Purchases of electric vehicles are on the rise.

Everyone wants to do their part in reducing carbon emissions – and an electric car is one way we can all make a difference.

We all know that electric cars are powered by batteries.

To be more precise, lithium-ion battery packs are installed into each electric vehicle.

Every battery pack is essentially a casing that houses a number of modules. Each module has Lithium-ion battery cells that “store the charge.”

In order to get the most out of a charge, car companies are looking to eliminate battery packs and move directly to installing Lithium-ion battery cells into the car itself – without any casings that house it.

Removing the battery pack, and installing the battery cells directly, makes the car lighter and allows it to function on a charge for a longer period.

But once you install the battery cells directly into a car, without a module casing, it is almost impossible to service or fix it.

Which means that the structural integrity of the battery must be high from the very start.

That’s where laser technology comes in.

Battery cells are made of three thin foils, which are coated with a mixture of an active material, conductive agent, and binder.

These foils are made in long rolls, and the painstaking process of cutting, cleaning and welding the tabs of the foil must be precise.

High-power nanosecond pulsed infrared and UV lasers are used to cut, clean, and weld the foil, because they create smoother edges and reduce the risk of lithium dendrite formation which can cause the battery to fail.

And when it comes time to install the battery directly into the chassis, laser welding can be used because it produces strong and reliable joints.

Kilowatt class fiber lasers are traditionally used for such welding because their 1-micron wavelength is efficiently absorbed by the car’s aluminum and steel. Recently developed green and blue high-power lasers are used to improve the throughput of copper welding, which is used in the power connections.
Laser applications for lithium-ion battery production and installation can only be reliable if you constantly measure the laser beam’s power and profile.

Ophir Photonics products can help you can guarantee outstanding and reliable laser performance, time after time.

You can read more about the use of lasers in lithium-ion batteries on our blog.