The project I have been working on for the past week or two has been fabricating a mounting frame for our charger. Though it may appear so from the outside, charging a battery pack like ours is not as simple as plugging it into the wall. The power first has to go through an intermediate stage before it can charge the batteries. For this intermediate, we have the Manzanita Micro PFC-50 (seen below). It is a charger that can handle anything from regular charging all the way up to very rapid recharging.
Since the elEVen's current battery pack is in the trunk, it would be ideal if the charger could be in there with it. However, there was very little room left in the trunk with the massive battery pack and new cooling shroud, so I had to work within the remaining space. The only place the Manzanita would fit was above the cooling unit. Keeping the dimensions of the trunk in mind, I came up with a design in Solidworks. The whole frame would be welded together, and the Manzanita would be easily bolted on. Here is a preliminary design I made.
After double checking everything to make sure it would fit, I began cutting lengths from a bar of hollow, square cross section steel using our cold saw. I then drilled the mounting holes in them, and handed them over to Pete, our designated daytime welder, to weld together. While he was doing that I cut four small triangles out of steel plate and put a hole in each of them. The idea was to weld the small triangles to the bottom of the trunk, and then bolt the mounting frame onto them. This would allow easy removal of the whole frame while having a small permanent footprint in the car and allowing for the cooling shroud to be easily removed if necessary. Once Pete finished the welding, he hit it with a shiny black paint job, and it was done. It fits perfectly too, have a look.
Since the elEVen's current battery pack is in the trunk, it would be ideal if the charger could be in there with it. However, there was very little room left in the trunk with the massive battery pack and new cooling shroud, so I had to work within the remaining space. The only place the Manzanita would fit was above the cooling unit. Keeping the dimensions of the trunk in mind, I came up with a design in Solidworks. The whole frame would be welded together, and the Manzanita would be easily bolted on. Here is a preliminary design I made.
After double checking everything to make sure it would fit, I began cutting lengths from a bar of hollow, square cross section steel using our cold saw. I then drilled the mounting holes in them, and handed them over to Pete, our designated daytime welder, to weld together. While he was doing that I cut four small triangles out of steel plate and put a hole in each of them. The idea was to weld the small triangles to the bottom of the trunk, and then bolt the mounting frame onto them. This would allow easy removal of the whole frame while having a small permanent footprint in the car and allowing for the cooling shroud to be easily removed if necessary. Once Pete finished the welding, he hit it with a shiny black paint job, and it was done. It fits perfectly too, have a look.
The development of EV depends on its charging technology.
ReplyDelete