Battery pack transportation interface (BPTI) is a welded assembly frame used to ensure the safe transport of heavy battery packs, inside and outside the plant. The main features of this product are: lifting flange, lower interface for BPTI fixing and resting, forklift lifting profiles, crane lifting hooks, and U-handles for manual handling. It consists of two main structures, the lower and upper transportation interface, which surrounds and protects the BP from damage. BP is lifted from the customer’s assembly table with the help of the upper transportation interface, using a crane/forklift, then precisely lowered and positioned onto the lower interface. After putting everything in place, the whole system can be safely transported inside/outside the plant.
Process development started with clearly understanding client inputs and all challenges and steps of the transportation process. The main challenge of this product was to ensure safe lifting by matching its CoG to BP CoG, weight under 600kg, and to enable the precise positioning of the assembly on the lower transportation interface. Another unpredicted challenge was the unexpected shortening of the deadline
for 50% due to unforeseen circumstances by the client, so we had to expand our development team, quickly reorganize, and deliver the product much earlier than initially planned.
On another hand, in the final stages of production, we realized that transportation inside of transport vehicle was unforeseen a priori – transportation vehicle bumps, strong vibrations, and the influence of G-forces. Therefore, we needed additional safety features. How to fix the whole system? How to ensure that the battery pack will not crash? We quickly designed and manufactured additional safety features within the desired high quality, which did not affect the transportation process.
There were technological and structural optimizations done, due to global and local analysis of the product. The number of machined parts was lowered to an optimal number and the mass cut was nearly 12%. Also, several redundant manipulations were eliminated, as well as a few unnecessary parts. The Assembly process and welding were fully optimized and the whole product was produced in only 14 days!
Key values that customers gained from this product were reliability and agility of battery pack transportation, as well as simplification of the initial transportation process.
