EV Battery Repair Innovations

Diagnosing damage to battery cell current collectors without opening the cells. The technique involves generating mechanical vibrations on the cell's exterior to cause foil tears inside to close and open. By measuring the voltage output during vibration, the presence of foil tears can be determined based on the amplitude. This allows identifying cell current collector damage without disassembling the cell.

Source

Disassembling battery modules using a dielectric mixture to break the adhesive bonds instead of fasteners, allowing easier maintenance and end-of-life recycling. The battery modules use adhesives instead of screws for assembly. To disassemble, the modules are treated with a dielectric mixture that selectively breaks the adhesive bonds while leaving the module components intact. This enables part-by-part disassembly and recycling. The dielectric mixture is chosen to be incompatible with some adhesives but not others, allowing selective bond breakdown.

Source

Autonomous robotic disassembly of secondary batteries like those in electric vehicles to enable efficient, safe, and repeatable disassembly of batteries for repair, repurposing, or recycling. The method involves securing the battery, identifying the battery type, retrieving disassembly instructions for that type, using robots to perform the disassembly steps, and monitoring during disassembly. The instructions include robot motions, tools, and tasks for specific battery features. Cameras provide location data to guide the robots. This enables repeatable, safe, and efficient disassembly compared to manual methods.

Source

Battery diagnosis method for accurately diagnosing defective battery cells in a multi-cell battery pack. The method involves two steps to diagnose battery banks in a charging mode. First, diagnosis based on internal resistance. Second, diagnosis based on comparing state-of-charge (SOC) change ratios to a reference pack. This final step involves comparing each battery bank's SOC change during charging to a reference pack's change. If a bank's change exceeds a threshold, it indicates an issue. If a bank's internal resistance is high, it indicates an issue. By combining both methods, defective banks can be confidently identified.

Source

Mobile electric vehicle charging that accounts for battery health and state to optimize charging and discharging between vehicles. The system monitors battery cell states and identifies cells beyond a threshold for remediation. These cells are continued to be used to degrade further. This targeted cell selection allows replacing only some cells instead of all when they reach end of life. It also enables balancing charge distribution between cells to prevent uneven degradation. The system uses battery metrics and historical data to make charging decisions based on cell health.

Source

A battery module design with parallel cell connections that enables independent parallel connection of cells without requiring series connections at the cell ends. The module has a contact plate with recesses around the cells. Each cell has tabs protruding from the ends that fit into the recesses. This allows the cells to be individually connected in parallel by simply inserting the tabs into the recesses, without needing to make series connections at the cell ends. It also allows replacing defective cells without disconnecting all the cells.

Source

Modular battery pack architecture that allows extending the life of a battery pack by selectively disabling and removing degraded cells while still providing power. A pack management unit senses cell conditions and identifies degraded cells. It then disables sensing of those cells and reconfigures the pack to exclude them, providing reduced capacity but still usable pack. This enables repurposing degraded cells and extending pack life compared to replacing the whole pack when one cell fails.

Source

A method to improve battery cell performance and longevity by dynamically adjusting charging and discharging current limits based on cell temperature and state. The method involves monitoring the actual cell temperature and current during operation. A thermal model of the cell calculates the internal temperature based on the external temperature and current. If the calculated internal temperature is higher than the external temperature, it indicates self-heating. In that case, the method reduces the current limits to prevent overheating. This avoids abrupt degradation and potential cell failure from excessive heating.

Source

Adaptive cooling management for traction batteries in electric vehicles to improve thermal performance as batteries age. It uses artificial intelligence to dynamically adjust cooling flow rates based on battery state. Sensors monitor battery parameters like voltage, temp, resistance. An AI model analyzes this data to determine the battery's operating state. It calculates a correction factor to add/multiply with the target flow rate set by the control module. This factor compensates for aging effects like swelling cells that narrow flow channels. The AI-calculated factor is sent to the control module to adjust cooling flow rates for the specific battery state.

Source

Battery pack case for electric vehicles that allows easier and cheaper replacement of worn or damaged parts. The case uses a bolt and nut coupling instead of welding. The bolt attaches to the vehicle frame, with a first nut tightening onto it and a second nut tightening onto the first nut. This provides a secure connection without welding. When the battery pack is repeatedly attached and detached, only the nuts may wear out or get damaged. By avoiding welding, these nuts can be easily replaced instead of the entire frame, reducing maintenance cost.

Source

An efficient way to refurbish, repair or test used battery packs from electric vehicles. The method involves removing the battery pack from the vehicle, testing and identifying any bad or failing batteries, and replacing them with similar batteries that have compatible electrical characteristics. By replacing only the specific failing batteries instead of the entire pack, the cost and waste associated with battery pack replacements can be reduced.

Source

Method and device for optimized charging and discharging of battery packs to improve overall pack life by equalizing the degradation of individual modules. It calculates the degradation state of each module based on charge/discharge status, and if any module's degradation exceeds a threshold, it determines an optimal charge/discharge rate for all modules based on temperature differences between modules. This command set is then used to control charging and discharging of all modules to balance degradation and prevent uneven aging.

Source

Protective battery management system for lithium batteries that uses predictive analytics to prevent overheating, excessive humidity, and high currents that can damage batteries. The system has a server, mobile terminal, and balancing device connected in pairs. The balancing device acquires battery pack data and a neural network in the server predicts temperature, humidity, and current. Analyzing the predictions, the server sends instructions to the balancing device to adjust battery state to prevent excessive temperatures, humidity, and currents that accelerate aging or damage batteries. This proactive monitoring and regulation improves battery protection and longevity.

Source

Method to accurately identify low voltage defects in lithium secondary batteries after formation by accounting for temperature exposure during transport and storage. The method involves measuring the primary voltage of a battery after formation, then measuring the secondary voltage after transport. The secondary voltage is corrected based on the temperature exposure during transport. If the corrected secondary voltage is significantly lower than the primary voltage, it indicates a low voltage defect. This prevents false positives due to normal batteries experiencing higher voltage drops at higher temperatures.

Source

Battery control device for electric vehicles that adapts charging limits based on battery condition to prevent damage and improve charging efficiency as batteries age. The device estimates the upper voltage limit for charging a battery based on its internal deterioration state. This allows charging more power without risking overcharge as metal ion precipitation becomes less likely. The device stores upper voltage limits for each temperature, and updates them as batteries degrade. This enables charging optimization that compensates for battery degradation without risking overcharge.

Source

Recovering the capacity of lithium batteries that have degenerated during cycling by heat treatment. The method involves subjecting a lithium battery cell with at least 5% capacity loss to a high temperature treatment of 60-100°C for 1-6 hours in a fully discharged state. This reversibly activates lithium plating on the negative electrode to prevent further capacity loss. The heat treatment should be outside the range where it affects other battery components.

Source

Method for optimizing the operation of a battery pack in an electric vehicle to extend battery life and efficiency. The method involves preprocessing battery data, extracting statistical features, generating thermal models, predicting SOH/SOC, balancing cell charges, and optimizing current profiles. It uses machine learning to analyze historical battery data and predict degradation, charge balance, and optimal charging/discharging currents to maximize battery life and performance.

Source

Monitoring and controlling rechargeable batteries to improve lifespan and prevent failures. The method involves individual battery monitoring using onboard sensors to measure voltage, current, and temperature. This allows tracking state of charge, state of health, estimated charge/discharge times, and replacement times. Deviations from normal ranges trigger alerts and actions like balancing energy flow or reducing cycles. This real-time per-cell monitoring enables proactive maintenance and avoids premature battery replacement.

Source

Real-time monitoring and management system for electric vehicle batteries that continuously monitors voltage, current, and temperature of individual cells during charging and discharging to detect issues and prevent failures. The system uses monitoring units connected to the cells that transmit data to an acquisition module. If limits are exceeded, it alarms the management module which activates a mechanism to adjust the cell operating state. This allows proactive intervention to mitigate cell issues before they become critical.

Source

Active battery life control for electric vehicles to extend battery lifespan by dynamically adjusting charging and discharging strategies based on the battery state. The method involves building a battery life model using test data, then calculating a remaining life estimate during operation. This estimate is used to optimize charging/discharging parameters to slow down the battery aging rate.

Source