Seesaw - Electric car fire fighting equipment

What it does

What makes it difficult to extinguish electric vehicle fires is the battery at the bottom. Seesaw intuitively and effectively penetrates the battery pack through a lever and injects water. This process takes place in just 30 sec and quickly extinguishes.

Your inspiration

The increase in electric car fires and the difficulty of extinguishing them are emerging as a global problem. The fire inside a battery consumed 7 hours and 5000 liters of water(two fire trucks) to be extinguished. The cause is difficulty inserting water inside the battery pack sealed with metal. According to fire researchers, the temperature that rose to 1,000℃ when injecting water directly into a battery pack dropped to 90℃. I was inspired by a seesaw at a playground while thinking about how to insert water into the battery at the bottom. I thought of the law of the lever and devised seesaw, which effectively penetrates the lower battery.

How it works

① Design: I designed the fire extinguishing device that penetrates through the lower part of the battery pack with more than 3 times the power using the lever. I have applied the most intuitive and simple. The body that injects the water uses stainless to withstand the corrosion. The hexagonal tip piercing through the battery pack is made of heat-treated high-carbon steel that’s used in tools to increase strength. The part that hits with a hammer is made of material, which is used in hammer, considering the shock and the elasticity. ② UX: A firefighter fixes the Seesaw lever to the battery pack at the bottom of the EV. Use the hammer to hit the striking area to penetrate the battery pack. Then, insert water with the connected fire hose inside the battery pack. Depending on the battery pack's height at the bottom of the vehicle, the lever height can be easily controlled. I have researched the average height of the EV so that it can be controlled up to 14~18cm.

Design process

① Problem: Until now, the problem has been solved by immersing the vehicle in a giant water tank or piercing the end of a long water hose inside the car to supply water to the battery. However, immersing a tank has problems with equipment and time, and the hose inside the car has a danger and difficulties in inserting water into the battery pack due to internal facilities such as seats. ② Conditions of the solution: Due to the characteristics of fire extinguishing equipment, it should allow quick, safe, simple, and intuitive use. Battery packs are made in a metal housing for protection. ③ Ideation: At first, I thought of the hydraulic press. However, I developed this idea of using the law of the lever, which is a simpler and more basic theory of physics. ④ Production process: I have sought advice from firefighting, automobile engineers, and materials experts. Also, I have requested experiments and feedback from professional organizations to test the strength and performance of the prototype. ⑤ Result of experiment: I tested the prototype with the actual battery case. I have asked junkyards to find the used battery cases of EV. I could penetrate the bottom of the battery made in 5mm-thick aluminum alloy with just 2 hits of the hammer. This process did not even take 30 sec.

How it is different

Seesaw is light, portable, low cost, and easy to install. Technology that directly injects water into the battery pack is being introduced, but there is no product like a seesaw that is light, portable, and easy to install. The EV's battery pack is at the bottom of the car. It enables water insertion inside the battery pack via direct penetration at the bottom, which has a fire extinguishing effect and saves water consumption. As a result of prototype testing, the physical principle of the lever was indeed powerful. It actually pierced through the battery case with small power and made a hole enough to insert water after hitting twice. The water insertion was also fast enough to fill the battery pack with a standard household water pipe. Using the most basic physical theory, Seesaw makes fire extinction easy at a low cost. Also, the golden time is vital in firefighting. Seesaw has the benefit of being fast, intuitive, and efficient for firefighters to use.

Future plans

Seesaw is applying for patents and design patents. (PATENT-2023-0057792, DESIGN-2023-0017027). The first goal is to test Seesaw with the actual electric vehicle fire drill in collaboration with the Korea Fire Department. Also, I will develop it so that the prototype is more effective and safe with the advice of firefighters and firefighting researchers. The final goal is to use Seesaw to extinguish the fire of electric vehicles worldwide and use it to solve the problems in electric vehicle fires and safety. Through this, I hope to contribute to the environment and humankind by electric vehicles becoming developed further and more popular.

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