd Delivers Robust EV Performance

Boyd addresses the complex cooling challenges in the EV industry with expertise and precision. Our regionalized solutions, including reliable inverter cold plates with advanced copper cold spray technology, effectively manage heat and enhance the reliability of EV components. We maintain a region-specific supply chain to deliver high-quality parts promptly and minimize reliance on imports. Our deep expertise in thermal management enables us to tackle both blast and thermal issues cost-effectively. By focusing on innovative technologies and optimizing performance, we provide robust, reliable solutions that meet the evolving needs of the EV market.

EV Battery Protection: A Material Showdown

Electric vehicle (EV) battery safety is essential to ensure longevity and prevent extreme EV failures. Manufacturers must employ advanced materials with unique strengths in EV battery protection. These advanced materials include mica, intumescent materials, and ablative coatings. Each material offers unique properties and benefits suitable for different aspects of battery protection.

Mica

Mica, a group of silicate minerals, offers excellent protection for EV batteries. It splits into extremely thin, elastic plates and comes in two main types: muscovite, which withstands temperatures up to 800°C, and phlogopite, which tolerates temperatures above 1000°C. Mica is available in both rigid sheets and flexible rolls and is often mixed with silicone. It is used under battery lids, covers, and separators, providing high-temperature insulation and structural protection. Mica offers good thermal resistance, high dielectric insulation, and cost-effectiveness. However, mica poses challenges like ethical concerns in mining, susceptibility to cracking or flaking, and processing difficulties.

Intumescent Materials

Intumescent materials, which swell when exposed to heat, play a crucial role in EV battery protection. These materials form a heat insulating microporous char, effectively slowing thermal runaway events. This char consists of microporous carbonaceous foam formed by a chemical reaction of three main components: ammonium polyphosphate, pentaerythritol, and melamine. These materials fill air spaces during thermal runaway, release water vapor to cool the event, and provide a flame barrier. However, they may activate at normal cell charging temperatures, causing dimensional instability and releasing moisture into the battery pack.

Ablative Materials

Ablative materials shield EV batteries by absorbing heat and particulates during thermal runaway events. Designed to withstand high temperatures, these materials undergo physicochemical transformations to create effective thermal and particulate barriers. Boyd provides solutions like ablative coatings and heat shielding composites formulated with these materials as additives in high-temperature resin compounds. Compared to mica, which reflects heat, ablative materials offer superior protection by absorbing both heat and particulates, preventing them from causing secondary damage. These materials maintain dimensional stability throughout thermal events.

Shielding the Future: Boyd Transforms Advanced Materials into EV Battery Protection Solutions

Mica: The High-Temperature Defender

Intumescent Materials: Swell to Quell

Ablative Materials: Absorbing Heat

For the most demanding thermal runaway scenarios, ablative materials are the ultimate solution. Boyd offers a range of ablative solutions, including ablative coatings used as additives in high-temperature resin compounds and heat shielding composite materials. Our portfolio includes specific products like:

• BCTRP-101-1000: Single-sided glass cloth with ablative coating for protecting aluminum or PC substrates.
• BCTRP-101-1023: Double-sided glass cloth with a high-blast-resistant ablative center, ideal for steel substrates.
• BCTRP-101-1001: This thermal barrier features added high-temperature silicone/ceramic compression foam, specifically designed for use as compression pads.

Boyd: Shielding Innovation for Safe and Sustainable EVs

EV Battery Module Types

Pouch Cells

Pouch cells are flat, rectangular batteries enclosed in flexible, pouch-like packaging, engineered for seamless integration into irregular or confined spaces within a vehicle’s design. Their uniform distribution throughout the vehicle effectively balances weight and enhances stability, making them an ideal choice for custom designed EVs.

Prismatic Cells

Boyd’s Innovative Solutions for EV Battery Modules

Thermal Management

Boyd’s cutting-edge cooling technologies efficiently dissipate heat and prevent thermal runaway, without adding excessive weight or size to the EV. Our advanced liquid cooling systems and customized cold plates efficiently manage battery heat to prolong battery lifespan and enhance overall performance.

Seal and Protect

Innovate with Boyd

Boyd has decades of experience and expertise delivering thermal, insulation and shielding, and sealing and protection solutions for the eMobility industry. We have a track record of shipping over a billion eMobility components and installed our technologies in over 2 million eMobility vehicles. Leverage our 60+ years of automotive heritage for proven reliability and quality. Boyd’s rapid prototyping and design iterations accelerates time to market.

Our advanced liquid cooling and material science expertise enable us to incorporate multiple capabilities into vertically integrated eMobility solutions. To learn more about our EV Battery solutions or to discuss your project needs, schedule a consultation with our experts.

EV Battery Charger Types and Hardware

The diverse EV battery charger types such as Level 1 Charging (120V AC), Level 2 Charging (240V AC), and Superchargers (400-800V DC) are tailored for specific purposes.

EV Battery Charger: Challenges

As EV charger technology advances, the electric vehicle charging landscape confronts a range of challenges encompassing charging infrastructure, charging speed, compatibility, energy supply, costs, range anxiety, and battery degradation. For instance, superchargers generate excessive heat due to the high current passing through relatively small-diameter cables and poses a risk for safe and reliable battery operation. Therefore, effective thermal management is a critical aspect of EV charging station performance, reliability, and safety.

Boyd’s Innovative Solutions for EV Battery Charging

Display and HMIs

Elevate the quality and functionality of displays with Boyd’s premium components, expertly engineered and manufactured to withstand the tough environmental and consumer use factors for your charging station. Our offerings include optically clear adhesives, polarizers, anti-glare films, light control films, brightness enhancing films, reflective films, and light diffusing films. We also provide durable nameplates and branding solutions crafted from a versatile selection of materials, including aluminum, stainless steel, acrylic, polyester, and polycarbonate. Enhance customer experience in outdoor environments without increasing weight or power consumption using our robust switch interfaces designed for optimal performance.

Environmental Sealing and Protection

Boyd’s comprehensive range of sealing and gasketing solutions utilizes materials such as silicone foams, closed-cell silicone sponges, polyurethane foam, EVA, vinyl, neoprene, and thermoplastics. We collaborate with flexible adhesives like very high bond tapes, double-coated tapes, transfer tapes, and other materials to efficiently and robustly assemble ingress seals to waterproof charging stations.

Innovate with Boyd

Boyd has decades of experience and expertise delivering thermal solutions for the power management industry and a track record of shipping over a billion eMobility components worldwide. Leverage our liquid cooling and material science heritage to incorporate multiple capabilities into vertically integrated eMobility solutions.

Whether your needs involve safeguarding and cooling EV batteries, enhancing brand identity, or protecting and cooling advanced superchargers, Boyd empowers you to innovate and accelerate your time to market. To learn more about our EV battery charger solutions or to discuss your project needs, schedule a consultation with our experts.

Generative AI and EV Batteries: Why Liquid Cooling?

Advancing technologies like high performance artificial intelligence (AI) and electric vehicle (EV) batteries use more power. More power generates more waste heat, so much that generative AI and EV battery innovators are shifting to liquid cooling. We’ll explore why liquid cooling is a fundamental part of this conversation.

Cp air = 1.0035 J/gK

Cp water = 4.1813 J/gK

Cp ethylene glycol = 2.36 J/gK

Cp propylene glycol = 2.5 J/gK

Density Air = 0.001204 g/cm³

Density Water = 0.9982067 g/cm³

Higher Heat Capacity and Density Work Together

Liquid cooling’s edge doesn’t come from its high heat capacity or density independently. Combining these two properties make liquid a powerful cooling solution.

Most applications are restricted by how much space is available for cooling. Here’s an example:
We’ll hold the volume constant to compare; Assume we have 100cm³ for simplicity.

• In 100cm³, we can have either 0.12g of air or 99.8 g of water.
• 0.12g of air can absorb 0.12 Joules of energy before it increases 1 degree Celsius
• 99.8g of water can absorb 417 Joules of energy before it increases 1 degree Celsius

That’s over 3000 times more heat absorbed in the same volume.

Why isn’t Liquid Cooling used for Everything?

Liquid cooling can cool more and faster than air but it comes with its own challenges. Air is easily available. Air only requires fans, blowers, ducting, or air baffling to control flow. Liquid is not readily and abundantly available everywhere. Liquid cooling requires tubes, manifolds, pumps, and fittings to circulate liquid. Liquid presents leak and water damage risk that is preventable with smart sensors, software, and system redundancies, but this adds to infrastructure complexity. High density also means liquid is more difficult to move compared to air. Liquid systems either move slower or require more powerful pumping systems.

Innovators in generative AI and EV batteries turn to liquid cooling when thermal demands surpass what is feasible with air cooling. The need for higher performance outweighs liquid’s additional system and infrastructure complexities.

Picking the Right Cooling System for your Application with Boyd

Boyd has decades of high reliability liquid cooling system field performance in regulated and high safety critical markets. We have dependably cooled high power loads by refining liquid system design to mitigate liquid cooling system challenges while maximizing its high cooling capacity benefits. Innovators in generative AI and EV batteries who are pushing their performance boundaries, and by default their thermal management system boundaries, are turning to Boyd for liquid cooling concepts, advanced component and system design, thermal simulation and modeling, cooling innovation, global manufacturing at scale, and 100% in-line leak testing.

Boyd is an invaluable liquid cooling partner with thermal management expertise across the whole air and liquid cooling spectrum to help push the limits of air-cooled solutions like 3D vapor chambers and remote heat pipe assemblies or safely introduce liquid systems with coolant distribution units, chillers, and liquid loops and cold plates. We’re cooling the most advanced generative AI and EV battery applications in the market today with advanced, high efficiency, dependable liquid cooling systems. Contact us to discover how we can help cool your AI and EV battery systems.

As electric vehicles (EVs) and plug in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) continue to be adopted widely by consumers, the technology used to charge batteries has advanced exponentially. Charging, which previously took several hours for a full battery, has been streamlined to just a few minutes.

Increased charging speed requires several components that handle more power and additional solutions to maintain safe operating temperatures. Power inverters produce the most heat in these systems and require precise thermal management.

Why are Inverters and Converters Important?

Alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) are electricity types with different directional current flow. Both AC and DC are critical for electric vehicle operation, but are used in different ways.

Electricity is drawn from the power grid as AC. Most electronic devices and appliances run on alternating current, but electricity in this form cannot be stored. In order to store power from the grid in onboard EV batteries, alternating current needs to convert into direct current. Once the electricity is stored, it must be converted back into alternating current for efficient use by the electric motor and other on-board electronic components.

Power inverters and converters are critical components that provide electrical current in the right format. Power converters are electronic devices that convert alternating to direct current to be stored for later use. In contrast, power inverters convert stored electricity from DC back into AC once it is drawn from the battery for immediate use by on board components. Both inverters and converters are also used to step voltage up or down to the most efficient output.

Inverters and converters can be found in electric vehicle charging stations (to convert AC from the grid into DC for the vehicle battery) or on board the electric or hybrid vehicle (to change drawn power from home chargers from AC to DC, or to convert DC to AC for on board component use). Often, converters and inverters are combined in the same unit within the charging system or on-board charger.

Why is Inverter Cooling Important?

Changing current flow direction back and forth from alternating current to direct current and continuously stepping voltage up and down generates a high heat load within the system. If left unmanaged, this heat can lead to thermal runaway, which can damage the vehicle, batteries, charging stations, and can be unsafe for vehicle occupants.

From IGBTs, MOSFETs, and other transistors to microcontrollers, each component within inverters and converters creates heat and must be cooled. Due to the high heat load, inverters generally have their own thermal management systems.

Inverter thermal management systems often include customized liquid cold plates with specially machined flow paths and augmented fins mounted to the inverters and converters. Die-cast heat sinks are often incorporated for IGBT cooling and other individual components. Thermal interface materials, such as thermal pads, greases, and gap fillers are incorporated to facilitate heat transfer from heat producing components. These systems are highly customized to each unique converter or inverter cooling application.

Where Are Inverters and Converters Used?

While inverters and converters are critical for enabling efficient electric vehicle charging and operation, they are used across a myriad of other industries that involve high currents and voltages. Solar power grids, Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), refrigeration compressors, induction heating, and even many consumers electronic devices are applications where inverters and converters are common.

The Boyd Difference for Inverter Cooling

Boyd has decades of experience providing thermal solutions for the power management industry and has shipped more than a billion eMobility components worldwide. Our extensive supplier network, material science experience, and engineering expertise can be leveraged to incorporate multiple capabilities into vertically integrated eMobility solutions. Whether it is protecting and cooling EV batteries, optimizing touchscreen and telematic displays, elevating brand identity and more, Boyd helps you innovate and get to market faster.

To learn more about Boyd’s thermal solutions, visit our eMobility page or schedule a consultation with our experts.

Lithium-ion (li-ion) batteries are one of the most commonly used types of rechargeable batteries on the market and can be found in everything from electric vehicles and medical equipment to handheld consumer electronics and energy storage systems.

As battery pack designers continue to push lithium-ion battery limits by increasing energy density and capacity, thermal management systems must continue to evolve to safely mitigate and protect against increased heat before it builds up to cause thermal runaway.

Thermal Runaway and Why is it Important?

Heat is produced through a chemical reaction during rechargeable battery charge and discharge cycles. This heat is a necessary by-product for a battery to operate, but if left unchecked or the battery was poorly designed, it can quickly build up in the enclosed space of a battery cell or pack. When heat builds up more quickly than it dissipates, it causes a chain reaction called thermal runaway in li-ion batteries. As the heat increases, the battery releases more heat through an exothermic reaction, which in turn drives the temperature higher and higher.

If left unmanaged, thermal runaway can cause device malfunction, battery cell degradation, fires, or even explosions. Preventing thermal runaway with a robust thermal management system and smart battery design is key to guaranteeing user safety, ensuring battery integrity, and reducing warranty costs.

How Do You Prevent and Manage Thermal Runaway?

There are three main ways Boyd manages thermal runaway.

Thermal Management:The most important consideration with any heat producing component is thermal management. To protect batteries against thermal runaway, heat needs to dissipate from battery packs more quickly than it can build, which is unique to each battery’s capacity, application, and geometry.

It is important to design batteries with this in mind, incorporating thermal interface materials, liquid cold plates, thermally conductive adhesives, thermally conductive enclosures, and ultra-thin vapor chambers to cool and protect battery cells.

Preventing Thermal Runaway Conditions:Proactively preventing the conditions that allow thermal runaway is another important prevention method. While lithium is a highly efficient metal for batteries, it is also highly reactive with any kind of moisture, forming lithium hydroxide. In small quantities, lithium hydroxide can lower battery performance, and in large quantities, can cause batteries to combust.

When designing a battery cell or pack, it is critical to ensure that any gaps or joints where moisture or foreign object debris (FOD) can enter are properly sealed. Boyd offers many different gasketing, sealing, and adhesive solutions optimized for ideal compression set, force deflection, and other mechanical factors to waterproof battery packs and cells, not allowing any moisture ingress. Boyd’s gasket solutions also manage shock and vibration, minimizing degradation to battery pack seals from extreme road conditions to ensure seals stays intact throughout the life of the battery.

Incorporating electrical insulation materials in and around the battery cells (such as LectroShield, is important to prevent shorting and sparking, which can also drive heat and lead to thermal runaway.

Isolating Thermal Runaway:

While proper thermal management and prevention strategies can help reduce the chances of a thermal runaway event occurring, it is important to design batteries to prevent propagation if a catastrophic event occurs. Driver and public safety is the number one concern in transportation with duplicated safety measures designed into critical applications. Keeping the individual battery cell or affected component isolated is critical as a backup safety design to contain thermal runaway if thermal management or preventative designs fail.

Initially designing the battery packs with this in mind is the best way to isolate any thermal runaway event. Incorporating flame barriers made of flame-retardant materials (such as SOLIMIDE® foam or polymeric insulators) in between battery cells can prevent fire from reaching other thermally sensitive components should a thermal runaway event occur.

The Boyd Difference

Boyd has strategic alliances with raw material suppliers globally for adhesives, foams, thermal interface materials (TIMs), shielding, insulators, and many other advanced engineered materials. We combine these partnerships with our extensive manufacturing capabilities and design expertise to create multilayer stack-ups of materials optimized to prevent and isolate thermal runaway for your battery application.

Our engineers have decades of experience offering design support, ensuring components are designed for manufacture (DFM) and optimized for assembly. This allows us to combine different solutions for flammability, sealing, gasketing, collision protection, and more from multiple vendors into a single fully integrated product, lowering overall cost and lead times.

To learn more about Boyd’s battery solutions, visit battery page.

Battery charge range historically challenged consumer adoption of electric vehicles (EVs). But innovative EV designers have found creative ways to make drastic battery charge range improvements and the electric vehicle industry continues to grow at a rapid pace with EV adoption significantly increasing. Over the last ten years, some estimates suggest that average electric vehicle battery range has increased more than fourfold. This increase in power brings key thermal challenges. Increasing EV adoption elevates the need for more ruggedized EV battery designs to extend lifetime performance and control or reduce warranty claims.

Boyd’s innovative team of experts and design leaders are at the forefront of solving these challenges. We’re helping pioneers in this space accelerate innovation. Our engineers develop integrated thermal and engineered material solutions that enable smaller, ruggedized, lighter, more efficient, and more reliable batteries with faster charge cycles for greater electric vehicle range, safety, and reliability.

Thermal Runaway?

Lithium-Ion thermal runaway occurs when heat generated by a battery exceeds the amount of heat being dissipated. Unmanaged heat can cause an uncontrolled chain reaction to surrounding batteries and li-ion battery cells. When li-ion thermal runaway isn’t handled properly, batteries overheat produce smoke, and combust.

Multiple factors cause thermal runaway, some include internal and external short circuits, overcharging, high ambient temperatures, rapid cycling, and battery age. Effective thermal management is vital not only to an electric vehicle battery, but also to vehicle occupant safety.

How to Prevent Li-ion Thermal Runaway? Battery Thermal Runaway

Need to Be Ruggedized?

Harsh environmental conditions are an everyday reality for electric vehicles. EV batteries and components need to be protected during operation to extend performance lifetime and reduce warranty claims. Ruggedized EV batteries can withstand and perform better against collision impact, ongoing shock and vibration, extreme road conditions, and extreme weather conditions.

How to Protect EV Batteries?

Battery Cell and Battery Module

Design Shields Around the Battery Module

Wrap EV Battery Cells with Electrical Insulation

Dielectric Adhesives on Busbars

How to Maximize Electric Vehicle Battery Power Efficiency and Performance?

Leverage Lightweight, High Performance EV Battery Liquid Cold Plates

EV battery cooling solutions must meet heat challenges and overall design requirements but cannot add weight or bulk to preserve EV battery charge range. Lightweight battery liquid cold plates provide Robust Structural Support (RSS) and maximize battery heat removal for today’s highest performing electric vehicle battery modules and packs. Low-profile cooling plates efficiently cool batteries and create extra design space in the battery compartment, making room for larger, more powerful batteries.

Boyd’s custom EV battery cold plates optimize internal geometry to maximize turbulent flow and external geometry with skylines and pedestals customized to your battery design to maximize heat source contact and thermal dissipation. Boyd’s battery liquid cooling plates have one hundred percent in-line thermal testing and decades of trusted market performance to assure reliability.

Minimize Thermal Resistance with Thermal Interface Material