Here at the forefront of the electric vehicle revolution, every component has to deliver peak performance to meet the rising expectations of the modern consumer. The heart of any EV is the battery, and it must be reliable, efficient, and safe. Advanced battery testing in electric vehicles allows your EVs to stand out in a competitive market, and with cutting-edge Automated Test Equipment (ATE), you can push the boundaries of battery performance.
Advancing Battery Testing in Electric Vehicles
One of the difficulties that EV manufactures face is that it only takes a very minor inconsistency to make a big impact on range and reliability. Advanced battery testing gives you the precision needed to validate every cell, module and pack. With ATE, you can run comprehensive tests that measure voltage, capacity, thermal performance, and charge discharge cycles and do so quickly and accurately. Through automated the process, you can also get rid of any element of human error that might produce inconsistent results and identify and address any deviations in performance as early as possible.
Enhancing Safety
Battery safety is a greater and greater concern, both to consumers and to governments, since battery failure can result in catastrophic fires that require enormous amounts of resources to put out and do great damage to property and even to people. Rigorous stress testing under simulated real-world conditions is an absolute must. You need to be able to prove what your battery can do when exposed to extreme temperatures, constant overcharging, or after an impact.
Using ATE, you can analyze how your battery will respond under all these scenarios, and do so over and over again. For example, ATE might be able to detect a potential thermal runaway risk by measuring temperature spikes during high-load tests. Even if the thermal runaway doesn’t happen, the temperature spikes can point out to you where weak points might lie, so you can proactively address the issues before your batteries reach the market. Not only are your customers protected, but so is your brand reputation.
Accelerating Time-to-Market
Everyone is under pressure to innovate in the EV market and get their EVs to the market quickly. In the midst of this, battery development continues to be a potential bottleneck. By applying automated testing, you can easily streamline the testing process and enormously reduce the amount of time that you need to validate a new design. These systems can run multiple tests simultaneously and collect and analyze real-time data. This provides you with supercharged efficiency, so you can iterate designs more quickly, address any issues without delay, and speed up everything without having to sacrifice thoroughness.
Optimizing Lifespan and Efficiency
Consumers have gotten a taste of what life with an electric vehicle can be like, and they want more. They’re looking for batteries that last longer and charge more quickly than ever. Advanced testing gives you a way to protect the batteries you’re making now; but constantly increasing insight into how battery degradation works and how efficiency can be improved allows you to innovate for the future.
When you’re able to simulate years of use through an accelerated automatic testing process, you can accurately predict how your battery will perform over time. With this information in your back pocket, you’ll be able to optimize materials, cell chemistry, or thermal management systems so that battery life is extended and energy efficiency is improved.
Scaling for Mass Production
If you start ramping up production to meet growing demand, it’s essential that your testing processes be able to keep up. Advanced battery testing can scale seamlessly and handle increased volume and complexity, even with high-performance batteries. Whether you’re testing thousands of cells every day or need to validate entire battery packs for new models, these systems can be adapted to your needs nearly instantly.
Modular designs let you expand testing capacity without having to overhaul your entire set up, and this kind of scale is not only good for your bottom line, but also allows you to maintain consistent quality as your production grows. This positions you to be the trustworthy provider of EV batteries that consumers look to when they want the best.
Integrating with Smart Manufacturing
If you’re already using smart manufacturing to stay competitive, this advanced battery testing can seamlessly fit into your connected environment and integrate with your AI, advanced analytic systems, and Internet of Things information. The data from your testing can also be instantly shared across the production line so you can make quick adjustments. For example, if your testing detects a certain recurring issue in the battery cells at a particular point in the process, you can instantly trace the issue back to the previous stage and immediately get to work fixing it.
Supporting Innovation
What will really set you apart is if you can innovate successfully. Advanced testing gives you the power to push the limits. Maybe you’re experimenting with next-generation chemistries, or perhaps you’re trying to design batteries that can withstand ultra-fast charging or need to validate a new kind of cooling system and advanced testing systems can handle whatever complex test scenario you throw at them. Because these advanced testing systems allow you to conduct so many tests so quickly and provide so much reliable data, you can have confidence to explore your innovations without worrying that quality will suffer in the meantime.
At SAAB RDS, where are your technology partners. We offer cutting-edge digital solutions that can transform manufacturing for automotive, aerospace, or energy sectors and beyond.
Visit SAAB RDS today to learn how to supercharge your EV testing and production.