Leading battery and energy storage research organization, Intercalation Station sat down with Liminal’s CEO Andrew Hsieh to discuss ultrasound in battery manufacturing and how it can help today’s most pressing battery industry challenges.
“With battery manufacturing today, the final product is still very much a black box since we can’t physically see the inside of these cells, and it’s still tough to understand how it’s going to perform once shipped and if there are any missed defects which could potentially be catastrophic. This makes it hard for even the most experienced battery manufacturers to quickly ramp up production lines that are also simultaneously higher in quality and lower in cost per cell.”
Liminal’s goal is to provide better data and analytics during production so that battery and EV manufacturers have the insights needed to accelerate the ramp-up of new lines and increase steady-state productivity and profitability.
Using ultrasound in battery manufacturing allows manufacturers to “detect things like electrolyte-wetting and filling and other process steps can save significant time and money, all of which are critical in a streamlined production environment with better build quality. At a base level, in-line inspection could save a potential $1.50-2.00/kWh per process step. This might not sound like a lot, but it turns out to be pretty significant especially when battery margins are slim.”