Image via Scribd
Last November, Tesla filed for a patent on new battery cell technology that eliminates one or both of the electrical connections between the “jelly roll” inside and the containment cylinder on the outside. On May 7, the patent was published. According to a report by Yahoo Finance, the company said in its application:
“Current cells use a jelly-roll design in which the cathode, anode, and separators are rolled together and have a cathode tab and an anode tab to connect to the positive and negative terminals of the cell can. The path of the current necessarily travels through these tabs to connectors on the outside of the battery cell. However, ohmic resistance is increased with distance when current must travel all the way along the cathode or anode to the tab and out of the cell. Furthermore, because the tabs are additional components, they increase costs and present manufacturing challenges.”
Tesla calls the new battery technology a “Cell with a Tabless Electrode” and describes it as follows, “The cell includes a first substrate having a first coating disposed thereon, wherein a second portion of the first substrate at a proximal end along the width of the first substrate comprises a conductive material. An inner separator is disposed over the first substrate. A second substrate is disposed over the inner separator. The second substrate has a second coating disposed thereon. The first substrate, the inner separator, and the second substrate in a successive manner, the first substrate, the inner separator, and the second substrate are rolled about a central axis.”
Engineers in the group will enjoy perusing all 13 technical drawing explaining the tabless cell process included in the published patent. We have reproduced one of them above to whet your appetite. On May 7, Elon Musk took to Twitter to say the new technology is far more important than it may appear at first.
Way more important than it sounds
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 7, 2020
All of which means Tesla should have some pretty astounding news to share with the world on Battery Day, which is supposed to happen sometime this month.
I don't like paywalls. You don't like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it! We just don't like paywalls, and so we've decided to ditch ours. Unfortunately, the media business is still a tough, cut-throat business with tiny margins. It's a never-ending Olympic challenge to stay above water or even perhaps — gasp — grow. So ...
Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!
Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
