Coroplast for a battery box?

[snowranger]

Has anyone worked with this material for a battery box? Seems like it would be naturally waterproof and easy to work with.

I couldn't find a suitably sized ammo box, so it's either wood or some sort of plastic material.

 

[cerewa]

FYI coroplast has pockets of air inside it. It'll insulate a little like double paned glass does.

If you use lexan (solid plastic) it will allow your battery to cool itself off a little better.

 

[Ypedal]

Depends on the batteries you plan to use..

Nimh/Nicad tend to get warm/hot during discharge and charge, even when used as intended...

Lithium however, if used as intended ( most of the time ) will remain cool and you don't really have to worry about heat .

How big a pack and of what kind do you need to box up ?

 

[snowranger]

Ping 48-20.

 

[Ypedal]

Pings are made of foil pouch cells, wrapped in tape..

Using colorplast as an insulating/non-conductive layer would be ok, but personally i think these foil pouch cells need some solid boxing to prevent the outer edge/corners from getting deformed.

Using this on a 20 amp controller ? or higher ?

 

[Zoot Katz]

I've been considering it.

There was some laying around here that needed to be recycled so I cut it up to temporarily protect the cans of my new NiMH packs. Then I covered those in medium density neoprene and hockey tape. Tossing the batteries in the Xtracycle's bags was quick and dirty and discrete. They looked great until it dawned on me that I'd just created an oven for my batteries.

I cut open the hockey tape seams of the neoprene and the taped Coroplast seams to charge my battery packs in their raw, shrink-wrapped state with a pile of heat sinks to boot. Next time I remove them from their shock and dent protected ovens to charge them, I'm going to make a hole in the shrink-wrap to insert a thermometer probe. Then I'll make corresponding holes in the Coroplast and Neoprene to monitor their heat under discharge.

Before gluing Coroplast, you have to remove the waxy surface. A flap wheel, sanding drum, wire wheel or just plain old 40 grit gets it rough enough for hot glue to stick. You have to cut through the outer layers, leaving the inner most layer intact, to make a tight bend. Cutting across the corrugations accurately requires developing a touch for the material.

Without a solid backing to spread the load, I'd not trust a Cororplast box to support the weight of our battery packs.
A "fender washer" as a backing plate would be about as small as I'd go but not without a of couple straps to secure the whole works.
The stuff is amazingly strong considering its cost and weight. It's great for mock-up fairings and serves sufficiently well for semi-refined ones too.

It's good stuff. It deserves better applications than employment for political and other temporary signage.

 

[snowranger]

Good information. The last sentence was the best part.

 

[dogman dan]

It should work damn good for cushioning, just like cardboard would. When i crashed with my ping, I was carrying in a battery bag that had come with the sla's. My battery took a hell of a hit on the corner and would have ruined at least one cell if I hadn't wrapped a thick aluminum cookie sheet around it to make a box. The corner dented real good but the cells didn't get torn.

 

[snowranger]

How the heck do you wrap a cookie sheet around it? That seems stronger than cardboard. I think I am just going to build a wooden box.

 

[Link]

With man-arms. Duh.

I like the way ABS tends to work out (and it looks pretty professional), but it's terrible for thermal conductivity. You can get the stuff melting hot, run it under water until the outside is cool, and it will heat itself back up enough to burn you. That's only 1/8" thick ABS, too. Think that might be a bit of an advantage in colder places, though.

I'd question the impact resistance of coroplast for use in a battery box, but it's light and non-conductive, which is good.

 

[dogman dan]

Even the thick cookie sheets fold easy. You cut the corners to make a sort of T shape piece, and then put the battery in the center and fold up the corners. There is a thread with a pic or two in batteries about it, something about ping batteries above 101 F I think. For me it was also one of those , do it with what I see in the house things.