The Future of Protection in E-Mobility

Mersen’s groundbreaking DC overcurrent protection provides solutions for electric vehicles and battery-related applications

THE CHALLENGE:

As E-Mobility transportation means are now being mass-marketed; safety and reliability are the most important priorities for the vehicles and their occupants. For all variations of an Electric Vehicle [Hybrid (HEV), Plug-In Hybrid (PHEV) or Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) ], the motor is powered by the battery either intermittently or continuously. Wherever there is a power source, electrical components such as the Battery, DC Contactor, Power Distribution Unit, or Auxiliary Circuits must be protected against low and high current faults by Over Current Protection Devices (OCPD).

However, the need for protection of power components in the automotive world relying on DC battery power has introduced a whole set of new challenges. Fuses being applied to DC battery applications in E-Mobility must guarantee fast protection for a wide range of fault currents; withstand a sequence of charging and discharge cycles, accelerations, regenerative braking; all the while being subjected to environmental conditions such as vibrations and wide variations in ambient temperature.

THE SOLUTION:

In 2017, Mersen announced the expansion of its portfolio of electrical protection components with the availability of a groundbreaking series of DC Over-Current Protection Devices solutions for electric vehicles and battery-related applications. Mersen's new Xp and Xs Series hybrid devices and Mersen's expanded line of DC fuses provide complete coverage of the whole DC power spectrum in E-mobility applications. The newly introduced line of OCPDs provide superior cycling capability and fast high-fault clearing at high DC voltages while maintaining low to virtually no power loss over the entire DC voltage and current range.

Mersen’s Xp Pyro Fuse Series’ heart is composed of an ultra-fast-acting pyro-element with self-triggered and/or external ignition capacity. This protection meets custom design requirements of very fast operating time, extremely low watt losses, and high cycling performances up to 1000 VDC.

The Xs advanced contactor series is a resettable 750 VDC arc-less hybrid power relay with the capability of switching both high voltage and high current. Both systems provide maximum flexibility in equipment design and the ultimate in protection. They have been engineered to provide protection for DC applications: e-mobility, Electrical Energy Storage, EV/HEV, SmartGrid, and PV installations.

Mersen’s EVpack-fuse (battery pack fuse) and M-fuse (battery module fuse) are ultra-fast-acting DC fuses designed to address specific needs in EV/HEV and battery storage systems. With complete protection from 100 up to 1000 VDC and up to 600A with Minimum Breaking Capacity (MBC) < 3kA for a perfect matching with DC contactors, these fuse families have been fully tested in DC conditions to guarantee fast and reliable protection for large fault currents.

According to Philippe Roussel, VP Global Strategic Marketing, SPM, “Mersen has transformed our product offering to keep pace with the technological advancements and demands of the Electric Vehicle (EV/HEV) and Electrical Energy Storage (EES) markets. We are committed to push boundaries and introduce game-changing disruptive technologies to make EV/HEV and EES applications safer and more reliable.”

Mersen also provides custom-made cooling and bus bar solutions for e-mobility applications. Efficient cooling of the battery pack and inverters on board the e-vehicle is of utmost importance. Liquid cooled cold plates extract the heat generated by the inverter conversion cycles as well as keeping the batteries within the optimum operation temperature boundaries during use and charging cycles.

Flexible monitoring bus bars from Mersen, provide robust power connectivity and monitoring of the battery cells health and charging status.