50 September/October 2023 | E-Mobility Engineering Welding experts give Peter Donaldson their views on how the technology is keeping abreast of developments in the EV batteries industry United front Welding is a vitally important family of joining techniques for EV battery systems. A large battery might need thousands of individual connections, joining the positive and negative terminals of cells together in combinations of parallel and series to form modules and packs of the required voltage and capacity. As production ramps up and battery packs have to be built in volume and at speed, automation is becoming increasingly important, and welding techniques have to be adapted to mass-production environments. We’ve quizzed industry experts for some insights into how the technologies are being applied and how they are evolving. Mark Boyle at Amada Weld Tech says the market is particularly hot now. He says there is a growing demand for EVs and for energy storage at charging stations, developments being driven by pressure for higher capacity, longer range and faster charging, with further impetus from government regulations. At laser welding specialist Coherent, Jeff Franks points to continued and very high demand for production capacity, with pressure for continuous improvement in yield and quality. “Many of our customers are constantly innovating, so we must innovate in step with them,” he says. With electrification spreading to all manner of vehicles, boats and aircraft, production capacity is expanding in all areas to try to keep up with demand, according to Sebastian Holtkamper at Hesse Mechatronics. “The market is being pushed by a large number of heterogeneous participants, who bring a mix of many different requirements,” he says. Smaller companies tend to use older techniques such as spot/resistance welding and skilled, experienced operators for special products in small batches and prototypes, notes Phil Carr at Carrs Welding. “The OEMs are leading the way with laser welding, and entire lines of single-mode machines are being installed to weld cells and busbar systems,” he adds. There are only so many ways to join materials together, and for battery applications – particularly where high currents and voltages and tough operating environments are encountered – welding beats alternatives such as soldering, conductive adhesives and mechanical fasteners. Welding provides a robust, strong and comparatively lightweight 2D remote laser welding heads are designed to produce reliable welds of challenging materials such as copper and aluminium in production environments (Courtesy of Coherent)
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