Quality Assurance for the Battery Tray
ZEISS EMOBILITY SOLUTIONS

Quality Assurance for Battery Trays

Component reliability through inspection and quality data

Holistic inspection process promotes battery tray quality

Ensuring proper formation and integration

As a battery receptacle fully integrated into the body of an electric vehicle, the battery tray must be mechanically stable and fit seamlessly into its surroundings. Featuring a complex aluminum weld design, it houses all battery cells, connectors, control units, and the battery packs that contain numerous battery modules.

The integrity of the battery tray and its structure must be inspected at multiple intervals during production to ensure quality and safety. This involves a variety of methods such as full-field inspection and a range of ZEISS technologies including CMMs and X-ray systems.

ZEISS solutions at every step

Blue Line for battery tray quality

ZEISS solutions at every step
  • Quality gate 1: joining process control

    Quality gate 1: joining process control

    Process control with correlation-free and traceable inline measurement technology

    Challenges

    • Large battery tray and high number of geometric elements and weld joints quickly lead to long measurement and inspection cycles
    • As the safety-critical battery tray often requires 100% monitoring, an inline solution is needed for the production environment

    Your benefits with ZEISS

    • Correlation-free and traceable measurement and inspection data with ZEISS Inline Solutions
    • Short feature measurement times via high-end automated line sensor ZEISS AIMax cloud
    • Real-time process monitoring of complex characteristics in entire battery tray
  • Quality gate 2: milling and drilling process control

    Quality gate 2: milling and drilling process control

    Process control of significant characteristics

    Challenges

    • Thermal expansion of the battery pack when charging and driving can cause torsion and bending on the battery tray
    • Numerous dimensional characteristics must be measured via random sampling or complete automated end-of-line inspection

    Your benefits with ZEISS

    • Multisensor measurement of large number of features with quick inspection cycles
    • ZEISS non-contact optical laser scanners quickly extract feature data
    • ZEISS tactile probe systems access challenging optical features such as undercuts
  • Quality gate 3: full-field inspection

    Quality gate 3: full-field inspection

    Digital twin and digital assembly

    Challenges

    • It is crucial to evaluate the complete battery tray surface, as this affects the dimensional accuracy of the entire vehicle body
    • Flexible cables and connectors must be correctly positioned to ensure flawless assembly of the battery tray and cover
    • Battery modules must be correctly fitted to battery compartments for safe operation

    Your benefits with ZEISS

    • ZEISS ScanBox enables fast automated 3D full-field measurement of the battery tray, generating a full digital twin in minutes
    • ZEISS INSPECT software enables time-saving digital assembly, including all connecting components and their alignments
    • Solutions provide clarity on thermal battery module deformation after cycle tests
  • Quality gate 4: critical functions control

    Quality gate 4: critical functions control

    Analysis of the complete battery tray with high accuracy

    Challenges

    • Final safety check and certification of the complete battery tray poses a particular challenge
    • Thermal expansion in event of temperature increases can lead to battery tray torsion and bending, causing serious safety issues

    Your benefits with ZEISS

    • Multisensor ZEISS CMMs feature a large measuring field that enables the use of tactile and optical sensors on a single machine
    • ZEISS CALYPSO and ZEISS PiWeb software can be combined with CMMs for inline and atline comparison and correlation of results
  • Quality gate 5: structural analysis

    Quality gate 5: structural analysis

    Analysis of the sealing and glue areas

    Challenges

    • Battery trays are commonly manufactured via welding and casting: risk of critical hidden defects and inner structure defects
    • To identify rejects, users must be able to look inside the material and determine the size and position of these defects

    Your benefits with ZEISS

    • ZEISS 2D and 3D X-ray technology detects, locates, classifies, and rates internal defects as cavities, pores, and cracks
    • Systems such as ZEISS METROTOM support quick, efficient, and highly detailed digitization of complex parts
    • Making the invisible visible is key to identifying defective battery trays and ensuring a reliable production process

Full-field geometry acquisition with ZEISS

ZEISS optical measuring machines enable full-field measurement of the battery tray featuring high-precision fringe projection. They digitize the part from different viewing directions with high speed, accuracy, and resolution. The sensors generate entirely correlation-free and traceable measuring data.
Optical measurement with 3D measuring machine

Optical measurement with 3D measuring machine

Users obtain millions of full-field distributed 3D coordinates, which can be compared with the CAD model to detect deviations and identify defects such as deformations. The software uses CAD data and inspection plans for fully automated creation of the sensor positions and robot paths required for acquisition.

Digital twin for process and quality control

Digital twin for process and quality control

The result of the measurement is a geometrical digital twin that shows the real geometry of the battery tray. Process-related inspection features can be extracted from the 3D point cloud and evaluated in a trend analysis: Based on full-field measurements, this enables early detection of changes in the production process.

Deviations between digital twin and CAD data
Deviations between digital twin and CAD data

Deviations between digital twin and CAD data

During problem analysis in ZEISS INSPECT, the surface deviations are color-coded in the 3D point cloud to help achieve the desired nominal CAD geometry. GD&T functions enable calculation of the flatness or surface profile of sealing surfaces or individual battery compartments – and it is also easy to capture the height and position of the sealing bead.

Digital assembly
Digital assembly

Digital assembly

The digital assembly helps assess interaction between battery modules and the battery tray, enables simulation and optimization of assembly situations, and provides detail on gap size changes caused by thermal deformation of modules. Module-to-tray surface deviations are used to calculate the heat-conducting paste volume for individual battery compartments.

Extra insights into quality assurance for battery trays

  • ZEISS AICell trace, ZEISS CALENO T & ATOS ScanBox
    Battery Tray – Holistic Quality Inspection
  • ATOS ScanBox
    Battery Tray – Full-Field Inspection
  • ZEISS AICell trace
    Battery Tray – Joining Process Control
  • ZEISS CALENO T & ZEISS EagleEye
    Battery Tray – Milling & Drilling Process Control

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