Battery measurement & analysis technology
Analysis and testing of battery technology
As part of troubleshooting and the development of battery technology, the analysis and testing of entire battery packs, serials and individual cells is essential.
Measuring the capacity of a battery
Measuring the capacity of a battery is not easy and cannot be measured directly like the voltage in volts or the current flow in amperes. To determine the capacity of a battery in Ah or Wh, it must be drained and recharged in a process of charging and discharging cycles. The resulting currents and voltages are measured, documented and evaluated.
At the end of this measuring procedure, the battery capacity value determined under the current circumstances is obtained.
Our technical department
In our in-house technical department, we analyze and test lead and lithium batteries from 0 - 100V with a discharge current of up to 60A. The test can be carried out on up to 8 batteries at the same time. The necessary testing technology, of which there are only a handful of devices in Germany, comes from one of the market leaders in this segment.
Values that are checked, measured, analyzed and documented:
- Battery voltage
- Battery capacity
- Cell temperatures
- Cell voltage
- Internal resistance
- BMS analytics and valuation
- Reading, analysis and evaluation of so-called “lifetime values” of the memory chips in relation to historical values such as last charging processes, charging start voltage and charging end voltage, number of charging cycles, date, times, etc.
All values are documented to the second and included in the test certificate at the end of the test cycle to determine the test result.
Protection during the test cycle
During the test cycle, the battery is actively protected against voltage peaks, current peaks, over- and deep discharge, incorrect voltages and incorrect currents.
Realistic values and scenarios
In order to obtain the most realistic values possible, we measure using different scenarios, also to be able to rule out measurement errors. Both single cycles and multiple cycles are measured. For example, a battery goes through a total of 5 full charge cycles, from which an average value is then calculated in order to exclude all tolerances and measurement value peaks.
Individual route profiles and driving scenarios
We can test batteries using individually determined route profiles and driving scenarios as in real use. Depending on body weight (load), route topography (gradients and gradients), outside temperature and speed, we select the most suitable profile from a large number of stored profiles and use it to measure the battery to be tested. The measurement result thus corresponds to reality to an extremely high percentage. At the same time, the battery is measured using a standard profile, which gives us extremely comparable and meaningful values.
Test duration of a battery
The test duration of a battery depends heavily on its capacity and the level of the charging current and is always between a few hours and several days.