Cell Design

Manage your risk. Avoid safety headaches.

Cell design determines the safety of the cell. A good design is essential for managing your risk. We can assist with reviewing existing cell designs and guiding new cell designs. 

Qualifying a new cell type or a new supplier?

Manage your risk by an independent, unbiased assessment of the cell design, particularly for safety.

• Low cost cells may come with design defects that cause future safety headaches.
• Is your cell vendor following industry best practices?
• Can you rely on cell vendors to point out safety concerns?
• Is a manufacturer quality audit advisable?

Example CT of a low cost Li-ion cell without any of the standard safety mechanisms. It has no pressure vent or current interrupt device. This cell would be extremely dangerous if overcharged.

Typical hidden problems with low quality cell suppliers:

• insufficient protection of vulnerable areas against internal shorts
• assembly damage, internal mechanical defects
• internal contamination causing self-discharge or internal shorts
• poor electrode alignment
• inadequate pressure venting
• Li plating due to wrinkles or trapped gases
• laminate packaging problems likely to cause leakage

Many of these problems can be diagnosed with non-destructive CT scanning but full teardown analysis of samples will give the most complete picture.

Expertise with all aspects of Cell Design

• power/energy optimization
• protection against internal shorts
• electrode balance
• materials selection

Specialized software allows us to simulate cell windings and predict the relative positions of components in the finished winding.