PEAk-Bat

 

PEM Researches Effort Reduction for Future Battery Systems

The "Production Engineering of E-Mobility Components" (PEM) chair of RWTH Aachen University is working with renowned industrial partners such as Ford and Trumpf on the "PEAk-Bat" project to develop structural battery systems and reduce their cost. The basic tripartite structure – consisting of the battery cells, the modules and the pack – can be broken up by eliminating the module level and integrating the battery cells directly into the pack housing. The aim of the research project is to use this "cell-to-pack" approach to increase both the mass-related and the spatial energy density of batteries. In this way, efficiency increases of up to 20 percent should be possible. Reducing complexity and the number of components is also expected to cut costs.

Faster development and earlier market entry

The project partners are primarily focusing on novel approaches for the virtual validation of battery systems in order to reduce the number of battery tests in the development process. "Early validation with the help of artificial intelligence can reduce errors that are crucial for the subsequent production steps and lower prototype costs," says Konstantin Sasse who is responsible for the project at PEM. "This is made possible by saving test times, which results in faster development of new types of battery systems and thus earlier market entry." To this end, the project partners initially want to develop a structural battery system as a demonstrator, as well as launch a methodology for evaluating the need for testing when battery systems are modified. Subsequently, several demonstrators and test rigs of structural battery systems will be set up, test methods for cell safety will be validated and various safeguard tests will be carried out.

Further information is provided in this press release.

 

The project

• "PEAk-Bat": Innovation in test methods and development to reduce effort for future structural battery systems

Research objectives

• Development of a structural battery system as demonstrator
• Development of a methodology to assess the need for testing of battery system modifications
• Construction of demonstrators and test rigs of structural battery systems
• Evaluation of simulative hedging based on test results

Research and project partners

PEM of RWTH Aachen University
Ford-Werke GmbH (consortium leader) (German)
ACTS Advanced Car Technology Systems GmbH & Co. KG
SCIO Technology GmbH
TÜV Rheinland Automotive Component Testing GmbH
Farasis Energy Europe GmbH
TRUMPF SE + Co. KG

Duration

• 05/01/2022 through 04/30/2025

Project sponsor

VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH

Funding code

• 16BZF359G

Grantor

Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK)