Safety engineers and battery researchers from all over the world met at the »Safe Battery Experience« forum in Freiburg on October 15 and 16. Research and industry exchanged views on new developments, regulations and test procedures. One of the highlights was a tour of the Fraunhofer battery testing laboratories in Efringen-Kirchen.

Batteries are crucial for the safety and performance of electric vehicles. To ensure that new battery technologies are safe, comprehensive tests must be carried out and test standards established. Around 85 participants from universities, research institutes and the automotive industry met in Freiburg to discuss the latest developments. The venue was chosen deliberately: The Fraunhofer-Institute for High-Speed Dynamics EMI, which is based there, has been developing new test and simulation methods for batteries for over ten years.

Modern test procedures for safe batteries
 

»Our research aims to make batteries safer«, emphasized Dr. Sebastian Schopferer, Head of the Battery Test Center at Fraunhofer EMI. »By combining experiments and simulations, we can depict realistic scenarios. The findings help battery and car manufacturers to make their technology safer and more resilient. «

The researchers demonstrated their modern testing methods at several stations. The so-called propagation tests aroused great interest. The behavior of fires within battery modules can be investigated in special test chambers, for example, with the aim of developing protective measures against battery fires.

At another station, the scientists demonstrated how they test the mechanical resilience of battery cells. Targeted deformation of cells, for example using flat or spherical punches, can be used to determine which forces trigger internal short circuits.

The research facility set up specifically for electric cars was also open to the visitors. Here, scientists can test complete vehicle batteries under misuse conditions. The X-ray crash facility already attracted worldwide attention in the spring: Fraunhofer EMI, together with Mercedes-Benz, carried out the first X-ray crash with a thousand X-ray images per second. This X-ray technology is now also being used to analyze batteries. It makes hidden processes visible.

This is because the X-ray video looks through the housing, smoke and fire and shows what happens inside the battery before or while it catches fire. »Our aim is to ensure that batteries remain safe even under extreme conditions«, emphasized Schopferer.
 

Networking between research and industry
 

Organizer Rainer Hoffmann from Carhs.training GmbH was very satisfied at the end of the conference: »We were able to network experts from various fields and initiate an intensive exchange. The demonstrations at Fraunhofer EMI once again emphasized the importance of close cooperation between research and practice. «

The »Safe Battery Experience« was the first Carhs.training conference dedicated to the topic of battery safety. It is part of a series of events that makes theory tangible through practice .