Executive Summary : | "Nowadays, the world is moving towards electrification in every sector especially which requires energy in any form. As everyone wants to switch from fossil fuel to eco-friendly electrification, the role of batteries becomes important to facilitate the renewable energy. Some countries have already started to put restrictions on the internal combustion-based operated engines. Electric vehicles are the future of the automotive industry and therefore the research and developments will be focused on the use of automotive batteries for the electromobility applications in more intact way. The battery packs require dissimilar materials welding to transfer electric power from one cell to another and subsequently module to module further to engine. Mostly, the dissimilar metal systems like aluminium-copper, steel-aluminium, and copper-steel are used at the battery cell connections. The various kinds of joining techniques are used to join the battery tab to terminal joints. Battery packs manufacturers and researchers working within this field have been continuously developing understanding on manufacturability through different welding processes and analysis on joints’ soundness. Despite this, the corrosion aspects and life of battery tab to terminal welding are not widely available in open literature. It is very much important to take two major factors into consideration for battery packs’ applications to avoid the corrosion susceptibility. First, there is huge possibility of corrosion at the battery tab terminal due to dissimilar materials welding. Second, use of the joining technique (i.e. processing and heat input conditions) significantly affects the corrosion at the dissimilar weld region as well as rate of the corrosion. The reduced corrosion resistance of the joint can lead to the premature failure of the joint and hence, affects the expected performance of the battery packs.
Therefore, current research proposal targets to evaluate the suitability of the friction stir welding to produce the battery tab to terminal joint with enhanced mechanical and corrosion performance. The various types of electrochemical investigation will be carried out to study the galvanic joint. The study at higher temperature (as compared to room temperature) will also be carried out (if required) as per the application conditions." |