This article focuses on how SHINING 3D’s FreeScan Trak Pro2 can help accurate electric vehicle battery tray inspection, improving critical components’ quality standards and reliability.

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The most important part of an electric vehicle (EV) is its battery. The battery distinguishes an EV from an all-combustion vehicle, powering it and determining its miles per kWh. The battery is also the most expensive component of an EV and can account for one-third of total vehicle costs.

Because of its importance, an EV battery needs to be kept safe and secure. Repairing damaged lithium-ion batteries is challenging, and they often require complete replacement. They can also short-circuit, catch fire, and even explode, posing a risk to drivers and passengers. Fortunately, EV manufacturers take all the necessary precautions to ensure this doesn’t happen. They start with one vital component: the battery tray. The battery tray (also called the battery pack or box) houses the battery cells, control units, connectors, and thermal management system, keeping it all securely in place to prevent damage.

High accuracy and efficiency are necessary when inspecting EV battery trays because they are safety-critical components. The new FreeScan Trak Pro2 from SHINING 3D is already helping automotive manufacturers with this task, giving EV drivers total confidence on the road.

Challenges in Battery Tray Inspection

Electric vehicle battery tray inspection — checking hole diameters against acceptable tolerances, measuring flatness, assessing the quality of welded joints, and more — poses several challenges. First and foremost, because battery failure could prove catastrophic, a high level of precision is required during tray inspection, ensuring that any flaws or exceeded tolerances are discovered before the part is shipped.

But achieving this high level of precision is no mean feat. Why? Automotive engineers design long battery trays with many holes or weld joints. These trays are then attached to the car body. However, manufacturing processes such as spot welding, riveting, and drilling have precision but produce unavoidable deviations. These deviations may affect the usability of the part. Due to the sheer size of a battery tray, inspecting the required standard can be highly time-consuming.

Carrying out inspection on the shop floor poses further difficulties. The inspection equipment must be resistant to vibrations from machinery, temperature changes, and dust.

The Solution: FreeScan Trak Pro2

The FreeScan Trak Pro2, a new optical 3D scanner from SHINING 3D, meets the challenges of battery tray inspection head-on. This optical coordinate measuring system comprises the FreeTrak bar, the TE25 handheld scanner, and the optional FreeProbe contact scanner. It can meet battery tray inspection’s size, efficiency, and environmental demands.

Accuracy

Even in challenging environments, the FreeScan Trak Pro2 can handle inspecting complex, safety-critical components like electric vehicle battery trays. With an accuracy of up to 0.023 mm and consistent repeatability, the scanner provides reliable measurement results.

Scan Speed

The 50 laser lines of the Trak Pro2 contribute to ultra-fast scanning speed of 3,070,000 points/s, making it suitable even for large objects. Scanning a full tray takes just three minutes.

Process Efficiency

A key time-saving feature of the FreeScan Trak Pro2 is its ability to capture data without markers via dynamic referencing, eliminating up to 15 minutes of preparation time per inspection. Additionally, the scanning software shows mesh data in real-time. In other words, users do not need to wait for the point cloud meshing.

Integrated With Inspection Software

Data collected with the FreeScan Trak Pro2 can be imported into the Geomagic Control X inspection software to generate detailed reports on hole diameters, pallet flatness measurements and other key parameters. If measurement templates are set up in the inspection software, the inspection process can even be completed in 1 to 2 minutes.

The Development Trend of Battery Tray Inspection

Battery trays safeguard high-voltage lithium-ion batteries against impact damage, leakage, and overheating during operation. Manufacturers, therefore, need an accurate and efficient inspection solution like the FreeScan Trak Pro2 to ensure these safety-critical components meet all engineering requirements.

Automotive companies are streamlining their inspection processes to produce better EV battery trays with shorter production times. Contact us to see if your industry could benefit from the all-new FreeScan Trak Pro2.