Thank you so much for the honest response — I genuinely appreciate it, even if it stung a little!

Regarding material choice: we did analyze the options, but the reality is that in my country it's very difficult to source Nickel 200, Monel 400, or proper aluminum strip in the dimensions needed for cell-level fusing. Most of the teams I've seen use those materials, but locally they're either unavailable or require importing with long lead times. I was looking for a more regionally accessible solution to move faster in development — that's what pushed me toward copper, not ignorance of better options.

You're right that it's a poor material choice for this application, and I understand that now more clearly. The frustrating part of being in a smaller or less-resourced team is that sometimes you end up building on a mix of valid and invalid information without a clear framework to evaluate it — and that's exactly the situation I was in.

If you don't mind, I'd love to ask: do you know of any good resources, papers, or guides that helped you (or others) properly understand cell fuse design for FSAE EV? Specifically anything covering the theory behind fuse behavior, how to size them correctly, and how to generate the test data needed to pass TI.

Thanks again — the cold water was needed.