The leaves do not need to contact each other in any other point than at the 
battery terminal screw which compresses them into one flat ring.

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

From: Mr. Sharkey via EV
Sent: Wednesday, October 2, 2019 4:18 PM
To: [email protected]
Cc: Mr. Sharkey
Subject: Re: [EVDL] LiFePO4 Thermal Imaging Opinions?

Well, it looks like this issue may have been one of my own making. 
When I went to remove the cell interconnect strap, both bolts into 
the cell terminals were "just snug", not tight. Apparently I got 
distracted when completing the BMS card swap, and didn't torque the bolts.

The straps are made up of four .025" "leaves" of copper stock, with a 
little hickey bend in the center for mechanical relief between the 
cells. A sleeve of heat shrink tubing  protects the center of the 
completed strap, and holds it together for assembly on the pack. This 
was one that I had disassembled to repair, probably because it had 
been intentionally bent by the previous owner to do something that it 
wasn't intended to do.

When I took it off, it didn't look at all unusual on the top, and the 
bottom looked fine, it had been in complete contact with the cell 
terminals by the appearance of the anti-corrosion grease.

Inside was a different matter. I cut the heat shrink off and found this:

http://www.westlanetv.org/~sharkey/evgfx/Hot_Strap.jpg

The four leaves from right-to-left are top-to-bottom, respectively, 
and the bottom of the photo is the end that was connected to the 
too-warm cell in the IR photo.

I wish I had been able to use some brand name green abrasive pads 
instead of the dollar-store pretend ones, cleaning the discoloration 
out of the straps would have been much easier. Afterwards, I hit them 
with real white Scotchbrite, then gave them a shine with Brasso for 
good measure. A wash with denatured alcohol, and I put them back on 
the cells. I'm going to go all over the battery and check all the 
fasteners for proper torque before putting the cover back on the pack.

In the long term, I think I might build a new strap. If this one was 
so abused that I needed to take it apart to use it again, there may 
be some issues with the leaves not making as complete of a contact 
with each other as new, flat straps made from new stock. I don't have 
any .025 stock, so I use five leaves of .020 copper to build new straps.

I hope to have another session with the IR camera next week to see if 
my efforts to correct this little screw-up have been successful.

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