ZEISS eMobility Solutions

Quality Assurance for Battery Cells with Electrodes

Insights into Battery Cells with Electrodes

A battery cell is the main unit of a battery, which consists of key components like the cathode, anode, separator and electrolyte. The geometry of the electrodes inside a cell is vital to the efficiency and safety of the cell.

Anodes, cathodes and the separator foils are all cut or punched out of coated copper, aluminium or insulation paper foils. The separator foils in battery cells are stacked, ideally without any overlapping.

Optical 2D Shape Measurement of Electrode on ZEISS Multisensor CMM

2D Shape

A ZEISS optical multisensory coordinate measuring machine is the perfect solution to provide high resolution and accurate inspections of the cut electrodes inside the measuring lab. Due to the massive quantity of electrodes required to construct a complete battery pack, manufacturing lines cut and stack electrodes at
rapid speeds. An efficient ZEISS optical inline metrology solution is essential to monitor the cutting and stacking process in real time. ZEISS quality intelligence software also analyses statistical data from the line, and correlate this with the measuring lab.

Safety

Batteries are energy dense objects, and like the fuel in conventional vehicles safety needs to be managed to protect the end user. Electrical shorting between anode and cathode can lead to thermal runaway and combustion – so the microscale properties of assembled cells can give insights into designing safer high performance batteries.
Prior to cutting or disassembly, ZEISS X-ray microscopes can give internal 3D microstructure, show bending of current collectors and potential separator pinch points, as well as particle contamination which may lead to lithium dendrite formation. Shock and nail penetration tests use light microscopy to investigate potential failure modes following accident or collision. Charge and discharge behaviour, swelling & dendrite formation can be observed using in-situ microscopy methods.

3D X-ray Microscope Tomography of a Pouch Cell