The EBAT project, undertaken within TWI’s Exploratory Programme, has successfully delivered process demonstration and promotion materials that showcase the significant cost reduction capabilities of electron beam welding (EBW) for joining battery components in electric vehicle (EVs). This positions TWI to take advantage of market opportunities estimated to be worth over £10 million in the electric vehicle manufacturing industry. The project has highlighted TWI's expertise and capabilities in this area, allowing the organisation to engage with potential customers and partners, by demonstrating the cost-effective and efficient solutions offered by EBW for battery component joining in EVs.
The intended research objectives that EBAT achieved include development of the welding strategy, and demonstration of a welding process for small arrays of battery cells, as used in EV battery packs. The research results show high speed beam deflection patterns allow multiple welds to be carried out concurrently. The project also successfully demonstrated welding in copper, aluminium and copper, and steel, as well as welding effectively at speeds of ~12m/min.
EBAT has achieved significant success from a commercial perspective. The results of this Exploratory Programme project were instrumental in TWI joining the Faraday Battery Challenge, for a collaborative research and development project called EB-Bat. Additionally, EBAT has facilitated the involvement of the project team in ‘H1perChain’, an Innovate UK project that focuses on the development of EBW for battery packs with different material configurations.
Furthermore, there has been a high level of interest from both Member and non-Member companies for potential future project work in this area.