Altertek were invited by Forum Energy Technologies to develop and manufacture a high voltage Rechargeable Energy Storage System (RESS) for their Submarine Rescue Vehicle (SRV) that they are currently manufacturing for a foreign navy.
The customer was converting from a different battery technology used in previous models to Lithium Ion, and was looking to maximise the space available to increase mission duration and decrease vehicle weight.
The RESS is made up of 6 batteries to provide energy for the propulsion and life support systems and has the ability to provide redundancy for each of these critical systems.
Each RESS battery module has a nominal voltage of 216V and a capacity of 84Ah giving a total system capacity of 108kWh.
Each battery module has fail safe systems built in and provides complete redundancy in the event of a battery module failure.
The entire system can be fully recharged in under 4 hours using the custom charger unit developed for the client that will accompany the submarine.
Each RESS battery module has six removable cell modules which have been tested to meet the requirements of UN38.3 and can be air transported to support the deployment of the SRV.
The cell modules are a 10S x 28P configuration of 18650 cells, with each cell having fuse links providing additional redundancy and reliability.
Each of the cell modules are designed so that in the event of an issue they can be replaced quickly, using only basic tools and with only basic training to ensure the reliability of the SRV while on mission.