Battery Charging: Exploring modular design: a pre-study and development of concept proposition for a modular battery charger for professional use
2023 (English)Independent thesis Advanced level (professional degree), 20 credits / 30 HE credits
Student thesis
Abstract [en]
More and more functions in our cars are electrical, 110 electronic units are powered by the car battery. Thus, increasing the strain on the car battery whilst the majority might not know that the car battery should be continuously charged to maintain a good battery health. According to the annual returns of one of the major car battery manufacturers, approximately 80% of the returns are down to lack of charge. Inhouse studies conducted by CTEK have moreover shown that charging your battery can extend the battery lifetime by up to three times. The research conducted at CTEK is utilized in their development of innovative battery chargers for improved battery health and user experience. This Master Thesis project in Industrial Design Engineering at Luleå University of Technology has been performed as a pilot study for product development. The thesis project comprises 30 university credits in collaboration with CTEK and has been subject to confidentiality, hence leaving some results e,tc. out of this abstract. Exploring modularity as well as the implementation of modular design within battery charging has been the purpose of this thesis project.
User experiences and needs have been highly valued and a reason for the iterative process inspired by Design thinking to be used as a foundation for the project. Interviews, observations, and questionnaires have created an understanding for the user. Thereafter benchmarking the current market of battery charging as well as modularly designed products. Workshops utilizing the idea-generating skills of industrial design engineering students respectively battery charging knowledge possessed at CTEK were conducted to kick off the ideation phase. Once again including the users in the process to verify motives and needs before evaluating the results and making any decisions. The final concept proposition was visualized as a digital model created in SolidWorks and images rendered in Blender.
The material from the pilot study, digital model, as well as some ideas and recommendations for future work was delivered to CTEK in the end of this project.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2023. , p. 83
Keywords [en]
Industrial design engineering, Product development, Modular design, Battery charging
National Category
Other Engineering and Technologies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-99089OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ltu-99089DiVA, id: diva2:1778230
External cooperation
CTEK
Educational program
Industrial Design Engineering, master's level
Supervisors
Examiners
2023-08-172023-06-302025-02-10Bibliographically approved