The Smart Battery Assembly Process (Run as a slideshow & click on each process to view the details)

The Smart Battery Assembly Process Click on a process to view details The Smart Battery Assembly Process Passive component sub-assembly Cell Corepack Welding Circuit Board Functional Testing Circuit Board Population + Cleaning Cell Corepack Gluing Circuit Board Attach Pre Cal Test Calibration Test Data Central Storage Post Cal Test Case Gluing Ultrasonic Welding Packing & Shipping End of line test Load Test Date Coding Labeling

Click The light bulb to go back Corepack Welding The inter-cell links are individually resistance welded to the positive & negative terminals on each cell.

Corepack Gluing Each cell is glued to the adjacent cell. Click The light bulb to go back Corepack Gluing Each cell is glued to the adjacent cell. Where adjacent cells have differing voltage, an insulating spacer is used.

Passive component sub-assembly Click The light bulb to go back Passive component sub-assembly Sub assemblies of wires, fuses, thermal safety devices heat shrink tubing and nickel straps etc are assembled prior to building the cell corepacks.

Circuit Board Population & Cleaning Click The light bulb to go back Circuit Board Population & Cleaning Each raw board has the solder paste applied by the paste stencil. After a visual inspection, the board passes through the pick & place robot where each component is placed on the board. The populated board is inspected & then passes through the oven to reflow the solder paste. After a visual inspection, the board is placed into the washer to clean any flux or residue from the reflow process

Circuit Board Functional Testing Click The light bulb to go back Circuit Board Functional Testing Every board on every panel is fully tested using a computerized system which models the operation of the board and tests the components for performance. The panel is placed on a bed-of-nails fixture & each test point is wired-up to the test rack. The circuit board data is stored in a central database & can be compared to data from battery packs through the work-in-process to the end of line test, to provide full traceability of the test results throughout the process.

Click The light bulb to go back Circuit Board Attach The circuit board is soldered to the cell corepack. As the cells are live, this is a skilled operation. The newly-attached board is now a fully functional smart battery. Prior to calibration it is tested for SMBus communications & basic operation.

Calibration Every battery pack is fully charged & fully discharged. Click The light bulb to go back Calibration Every battery pack is fully charged & fully discharged. During the discharge the internal fuel gauge measures the amount of charge present, & this gives the battery its first full calibration. The battery is then given a shipping charge between 30-50% capacity. We do not electronically “write” a calibration to the battery. Every battery must calibrate itself to pass this stage. After calibration the battery data is read and stored.

Click The light bulb to go back Case Gluing Electronics grade RTV is applied to the corepack assembly to unitize it within the case. Adhesive is applied around the perimeter of the case & the case top & bottom are clamped together

Click The light bulb to go back Ultrasonic Welding Electronics grade RTV is applied to the corepack assembly to unitize it within the case. The case top & bottom are placed into the ultrasonic weld fixture & welded together

Click The light bulb to go back Labeling Labels are applied to each battery pack and a visual inspection is carried out.

Click The light bulb to go back End-of-Line Testing Prior to packing & shipping, every battery has its SMBus data read by the end of line tester. A load test is also performed to verify the capability of the battery to perform to its discharge specification. As with all other test data, this is stored centrally and can be used to verify the outgoing performance of each individual battery pack. Only if the battery pack passes this test will it receive the date code and serial number embossed into the plastic case adjacent to the connector. Upon completion of a successful test the battery is date coded, packaged & immediately shipped to the customer.

Std. Battery Inline Quality Checks Circuit Board Test Visual Inspection Circuit Board Assembly Core Pack Assembly Pass Inspect/ Repair Inspect/ Repair Fail Fail SMBus Comms test Test Data Storage Battery Pack Assembly MACCOR Pack Calibration Fail Inspect & Repair /Replace board Fail SMBus Comms test Label & Date Code SMBus Comms test Visual Insp. Glue Case Pack & Ship Fail