Car Manufacturer Cuts Labor Resources by 75%; Creates Blueprint for High-Performance Battery Cell

Car Manufacturer Cuts Labor Resources by 75 Percent; Creates Blueprint for High-Performance Battery Cells

In the world of electric vehicles (EVs), the quest for range starts from the individual cell, all the way through to the battery packs and modules. Innovations in battery cell technology recently led one leading automotive OEM to focus on improving its battery performance, lifespan, safety, charging, and costs. With a goal to introduce electric drivetrains into 25% of its fleet within the next five years, the car manufacturer identified battery technology as a key success factor.

The Challenge: Meeting New Battery Cell Design and Test

The car manufacturer wanted a comprehensive method to validate its cell creation processes to ensure all prototypes met benchmarks for safety, durability, and cost. A comprehensive test platform would provide a blueprint to produce the battery cells according to stringent in-house specifications (Figure 1). As the volume of projects grew significantly, the manufacturer also needed a workflow management system to help manage thousands of devices under test (DUTs). The system had to keep track of test revisions and scheduling of resources, as well as management of multiple test configurations on different test systems, downtime hours, maintenance, and scripts for automation.

The company sought a holistic solution to efficiently test the performance, reliability, and safety of its cell prototypes and configurations. Solution requirements included:

• Repeatable tests for individual cells, modules, and packs in a safe environment
• Ability to verify new algorithms for battery balancing, state of charge (SOC), battery cell health, and function
• Interconnectivity for batteries and packs with peripheral devices; such as the vehicle
• Reduction in labor-intensive tasks; like managing test procedures and schedules, as well as data collation and analysis

The Solution: Comprehensive Battery Development and Management

Individual cells significantly impact the performance of entire battery modules and packs, making it essential to characterize the cells early in the development phase. Abnormal self-discharge caused by temperature, dendrites, shorts, and electrolyte loss can adversely affect cell balancing and ultimately, the performance of the battery and pack. At the module level, manufacturing processes can introduce discrepancies in performance among modules, affecting the overall pack performance.

After understanding the car manufacturer’s requirements, Keysight proposed an end[1]to-end battery cell development, management, and test solution based on its Scienlab. platform. The solution encompasses different subsystems to validate both cell chemistry and cell formation by analyzing how these cells perform in batteries and packs.

• Cell chemistry R&D system

Includes tools to perform cell chemistry analysis. The Keysight Scienlab cell chemistry R&D system identifies new material combinations for cell characterization of up to several hundred cells simultaneously. The test system can handle high-voltage materials of up to 8 V, with an accuracy of up to 0.03 μA.

• Cell formation system

Includes tools to form the cell through a repeatable and concise process of charge and discharge. The Keysight Scienlab cell formation system precisely measures SOC with high accuracy up to 5 mA and 1 mV, and is scalable from sampling small batches to running numerous formation channels concurrently.

• Cell module and pack test systems

Includes tools to monitor various parameters such as voltage, current, and temperature to determine SOC. Keysight recommended a battery management system (BMS) based on its Scienlab platform (Figure 2). The BMS performs thermal and energy management, as well as cell balancing. The solution also has hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) capabilities to allow design engineers to emulate the behavior of real battery cells, current and temperature sensors, and insulation resistance, in addition to communication with external systems.

·        Lab Discover software for laboratory management

Versatile software that helps off-load time-consuming and labor-intensive tasks by automating programs for planning and scheduling tests for multiple DUTs. Test engineers can keep track of test program development, version control, and measurement results