Battery Cell Compatibility Sorting for Multi-Parameter Pack Assembly
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current techniques fail to effectively match battery cells across multiple characteristics, leading to inefficiencies and increased discarding of leftover cells due to uncorrelated characteristics, which can result in suboptimal battery performance.
Innovation Solution
A method for matching cells across multiple characteristics by evaluating cell compatibility based on parameters such as capacity, open circuit voltage, resistance, and self-discharge rate, using a cell compatibility matrix and sorting cells by their batch compatibility numbers to identify optimal cell combinations for battery assembly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If cells are matched based on a single characteristic, then the matching process is simple and quick, but cells from different manufacturing runs may be incompatible leading to suboptimal battery performance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extends the matching criteria from a single parameter to multiple parameters (capacity, open circuit voltage, resistance, self-discharge rate). By changing the number and type of parameters considered in the matching process, the system achieves both compatibility across manufacturing runs and optimization of battery performance, resolving the contradiction between simple matching and reliable performance.
2Reliability
If cells are matched across multiple characteristics, then battery performance is optimized and leftover cells are reduced, but the matching process becomes complex and computationally intensive
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the cell population into distinct batches or manufacturing runs and performs matching within each batch separately. This segmentation approach reduces the computational complexity by breaking down the large-scale multi-parameter matching problem into smaller, more manageable sub-problems, while still achieving optimized battery performance through consistent application of the multi-criteria matching algorithm across all batches.
Data Source
AI summary
For each cell in a plurality of cells from a same manufacturing run, a first and a second cell characteristic are received in order to obtain a plurality of cell characteristics. For each cell, a batch compatibility number that is associated with a number of compatible cells that that cell is compatible with is determined based at least in part on the plurality of cell characteristics. The plurality of cells is sorted according to the batch compatibility numbers to obtain a sorted list of cells. A plurality of compatible cells to include in a battery is selected from the plurality of cells, including by evaluating the plurality of cells according to the order of the sorted list of cells and beginning with the lowest batch compatibility number.