Next Phase Battery Pack Design for Tracking Device

Challenge

For this project, we were approached by an existing customer that we supply several prismatic battery models to. They approached us to help them make improvements to an existing design that was currently being used in the market. We have a good relationship with them and have regular follow-up meetings with our engineering team, so they were already aware of the technical expertise we offer here at Epec.

This customer is in the securities tracking industry, and this particular battery pack is for a money tracking device. The challenge with the battery is it was currently detectable. We had been previously providing them with a larger, solid prismatic style battery that is put in the center of a money stack cut out for banking systems. As the thieves or perpetrators were stealing the money, they could flex the stack and realize the tracking device was in there because it was a solid block of a battery. So, they were looking for a solution to make something a little more flexible that could not be detected if a money stack were flexed.

Solution

After several discussions and going to their facility and seeing the application in use, we sat down and proposed a split battery design to provide two smaller prismatic batteries that would be connected together, tethered with a wire harness. With this option, they would have a lower profile and be able to flex that battery if the money stack were bent, without being able to detect that there was something inside the money stack.

Prismatic Batteries Connected with Wire Harness

Our sales team was able to set up a meeting with our battery product manager to meet with them. We discussed their issue and collaborated with our engineering team, being a combination of our Asia engineering team and our engineering team here domestically in New Bedford, Mass.

For this application, instead of one solid, large 650 milliamp hours prismatic battery pack that was currently being used, where the footprint is a solid little block in the center of the money stack, we split them into two individual prismatic batteries of 300 milliamp hours each.

This solution provided a smaller, flatter profile battery pack with a wire harness between them that can be flexed if the money stack is bent at all.

Result

Our solution provided the customer with a newer design for a less detectable tracking device within the money stack. It was around the same economics regarding cost (as well as logistics) as the previous version, but the solution for improving the detection of a tracking device inside the money stack was met.

We are a trusted supplier to them and supply flex circuits as well as battery packs. They have been a customer of ours for at least the last 10 years with a good history as far as helping them solve problems at the engineering level.

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Over the past 70 years, the electronics manufacturing industry has changed dramatically as the industry continues to adapt to evolving demands and technology. Epec is at the forefront of innovation, with the expertise and agility to move at the speed of today’s businesses. At Epec, the customer comes first, and everything we do must be put through that filter. Whether it is developing e-commerce platforms to make it easier to work with us or creating a new product introduction (NPI) process that helps our customers get to market faster, we must focus on building the new. By doing that every day, and by always making the customer our top priority, we plan on being here for another 70 years and then some.

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