3D PRINTER MADE PLASTIC BATTERY HOLDERS FOR 18650'S

With so many 3 D Printers available for the public / hobbyist at good prices , Surely some enterprising person here on E.S. could get one and make ( ready for the others of us to buy from him ) , ready made Plastic Battery holders for off the shelf 18650 cells,

10 s 4p / 5p / 6p

13 s 4p / 5p / 6p

14 s 4 p / 5 p / 6 p

and
16 s 4p / 5p / 6p

and other custom sizes, with ease.

Holders , with all the metal clips/springs attached , in a few different shapes to fit in small frames, and full suspension frames as well as regular hard tail frames.

Right now we are stuck with buying welded packs , in just 2 different shapes, ... from BMS, Em3ev, Ebike.ca , and Luna, etc.
But I am sure they would sell to us the single batteries, Luna already does this.

Better shipping costs, as well as a pack that will fit our individual frame .

Much better for us DIY builders, along with the ability to change out a single cell at a time as it goes bad !

Who wants to do this ?

Well I believe that there are already options available for solderless cell packs!

But if there is the need I'm willing to do it. Guys you can contact me by MP if you want a 3d print battery holder we can discuss details then.

You probably don't know what you are talking about. If you knew, you'd probably understood why there are none for sale, at least for now.
For the starters, 3D printing is too slow, expensive, and end result is crap.
To develop proper holder takes some brains and to put all those options you listed into production will newer pay back, and someone will be in a deep black hole of debpt.

agniusm said:

You probably don't know what you are talking about. If you knew, you'd probably understood why there are none for sale, at least for now.
For the starters, 3D printing is too slow, expensive, and end result is crap.
To develop proper holder takes some brains and to put all those options you listed into production will newer pay back, and someone will be in a deep black hole of debpt.

Click to expand...

What are you talking about? No offense here but you're completely wrong.

First of all you can print quality solid objects if you know how to. I'm printing nylon for direct mechanical parts prototypes which will be stressed in real riding conditions, I can already walk all over it with my 80Kg and it won't even make a cracking noise. Plus you can make butter smooth finishes easily.
Second there is no need to get in debt to get a printer. Actually I got one for my own use and doing this would help me get little income from it.
Then it is easy to come with a battery layout as long as you know CAD.

Also this is not a mass production, this is a contact-to-order production... You make the schedule with your "customer".
Your printing time depends on the object complexity and printing speed, which depends on your material and printer itself. What if you can get a full layout ready within 2 hours? What if you can make it within minutes? Is that slow to you knowing that you are actually making the good you want 't to ship?

You also know that for mass production there are monster printers which will cut to the job perfectly too, right?

The only option i see is SLS. Do you have it at home? Good for you if you have it which i doubt. FDM is crap.
Do it and then let me know how it went.

P.S. Is that your CAD knowledge (Cellphone aided design ):



No offence, just found that to be entertaining

Agniusm,

This is not meant to be the sole source income for the person doing it, it is for someone with a 3D printer to make some side money even to pay off the machine.

I do not have a 3D printer myself , however whenever I have seen one working there was no one standing around watching it, or standing around waiting for the product to finish being made.
That is in reality , Not , labor intensive .
you can walk away from the printer and let it do its job, and come back later however long , so even while you are sleeping work is being done.



I did not mention this before, so here you go. instead of round coil springs to hold the batteries in place on the plus + and minus side - like the plastic battery holders can buy for AA and AAA batteries,
use metal that is just strong enough to act like a spring , picture a clip, a metal clip .
Also
besides the plastic holding the batteries in place, Round or Rectangular , Sides can be made that bolt together with long bolts that will also give the flat metal springs , a strong enough bond to the battery.
( the 18650's ) sitting in the bicycle front frame triangle , horizontal, so that when the two sides are clamped together with the long allen bolts and nuts it puts enough pressure to keep the flat metal contact " springs "
always in enough contact with the two battery + and - ends of the battery )

Lol that's cheating, this was from a long time ago :lol:

Don't worry I've made my homework since that post! I'm currently writing with my phone but I will try to upload a pic of my last print. It looks similar to the one in my thread but better in every way (means harder, better, faster, stronger and I can again improve with two tweaks ) As I said I literally stomped it under my foot this morning and no damage whatsoever. SLS is a way to go, one of the actual best, but it's not the only way to go. When you make links between nylon layers by melting them above 240°C, you don't just end up with pastas ready to split.

If I can abuse a mechanical part supposed to be stressed when riding, what would stop me from making battery holders which won't be mechanically stressed?

Edit : please look here http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=65799&start=50#p1124974

And this following picture is a failed try, see structural integrity


I've already corrected it and printed under 3 hours 100% fill the good part. (my phone keeps correcting in the WRONG way what I write this is annoying)

Here is an example for anyone who doubts how strong Plastic can be made.

The Sides of the Radiator that is in my car is made of Nylon Plastic, think about how strong it has to be in order to withstand the very high fluid temperatures and pressures .

Scooter Man actually you don't need clamps or nylon for batteries, quality PLA and couple fasteners will work alright. Also for connections holding nibs are dope.

Ok,

That is reassuring.

Can these battery pack holders have brackets designed and made strong enough to take Off Road, ( Mountain Biking ) ?

One thing is to print a holder, quiet another to make a holder that everyone will be able to use, will have good connections to cells terminals which will not degrade through time, will have routes for balancing wires, ways to incorporate main terminals, etc, etc. I wander how strong your PLA be at 1mm wall thickness? It has to be light as well, otherwise no point in using 18650.
I have done a kit for the community once and i know how time consuming it is:





I started designing 18650 battery kit (solder-less spotweld-less), but the cost of molds, dies etc was unbearable:





I am working on another design now to lower manufacturing cost, make it safe and user friendly, but about that, when i have something in my hand to show

So let me know when you make one, i'm sure will want to see it in function.

Now that's an awesome kit! I'll be definitely requiring your input about possible weak points once I get a holder kit to show.

From my POV I'd rather make delta structure instead of vertical walls since cells are round. Precious millimeters of material are then gained and triangle is stronger than a flat plane. As long as connections are secured all over the cells, BMS and cables can be placed conveniently but BMS size is also dependent of power ratings... I need details, could do simple spacer holders like Legos with fasteners and clips but if somebody wants a more custom solution I'd need more details.
Plus there is a lot of difference in available space depending on which frame the battery is supposed to be mounted.

Edit: Scooter Man yes it can but oddly enough, I'd rather adapt a metal clip to the frame tube and insert screws to link it to the holder pack. Because it will be slimmer.

Snath's solderless pack threads are where I would start with this. The 18650 spacers can already be purchased relatively easily.
Really its the outer packaging which could be printed, but as demonstrated by Snath, they can be cut out of plastic relatively easily.

It could be attractive to design a spacer which could be printed in a honey comb design, but then, the nickel would also require customisation into honeycomb shaped plates. The point of doing this would be to increase the number of 18650s into the same space.....

I am going with Snath method, only using different materials. Low set silicone rubber, it performs on wide band of temperatures, -55 to 250 celsius.
I have set one of my designs on makerbot, its a small 4 cells parallel module, but it takes 7 hours to print. This is what i was talking about in the beginning of this thread, 4 full days to print 14s battery. Sure you can cut the time down cause i have used 30% fill and .1mm layer. Anyway, some progres, although slow.

Whats the latest on this project, i would be interested!

agniusm said:

One thing is to print a holder, quiet another to make a holder that everyone will be able to use, will have good connections to cells terminals which will not degrade through time, will have routes for balancing wires, ways to incorporate main terminals, etc, etc. I wander how strong your PLA be at 1mm wall thickness? It has to be light as well, otherwise no point in using 18650.
I have done a kit for the community once and i know how time consuming it is:

I started designing 18650 battery kit (solder-less spotweld-less), but the cost of molds, dies etc was unbearable:

I am working on another design now to lower manufacturing cost, make it safe and user friendly, but about that, when i have something in my hand to show

So let me know when you make one, i'm sure will want to see it in function.

Click to expand...

Anyone know where I could have someone design me a holder to fit this shape? I am thinking about having a few sets made. It would make welding them up easier also by having them held in place.

If we got really creative, we could have the "structure" only run between the cell groups so nickel sheet could still be used.

View attachment 1

Engineering Students perhaps , at your local Collage/University, or even a High School if that school is making a solar car.

Mammalian04 said:

Anyone know where I could have someone design me a holder to fit this shape? I am thinking about having a few sets made. It would make welding them up easier also by having them held in place.

If we got really creative, we could have the "structure" only run between the cell groups so nickel sheet could still be used.

View attachment 1

Click to expand...

I advise anyone making resizeable boxes to use Openscad. using openscad you can put all your batteries inside a loop like : for 8x, for 14y, and it will do a 8p14s box only by changing the loop number. Advantage with that also is that you are in a mindset of cheapness: if you design everything resizeable like lego, you can print a one size does all and cut to shape. but not print, like make 1m square extruded plastic and cut it to size. you can save twice the space in transport as well if it is not all in one boxes, and simplify the complexity of the moulds more than 2 times.

You can get away with square battery arrangements using a 3d printer. There's a ton of things to consider and i have done a lot of 3d printed boxes and know about everything to do with plastic battery boxes. On a home 3d printer you have to have almost zero warp so that means that you have to print two halves rather than a complete box. also you have to reinforce it after by dipping it in abs juice because filament made plastic can double in strength if you melt the layers together with a solvent, which only takes 5 mins so it's worth the time.

If you do honeycomb shape arrangements, you save 2 cm on a 14s 8p box, and it is a bit more complex so easier to start with straight arrangements and be familiar with the challenges.

I've got a design that i've been working on for a couple of years, I'm going to see if i can get it made seriously, i was supposed to have it done by now, sorry for being slow.Geometric Prints Demonstration:

I can design the shape very easily for you in less than a day with precise measurements, To print a very large object afterwards, you can try 3dHubs or ShapeWays and other printing companies. It is probably cheaper to get a master print turned into a professional silicon mould, which can then be used to make a dozen glass fiber versions, roughly as strong as a bathtub kind of plastic. here's the cost...
I can design it for about 70 dollars for a simple version, and like all design, the longer it takes the more perfectionsist it is. I send the design with some tweakable numbers like battery width in 0.1mm.
Buying a 3d printer afterwards only costs 300 dollars these days, to be able to print it in 5-10 parts using ABS.
You may as well buy a 3d printer because they are so cheap these days. Windows 10 can already recognize 2-3 of them as printers and the future we will all have them.

After that, you can say the total cost of the project is about 400 dollars fixed cost, and then one week and 20 dollars for every copy version that you print.

The plastic in 3d printers is the same plastic they use for lego bricks. it is very strong and glueing two halves of an object is stronger than the 3d print itself.

Building a 3d printer is awesome fun, it's a bit easier than building an ebike:
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_pg_...nk&keywords=3d+printer&ie=UTF8&qid=1478004144

Mammalian04 said:

Anyone know where I could have someone design me a holder to fit this shape? I am thinking about having a few sets made. It would make welding them up easier also by having them held in place.

If we got really creative, we could have the "structure" only run between the cell groups so nickel sheet could still be used.

Click to expand...

If you are going to use a some sort of holder, you have to account fr spaces between the cells. Say 1mm, that will increase your pack length by 2cm.
There is little to design. 3d printing ok for prototyping. For this i would suggest going to cnc shop with sheets of pom. Its really simple job just get involved and yu will do it yourself

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=69638&p=1050565#p1050565

Hey, spend 30 minutes learning OpenScad program anyways...
http://www.openscad.org/cheatsheet/

It will let you make your model only by placing some objects around...

For the outside shell, you have to use 4-5 cylinders and use the hull
using the cheatsheet do: hull(cylnder x5)



for the difference, just difference({hull(cylinder x5)}{inner hole}) easy

and for the battery and hole placements, the holes are also a difference from the hull.

you can learn it in a day it's very precise and you put variables at the top like screwDiam= 4;

and then you can resize all your parts a lot easier than using a modelling program, it's an engineer's dream.
http://diwo.bq.com/video/openscad-ii-7-tirando-tangentes-con-el-operador-hull/
https://www.google.fr/search?espv=2...0....0...1c.1.64.img..1.6.263...0.K4q5S82ilCI

then just print it wherever.