Transparent cell wrap

[harrisonpatm]

I'm building a small-ish 2kwh pack for a electric moped conversion I'm working on, and I found a good supply of used scooter packs. Going through the process of sorting and testing individual cells. I expected to have to replace some of the cell wrappers due to them ripping or falling off during recovery, and even if they didn't rip, I would have wanted to rewrap all these cells anyway: my case design is basically 3d-printed supports to enclose the cells with clear plexiglass. It's an electric moped and I want people to know it, dammit! So aestheticlly, I wanted clean and same-looking cells with no leftover glue or tape or whatever. But in seriousness, having a see-through battery case allows me to quickly diagnose any obvious issues without having to open the case.

So when I went to Aliexpress to find a few hundred wrappers, I was surprised to see that you can get them in transparent! Why isn't this used more often? For the same reason I wanted to make the case partially transparent, having transparent cell wrap allows one to see if any rust spots are developing, or to better see dents or dings in the can. How often have we seen the advice on this forum to unwrap cells when you're processing because they wrap might be hiding rust?

Just wanted to point out this option in case other people like me haven't heard of it. And wondering why it isn't used more often.

 

[harrisonpatm]

I mean, how cool does this look?!? Look's like thermal runaway waiting to happen, but isn't!

 

[OffGridInTheCity]

I'm guessing most factory wraps have color for identity and printing - so it's kind of intuitive to rewrap in same color so you can identify you're cells? At least that's been my thinking on the few occasions I had to re-wrap.

 

[paulie]

I re wrap everything. I get my laptop batteries from all over and cannot guarantee that they have not been wet/damp. Quite a few are showing rust, right at the positive end and the only way to be sure that there is no rust is to completely remove the original wrapper. I also write the nominal aH capacity together with the actual tested aHc and IR on the new wrappers. I do like the idea of clear.

 

[100kwh-hunter]

It would be a very nice view to see that!!!
But as offgrid stated:

so it's kind of intuitive to rewrap in same color so you can identify you're cells?

But also:

Quite a few are showing rust, right at the positive end and the only way to be sure that there is no rust is to completely remove the original wrapper. I also write the nominal aH capacity together with the actual tested aHc and IR on the new wrappers. I do like the idea of clear.

If the wrap is clear you can keep a eye on the rust, why not write your new id or old id name on the naked cell?
With excel or libre offce you can put all of it in one cell.
Print that on a "sticker pre cut paper" before wrap?
This would so nice to see, all transcalent with transcalent insulator rings?

 

[100kwh-hunter]

https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005005553339282.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.142.21ef1802yMwQPX&gatewayAdapt=glo2vnm

 

[harrisonpatm]

This would so nice to see, all transcalent with transcalent insulator rings?

I printed off a ton of new rings in blue, because I didn't like the blue filament I had and I wanted to use it up... And it's going to get covered by cell holders and nickel anyway... But yeah, translucent everything would look so cool

 

[bbbbrass]

You could use translucent filament! I have some translucent PETG that is pretty cool.

I got a multipack of a bunch of colors. I didn't like using the transparent because I kept thinking they weren't wrapped yet!

 

[harrisonpatm]

Oh I love doing it, I just finished prepping another 850 cells for the next project the same way.

I totally thought about transparent filament too! I didn't have some at the time, and in the final pack the positive ends are going to be mostly covered with nickel/copper anyway. But next time I'll totally order transparent filament just for that.