Why is welding important for EV battery systems?

Welding is a vitally important family of joining techniques for EV battery systems. A large battery might need thousands of individual connections, joining the positive and negative terminals of cells together in combinations of parallel and series blocks to form modules and packs of the required voltage and capacity.

How do you Weld a battery pack?

“We see a lot of laser welding and ultrasonic wedge bonding for the larger packs,” says Boyle at Amada Weld Tech. “If the packs or the overall volume are smaller, then resistance welding is often used. Micro-TIG comes up for specialised battery packs with low-volume production.

What types of welding do EV batteries need?

“In these situations, cooperative development and reliable relationships are of high value.” While there many kinds of welding, in EV battery applications the most common are resistance welding and laser welding, along with ultrasonic welding and wire bonding, and benefit from standardisation for mass production.

Can laser welding be used in EV battery production?

Of these, laser and ultrasonic welding processes dominate in EV battery manufacture – with laser welding the preferred solution for mass production – and continue to be improved and refined. “We see a lot of laser welding and ultrasonic wedge bonding for the larger packs,” says Boyle at Amada Weld Tech.

Why are battery contacts so difficult to weld?

At the highest level, reliability and process speed are the main engineering challenges in welding battery contacts and structures, he notes. Carr concurs, and cites cost and customers’ desire to use the latest materials, such as grades of aluminium that are super-light but hard to weld and seal shut.

Can UW Weld a battery current collector?

Compared with alternative methods such as laser welding and brazing, using UW to produce composite thickness busbars for battery current collectors produces wider and stronger welds of greater cross-sectional area, the company says. Mark Boyle notes that UW handles dissimilar metals well, but the vibration can damage nearby components.