The Benefits of a Custom Battery Pack
A custom battery pack is designed to meet your exact power capacity, voltage and physical form requirements. This flexibility makes them ideal for a wide variety of products.
Once the battery packs are assembled they undergo rigorous quality testing. This includes capacity testing, charge and discharge tests, security testing and more.
Materials
As part of the design process, a custom battery pack manufacturer will determine what battery cells will be used as well as the overall voltage and capacity required. Depending on the industry, there may also be requirements for specific cell designs or battery chemistries to ensure safety standards are met. This can have a significant impact on lead times and how much the battery pack will cost as additional components will need to be made, sometimes from scratch, to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.
Once the cells and other components have been selected, they are assembled together using advanced welding and electrical connection techniques. This step includes ensuring that all cells are placed in their pre-specified locations within the pack to maintain consistent charge distribution and efficient thermal regulation. Battery packs are typically held together with rigid spacers that are designed for a tight fit to restrict movement due to thermal fluctuations. The assembled battery pack then undergoes various tests to verify its quality and performance. This test process can include capacity testing, charge and discharge testing, and security testing.
Once the test results are in, the battery pack is prepared for shipment. This is done by ensuring that it is protected with robust packaging materials and all applicable shipping protocols are followed to prevent damage during transportation.
Design
Unlike standard battery packs, custom battery packs are engineered to meet the specific energy needs of your device or application. This allows them to offer higher levels of power output and longer lifespans compared to traditional lithium batteries.
When choosing a custom battery pack, you should select a manufacturer with experience designing battery modules and integrating them into a system. The design of the pack should consider factors custom battery pack such as voltage, capacity, and form factor. The cells used in the pack should also be carefully selected to ensure that they are capable of meeting your needs.
A custom battery pack can be designed with unique features, such as a built-in charging circuit and communication interfaces. It can also include specialised features for temperature management. For example, if your device will be operated in an extreme temperature range, engineers can add heat-management capabilities to the pack to prevent overheating.
In addition to these features, a custom battery pack can be designed with different cell chemistries and configurations to meet your specific energy requirements. This is important because standard battery packs are limited in customization and cannot be tailored to specific applications. Custom battery packs are a great choice for devices with unique power requirements or constraints, such as electric vehicles and specialized industrial equipment. Moreover, they can be designed to achieve the highest level of performance at the lowest cost.
Safety
When making a custom battery pack, it is important to take safety precautions. This includes wearing protective gear, working in a well-ventilated area, and avoiding short circuits when handling chemicals or electrical components. Additionally, it is important to store batteries properly to ensure their longevity.
A robust battery management system (BMS) is also an essential component of safe custom battery pack design. The BMS monitors cell voltages and temperatures to optimize performance and prevent issues like overcharging and overheating. It also provides real-time data on the status of individual cells, allowing users to quickly identify and respond to potential problems.
The BMS can help the battery pack maintain its cycle life by actively balancing the cell voltages, increasing the charge and discharge cycles between each cell and preventing a prolonged high state of charge. It can even be programmed to perform a self-diagnostic function to notify the user of a problem, ensuring optimum pack functionality and safety.
Once the battery pack is complete, it must undergo rigorous testing to ensure its compliance with industry and transportation standards. Lithium batteries are considered dangerous goods and can pose fire and explosion risks if not handled, packaged, and transported correctly. The BMS will need to be tested for integrity, thermal, vibration, and altitude simulation tests. After successful testing, the battery pack will receive its UN38.3 certification, which is necessary for international market access.
Testing
A quality custom battery pack must pass rigorous testing procedures to ensure it meets high safety and performance benchmarks. Various standards and organizations, such as UL and the International Electrotechnical Commission, set these requirements and guidelines for manufacturers to follow. The exact tests a battery must undergo will depend on the design, form factor and customizations made to it. Manufacturers should manage the impact of customization on certification costs and timelines to prevent delays in production.
Testing typically includes evaluations of the battery pack’s ability to withstand thermal runaway and overheating under various conditions, as well as mechanical vibrations. It also assesses the pack’s ability to respond to short circuits and determines whether the protection circuit functions as expected. In addition, tensile testing Auto starter battery is used to validate separator film’s ability to withstand the stresses of manufacturing and use.
During the development process, it’s critical to test the battery for its intended application, including its response to varying temperatures, electrical and mechanical stress, and vibrations. This will allow the manufacturer to verify that it will function correctly and reliably, even in real-world usage scenarios. Once the battery is certified, it’s ready to be assembled into its final product. This step involves the assembly of a variety of components, such as cells, batteries, and a BMS to manage the cell chemistry, balance charging and discharging processes, and control overheating and overcharging events.