The energy efficiency of electronic components is becoming increasingly important in numerous fields of application. And that is not all: in our electronic and high-tech age, the demand is for even faster active components, higher power densities of miniaturised systems as well as absolute reliability. Along with this, there is the request for environmentally conscious resource procurement and the requirement that the increase in performance of modules should run parallel to lower energy consumption.
In the foreseeable future, lithium-ion batteries will not only dominate the automotive industry, but also all other applications where the efficient storage of electrical energy is essential. Compared to other battery technologies, they currently have the highest energy density and thus the greatest performance. Apart from a long service life, further benefits of lithium-ion batteries are their high efficiency, the fact that they have a low self-discharge rate and the possibility of reloading them from any state of charge. Lithium-ion batteries range in mass from a few grams up to several hundred kilograms, depending on the application. They provide power between a few milliwatts and several hundred kilowatts. The stored energy ranges from a few milliwatt hours till several hundred kilowatt hours.
Lithium-ion batteries are complex multi-layer structures made of different substances and sometimes react very sensitively to external influences such as temperature fluctuations, vibrations, damage or moisture. For this reason, the production and storage of high performance lithium-ion batteries is associated with very high demands on the safety measures to be taken
Preventive measures for fire protection, for example, play an important role in the storage and transport of lithium-ion batteries. Due to their property of storing a lot of energy in a very small space, mechanical damage or overheating can lead to the aggressive release of the ingredients and, among other things, cause damage to health when they are inhaled or even fires.
The lithium-ion battery is the heart of an electric car and any other battery powered device. Accordingly, the parameters to be met for performance, quality and safety are very high. With the help of thermography, compliance with essential process parameters can already be tested and ensured during the manufacturing process.
System solutions with infrared cameras from InfraTec make it possible, for example, to detect minimal defects and contamination in coatings or defects on the separator foils of lithium-ion batteries and to arrange for their removal. Defect-free coating systems and intact separators not only prevent short circuits and the associated safety risks They are also the basic prerequisite for high-performance battery warehouses with a long service life By using thermographic cameras with a resolution up to 52 megapixels, even the smallest defects or contaminations can be reliably detected also on larger surfaces.
Thermal imaging is also used to check weld seams, adhesive joints and the tightness of a battery housing InfraTec’s thermally and geometrically high-resolution infrared cameras can be used to create thermographic images that can be analysed to test the quality of joints quickly, precisely and non-destructively.
As a non-contact, non-destructive testing method, thermal imaging helps to detect faults in production at an early stage in order to avoid rejects and minimise rework – and thus to achieve significant cost optimisation in the manufacturing process InfraTec’s infrared cameras can be flexibly adapted to any inspection or measurement task and can be easily and individually integrated into existing system environments.
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