rebuilding a new battery so looking for advice/resources on enclosure and construction

[bordenov]

I built a 280ah battery last year for my van build which I recently found had started to leak electrolyte. I wasn't aware of it being necessary to have material between the cells other than for insulation (oops) and so two of them ended up chafing against each other. Electrolyte started leaking and thus damaged the laminate wrapping and blue casing.

Already ordered new cells but I'm now seeking some advice on what to use between the cells as well as what thickness of that material would be ok.

I saw a post here saying fr4 fiberglass sheets are the best option and have found some that are the right dimensions (although a few mm short of the width of each cell) except they are 1mm thick. The post I'm referring too said .5mm would suffice, so what thickness is too thick? I am worried about vibrations from driving causing some kind of wear on the cells again and so am considering putting rubber sheets between them maybe in addition to the fiberglass. I did order flexible busbars but since I don't have my cells yet I'm not sure as to what sort of gap I can get away with between the cells.

Some of the enclosure builds I've seen and have been referred to here have rods with compression springs on the ends. This is the post showing the compression rods, so if anyone has a how-to for that type of enclosure I'd appreciate it Not sure where to get those or how to build them exactly other than that its all-thread.

Would rubber be ok by itself as the material between cells? Would it help with vibrations over fr4? Worried about something rigid like fr4 causing chafing but maybe I'm being paranoid.

Thanks for any help.

 

[NVS]

I built a wood box for mine. Made the box first. Predrilled the screw so not to worry about running screw into the cells. I removed one end and slide in cells. When I put the end back on it pulled the cells nice and tight together. The wood also gave me a place to mount BMS and active balancer. I can turn the box upside down and the cells will not come out.

 

[WKP]

I use an ABS battery box that fits the cells perfectly including a BMS. I would post a link to it, but I'm sure that violates the vendor rules with links. There is a youtube video on assembling cells, BMS and using this box. The ID of the video is VgtZ0L4uLgs. Search that in Youtube and It will come up at the top.

 

[akumd]

@bordenov , could you please explain more about electrolyte leaking
"chafing against each other" -> how did this happen ? is the battery used inside a moving vehicle ?
How did you detect the leak ? was there a smell ?

Since your post is more than 2 years ago, did you build the battery ? is it working fine ?

Also, in my country, DIYers build LifePo4 packs,
- They compress the cells using metal sheets (using rods similar to your link This , except Metal sheets used instead of Wood).
- Thin sheets made of ABS material is used in between cells
- A Metal enclosure used.