Source: Pulsenics
AccelaGrade™ is a new quality-control solution for lithium-ion battery remanufacturers. AccelaGrade represents a step-change advance in battery cell diagnostics that is designed to help remanufacturers scale. Remanufacturing battery packs means disassembling, testing and refurbishing used lithium-ion batteries to keep them safely operating longer. Remanufactured packs can return to their original vehicle or be repurposed for stationary storage. A thriving remanufacturing sector will reduce costs for battery manufacturers and fleet operators while keeping batteries out of landfills. Battery packs can contain dozens, hundreds, or thousands of lithium-ion cells, all of which must be individually tested and qualified during remanufacturing. Qualification typically takes the form of a letter grade, where “A” cells can be reused, “B” cells are diverted to less demanding use cases, and “C” cells are discarded. These letter grades generally reflect State of Health (SoH), which itself describes how much capacity a battery has retained. Remanufacturing has been slow to gain commercial traction due to a single bottleneck: quality control. It is impractical to individually test every cell in a battery pack with existing technology. Today, remanufacturers must choose between grading regimes that are thorough, but time consuming, or tests that are fast but incomplete. AccelaGrade unblocks the remanufacturing vertical with quality control that is fast, efficient, and comprehensive. AccelaGrade uses multiple scanning technologies, in tandem, to create a rapid and sophisticated readout. AccelaGrade combines partial-discharge cycling, temperature measurements, and rapid electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) to create a rich dataset. AccelaGrade uses that data to make State of Health evaluations that display on-screen as letter grades. This digital-first approach enables Pulsenics partners to instantly configure their grading criteria to their unique needs. Today, many remanufacturers rely on single-purpose cyclers, which can require up to eight hours to deliver a SoH readout. AccelaGrade produces an equally accurate letter grade, based on integrated datasets, in 25 minutes or less — a 19x improvement. — Pulsenics, Toronto, Ont., Canada