Impact Extrusion of Aluminium Alloy Cans: Development of Ellipsoidal Cans as Storage Containers for Electrochemical Energy Systems

Aluminium alloy cans are generally used as containers for electrochemical energy systems like capacitors and advanced batteries. Packing efficiency of batteries depends upon their configuration. Containers in prismatic, cylindrical and elliptic-cylindrical shapes are generally used for battery applications. Elliptic-cylindrical shape has the advantage of better heat dissipation and good packing efficiency in battery assembly. Safety device to be provided in the cans requires material in the minimum half hard (H14) condition. In the present work, ellipsoidal cans of Al-Mn alloy were successfully realised by impact extrusion process. Mechanical properties of the cans were analysed through to ensure the adequacy of the process and it has been demonstrated that impact extrusion is a viable process for making cans for batteries with required mechanical properties, for the can in total and for the safety device in particular.