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In this project, the Center for Ageing, Reliability and Lifetime Prediction of Electrochemical and Power Electronic Systems (CARL) at RWTH Aachen University will build and commission a highly automated test bench for comprehensive cell characterization before and after aging tests of battery cells. This will be combined with an automatically controlled cyclization test bench, which allows individual loading and measurement of the cells during aging tests at defined temperatures. The aim is to characterize battery cells regularly, comparably and in detail. This will allow the effects of material and process changes in cell production to be investigated, quantified and reflected back. In addition to the classic parameters such as weight, voltage and 1kHz resistance, data from other measurements will also be recorded in a standardized and automated measurement procedure. These are from electrical measurements in addition to the cell capacity also complete measurements of the electrochemical impedance (EIS) and additionally during the measurement cycle optically recorded heat and expansion information. The electrical measurements are supplemented by imaging images using a computer tomograph to investigate internal, mechanical effects. The high level of automation of the entire test sequence allows new cell samples from cell manufacturing plants such as Fraunhofer FFB to be taken and characterized on a daily basis. We are not aware of any comparable system like this anywhere in the world.

The automated assembly and contacting of the battery cells on standardized cell holder boards including ID-based test management enables an efficient, traceable and comparable transfer to the aging test. The aging test takes place with highly accurate, efficient test equipment for setting environmental conditions, electrical cycling, and measurement under variable load profiles. Following the aging test, the cells are measured again using the standardized characterization procedure in order to perform a before-and-after comparison of the data. Due to the central storage in a database system, the evaluation of the recorded data can be carried out on the one hand with classical evaluation methods, which have been developed at ISEA for many years, and on the other hand by means of machine learning methods. The results obtained can be incorporated into the production process in the shortest possible way by establishing direct interfaces to the production site. At CARL, extensive, highly specialized laboratory equipment is available for further characterization of the morphology and chemical changes of the active materials and the electrolyte.

  Concept for physical and data-based linking of cell manufacturing with the test bench  

Funding:

Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) – Funding Code 03XP0459A

 

Partners:

• Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology (IPT)