Why use SWIR Sensors in Electric Vehicle Battery Production Monitoring & Quality Control Testing?
As the demand for electric vehicles rises, quality control testing for batteries is essential to ensure that battery packs meet the stringent safety, performance, and quality requirements required for the electric vehicle industry. Leak detection is slow and inaccurate at the moment. Even small leaks can reduce battery life, affect performance and increase warranty costs. Even worse, leaking can shortcircuit electrical systems, set fires, or cause damage to battery components.
The non-destructive test of batteries can detect any defects before they leave their production facility. Automated Xray inspection can reveal defects in cells before they leave the factory. This prevents defective cells becoming part of battery modules. The cell structure can also impact quality control methods. Rolled cells can be inspected in 2D. However, stacked cells require 3D computertomography. This is difficult to interpret from a transmissive image.
Engineers use charge and discharge measurements to assess the health of a battery during manufacturing. Engineers also assess the condition of the battery’s battery’s busbar. This is a conductor that is long and isolated from the ground. It is responsible for discharging current throughout the battery pack. Because the weld resistance of batteries is an important indicator, testing the busbar is an essential part of the process. If the weld has any small resistance, this can cause excessive heat and early failures. Engineers can quickly remove defective modules by measuring resistance before a battery becomes operational.
To estimate the battery pack’s useful life, it is important to perform performance testing. The usable life of a battery pack may be drastically reduced by overcharging it or undercharging it. The battery management software (BMS) also uses this information to ensure that the cells operate within safe limits. The BMS must include a charge estimator in order to calculate SoC.
SoC can’t be measured directly, unlike voltage and temperature. It must therefore be calculated using proprietary parameters.
SWIR can be used to adapt the Lithium-Ion Battery Testing Process
High resolution, wide field of view, extended SWIR cameras and high resolution can all be used to solve important inspection issues in lithium-ion batteries. This will allow them to meet increasing quality and performance requirements.
For example, SWIR Vision’s Acuros CQD SWIR sensors can provide imaging through the Li:Ion separator with SWIR wavelengths. These cameras or sensors provide the alignment accuracy required for inter-layer electrodes, resulting in greater energy storage capacity as well as longer battery life.
Because of the ability to see through objects and feed back high-resolution imaging at a rapid-fire rate, these sensors can be adapted as a quality control feature throughout the production process. We expect SWIR cameras to be adopted quickly for battery testing.