BONN, GERMANY (29 July, 2024) – Kautex Textron GmbH & Co. KG (Kautex), a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) company, announced it has received the Grand Innovation Award from the Internationale Gesellschaft für Kunststofftechnik, SPE Central Europe for its thermoplastic battery cell holder for Pentatonic Battery Enclosures.
Collaborating with Siebenwurst GmbH & Co., AKRO-PLASTIC GmbH, Envalior, and ENGEL, Kautex successfully brought together thermal and plastic engineering to integrate high performance direct cooling into thermoplastic battery enclosures. The process, known as two-phase immersion cooling, enables high heat transfer rates while maximizing temperature homogeneity within the battery pack at optimal battery operating temperature. The battery itself works as an evaporator in a refrigeration process, thus heat loads at high charging rates can be safely and permanently managed by the battery thermal system.
"A deep understanding of battery thermal behavior and its translation into a thermoplastic design - which includes material selection, process, and tooling - was crucial to this project," said Moritz Lipperheide, Director Research and lead for this project. "We're proud that SPE voted our project the most innovative of all 43 submissions."
This is the second time Kautex has received an SPE Innovation Award for its Pentatonic Battery Enclosures, the first time in 2022 in the Enabler Technology category for its lightweight, thermoplastic composite enclosure made in a one-step molding process.
The Automotive Division Award of the Internationale Gesellschaft für Kunststofftechnik, SPE Central Europe, is recognized for the quality of the entrants and its objective evaluation criteria.
