Porsche Composite Battery Box design discussion

[jeffrey.miller]

This presentation is focused on the design discussion that will lead to the design of the battery boxes for the Porsche 944 Club Car project Lithium refit for Mike W.  This presentation is focused on composite theory, materials and high level cost overview (the theory behind composites and why we would use them for this application).  There will probably be a detailed design and build presentation in a month or two.  The slide about costs concludes that this project should be complete for around 300 dollars.  The audience thought that steel battery boxes could be built for about the same amount of money however if a person would pay to have someone fabricate them it could be as high as 1000.  In reality if you were to pay to have someone fabric these composite boxes it would likely be more however the processes and design we are planning to use should be tolerant enough that we can build it ourselves without issue or high level training (thin material welding isn't trivial to learn). 

Same presentation in two different formats for compatibility.
Open Office Format
http://www.fveaa.org/fb/Porsche_Battery_Box_design_358.odp
Microsoft Office Format
http://www.fveaa.org/fb/Porsche_Battery_Box_design_359.ppt

[ted.lowe]

Great talk Jeff!  Thanks for sharing your knowledge and presentation here!

[ted.lowe]

And thanks Jeff for putting your hands where your mouth is!  Here are some pictures of Mike Willuweit's Porsche battery boxes during last weekend's two 9 hour days.   i hope people will visit Mike's before this Friday's meeting to see the boxes and Porsche (see July 2014 newsletter for details)!

Caption: Foam boxes made to fit into Porsche




Caption: Cutting the Kevlar material into pieces to fix boxes





Caption: Fit Kevlar into foam box




Caption: Two-part epoxy industrial size




Caption: Wear work clothes because this process can get messy!





Caption: Applying epoxy to Kevlar material wrapped around the foam





Caption: Finished boxes waiting for epoxy to set