Whether you are designing a battery for a new automotive EV design, industrial or consumer electronics, or any innovative battery product in this rapidly accelerating space, you have the same engineering goals: Performance, Lifespan, and Safety. 

Pressure around ports and in flow field before and after pressurization.

The charge and discharge cycles of lithium-ion batteries requires strict measurement of heat and pressure, in both prototyping and manufacturing. Measuring pressure exchanges within the battery housing can yield important insights at different stages of the process, from design to production, quality control, and battery formation.

Tekscan’s I-Scan pressure measurement system gives engineers key insights at any stage of the battery design and development process. Pressure mapping helps bring power innovations into reality.  

Why is Evaluating Battery Pressure Important?

Charging and discharging a typical Li-ion battery during normal use induces thermal cycling, with expansion and contraction leading to delamination and degradation over time. 

The liquid electrolyte in lithium-ion batteries is particularly prone to expansion.  Localized high and low pressures within the stack can occur and cause premature failures if they are not accounted for in the battery fixture design.

Optimized assembly stack pressure can:

• Optimize formation costs
• Reduce Capacity Fade
• Low Cell Variability
• Restrict Thermal Expansion/ Delamination
• Prevent Thermal Runaway

How Do You Measure Battery Pressure in Real Time?

Engineers understand the critical impact that changes in battery pressure can have in battery performance and safety. But how do you measure it? Tekscan's embedded force and pressure sensors and software can show you the data.

In this video, you can see the system measure

• pressure points across the sensing area
• average changes in pressure across the sensing area
• average changes in pressure over time

EV Applications for Pressure Mapping

Prismatic Cells

Pressure mapping applications for EV Batteries.

• Study battery swell for life optimization
• Optimize battery formation

Module

• Analyze stack pressure
• Validate assembly protocol

Pack

• Identify hot zones in the pack where failures are likely to appear
• Integrate sensors with a battery management system

Pressure Mapping in Battery Lifecycle Testing

Flexible Tekscan Model 7800 matrix sensor wraps around battery components.Thin, flexible sensor provides comprehensive data and can be wrapped around the cell and between layers to provide a 360 degree view of battery pressure and measure forces from adjacent cells in stack. The data identifies potential failure points such as pockets of gas formation and imperfections in component surfaces. Our newest sensor designed for the battery market, the model 7800, has a long tab at a 90 degree angle to extend into the battery housing to allow easier placement of the data collecting electronics.

You can use the system to collect data in multi-month lifecycle testing. 

• Multiple charge & discharge profiles run to compare battery performance
• Correlation of pressure build to capacity & impedance

Stack Pressure Validation

Sensors can be installed between cells or modules during assembly to ensure that the correct initial stack pressure is applied in the fixture.

Quality Control for Manufacturing

• Improve yields during formation process
• Verify specified stack pressure in cell fabrication
• Identify cell manufacturing defects

Battery Management System

• Sensors embedded in assembly to measure pressures during operation
• Safety control to limit battery output if spike pressures detected

Battery Design Pressure Measurement Applications 

Whether you are working on liquid electrolyte lithium-ion batteries, Li-ion chemical alternatives like silicone anode, the newest solid-state compositions, or testing the components of the future, our pressure mapping system analysis helps you test, diagnose, and innovate your battery design in the following ways:

• How Pressure Mapping Insights Improve Battery Performance and Safety - Charging and discharging causes changes in temperature, electrochemistry, or volume expansion. Measuring changes in pressure can tell you how the mechanics of the internal components are affected.
• Improving Lithium-Ion Battery Life and Performance - Find the sweet spot for battery stack pressure in your housing to optimize performance and durability.
• Pressure Testing to Reduce Thermal Runaway Risks - We know how defects can cause dangerous thermal runaway in Lithium-Ion batteries. Testing expansion is critical.
• Measuring Relative Force Feedback from Swelling Within Lithium-Ion Battery Housing  -  Tekscan's ultra-thin embedded sensors can create alerts for pressure changes before they reach hazardous levels.
• Battery Formation - Ensuring uniform pressure during the battery formation process can reduce formation time, and improve efficiency. 
• Battery Monitoring - Embedded system pressure monitoring during the manufacturing stage to identify non-uniformities, uneven surfaces or defects for Quality Assurance. 

Pressure Mapping for EV Design

In addition to the core battery stack assembly and design, pressure mapping system analysis is key to many different aspects of electric vehicle design, as well as safety testing and quality assurance.

• Enhanced seat and seatbelt design - The evolving design of EVs and autonomous vehicles changes the dynamic relationship of seat back and cushion pressure.
• Tire design - Differences in torque and a host of other factors make tires designed for EVs very different than those for combustion engines. 
• Impact testing and chassis design - Sensors testing impact underneath the car from debris can be an important consideration in battery placement and protection.
• Door design and door seal measurement - Door seal pressure design weaknesses impact noise, leaks, and aerodynamic efficiency. 

Design differences and challenges for the next generation of EVs can be quite different than previous designs. Pressure mapping data can help you with everything from new designs needed for charging ports to re-engineering every element of EV and future vehicles.

Engineers all over the word are using I-Scan to gain insights into their battery design for automotive, consumer electronics, and more.
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