InnoCase
PEM Develops Housings for Large Li-Ion Batteries
The chair of "Production Engineering of E-Mobility Components" (PEM) of RWTH Aachen University is working with numerous partners on the "InnoCase" project to research and develop novel, large-format housing concepts. They are intended to combine the advantages of conventional housing types, offer advantages in terms of production technology and enable higher energy density. This should lead to simplified cell assembly and improved module integrability and thus to savings in the production costs of lithium-ion cells. Lowered expenses are expected to be achieved through material savings and optimized production processes.
Challenges in production, assembly, safety and cooling
Lithium-ion cells are used to store electrical energy in a variety of applications. The cell-internal components - electrodes, separators and electrolyte - are surrounded by a housing that has to meet various requirements. For example, the cell interior must be protected from external influences such as moisture or contamination. At the same time, the leakage of the cell's internal substances, some of which are toxic and flammable, must be prevented. In addition, the cell housing must take over the cooling function, meet the requirements for module integration, and be cost-effective and easy to produce. For a high specific energy of lithium-ion cells, a large ratio between the stored energy and the housing mass is also elementary, which can be realized above all by large-format housing concepts. The production and use of large-format lithium-ion cells are currently still associated with high challenges, which concern both production and assembly as well as the safety and the cooling of the cell stack.
The project
"InnoCase": Innovative housing concepts for large-format lithium-ion batteries
Research objectives
- Optimized housing concept by reducing the housing mass, using in-cell safety elements and improving the electrical and thermal properties of the housing structure
- Reduction in production costs (euros per kilowatt hour) due to cell assembly through simplified assembly processes
- Elaboration of safety concepts for large-format cell types and development of a standard-compliant safeguarding system
- Simplified module integratability of the cells, taking into account cooling and positioning requirements, and contacting of the cells to the module by remote laser beam welding
- Application of laser radiation during joining of the electrode foil to reduce the required joining area
Research and project partners
PEM of RWTH Aachen University
ElringKlinger AG
Futavis GmbH
(German)
Manz AG
TRUMPF Group
RWTH Aachen University
TU München
Duration
02/01/2019 through 07/31/2022
Project management
Funding code
03XP0207E
Grantor