Failure mode of charging cable of new energy charging pile

High voltage harness is a key component of the high voltage electrical system, providing assurance for the reliable operation and safety of electric vehicles. Charging pile cable is a trend in the development of new energy cables. Governments around the world are actively researching and developing electric vehicles to improve the worsening urban air quality. In the long run, it is an inevitable trend for electric vehicles or hybrid vehicles to replace traditional electric vehicles, and the market for their supporting charging system cables is very large. Charging piles are usually installed in outdoor places such as parking lots and roadside areas, so charging pile cables often have the following.

The problem occurred:

1. Twisted drum of cable:Charging cables are inevitably twisted, bent, and dragged during use. Over time, as materials age or users misoperate, bulges can occur in some areas of the cable. Cutting open the bulge area cable can reveal that the insulation core has been misaligned and distorted. Although the existence of bulges in the cable without damage to the outer skin insulation sheath does not pose a safety issue for subsequent normal use, due to the bending and dislocation of the internal core, the core is broken and damaged, leading to cable failure or increased resistance, creating potential overheating hazards, and so on.


2. Cable sheath cracking: Charging cables are mostly outdoor facilities. After long-term use, the sheath cracks due to aging, bending, and wear. This situation is mainly concentrated on large cross-section cables. In addition, the cost reasons for charging cables on the market are mostly insulation sheaths made of TPE materials, not TPU materials. However, insulation sheaths made of such materials are more likely to lose the unique "flexibility" of the cable under low temperature environments, become hard and brittle, easily rupture, and create safety hazards.


3. Signal wire breakage: In charging cables, due to the large difference in the interface between the main wire core and the signal wire core, when both are bent and subjected to the same surface tension, the signal wire core is often more prone to wire breakage, resulting in communication interruption during the charging process, control failure during the charging process, and a series of issues such as overcharging, insufficient power supply, and failure of protective devices, which can lead to safety accidents during the charging process. In addition, although it is easier to damage the signal line compared to the main line core, due to the lack of monitoring and detection requirements in current relevant standards, and the lack of detection devices, it is often more difficult to detect and hide cable failures caused by signal line breaks, and it is relatively difficult to troubleshoot problems after they occur.


The above three common charging cable failure modes for charging piles clearly indicate that signal wire breakage is more hidden and frequent than the other two. Even in Mode 1 and Mode 2, the signal wire still has a higher risk of damage compared to the main core. When the main core of the charging cable is intact and the signal communication cable has been damaged, if the charging process is still in progress and the controller cannot correctly allocate output power due to the inability to obtain the battery status feedback from the battery terminal, then the safety hazards during the uncontrolled charging process are obvious; Secondly, even if the controller reacts to stop the charging process when the communication signal is disconnected, it is still necessary to detect the signal line again in the subsequent troubleshooting process to determine whether the signal line breakage is the problem point of cable failure. This step can be fully determined during the controller's response to signal line breakage. This function is achieved by adding communication signal detection during the charging process of the electric vehicle.


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