Accelerating Electrification of Off-Highway Equipment through Standardization

In the race to electrify the industry, Inventus Power, a global leader in advanced battery systems, offers insights and innovations that promise to accelerate the transition.

In this webinar, Oliver Bald, Senior Manager for Business Development, and Santiago Antolin, Senior Field Applications Engineer, delve into the intricacies of standardizing battery technology and charging solutions for off-highway equipment.

Watch the full webinar here:

The Surge in Power Demand 

As the world becomes more electrified, the demand for power increases, pushing for higher system voltages to optimize efficiency and minimize losses. Driving this heightened demand is the twofold transformation occurring in recent decades: 

• Transitioning from combustion – Regulatory measures have supercharged the switch from combustion to electric drive systems.
• Shifting towards lithium – With lower maintenance costs, longer lifespan, and improved safety via battery management systems (BMS), lithium batteries are redefining the norms.

As foundational battery technology improves, the upgrade from lead acid-based electric drive trains to lithium-ion systems has resulted in a nominal voltage surge and need for power—particularly in off-highway applications.

The Key to Navigating the Transition: Standardization

Learning from sectors that once relied heavily on custom design solutions, it's evident that standardization paves the way for broader applicability and more efficient implementation.

This pivot to standardized battery pack and module sizes offers multiple benefits, such as accelerated market entry, cost reduction, and full battery pack certification. 

Transitioning from immediate advantages, the steps to achieve standardization can be distilled into four guiding tenets:

1. Standard battery sizes
2. Internal component compatibility
3. Streamlined hardware installation
4. Integration of data analytics

In the wake of a rapidly evolving energy landscape, these tenets not only guide efficient transitions but also ensure that systems are future-proof, optimized, and aligned with industry progression.

Elements to Optimal Battery Design

A foundational aspect of standardization lies in the battery design itself, from size to internal composition. Note the following design elements that contribute to this:

Sizing 

In addition to modularity and scalability, standardized sizing on battery packs enhances the flexibility of installation:

• Unified installation process across a variety of vehicle dimensions, profiles, and enclosures
• Lightweight and ergonomic design, facilitating single-person installation and servicing
• Modular installation allows for units to serve as strategic counterweights

Proper sizing ensures optimized power and performance based on the intended machine duty cycle.

Battery Cells

The battery's heart, its cell, is chosen based on factors including power needs, environmental conditions, and specific load profiles. Three standardized cell types stand out:

• Lithium titanium oxide (LTO)
• Lithium iron phosphate (LFP)
• Lithium nickel cobalt manganese aluminum (NCMA)

Each cell variant provides a unique balance in performance metrics such as charge rate, energy density, longevity, and cost-effectiveness.

Battery Management System

Monitoring cell charge, discharging, and overseeing vital parameters like voltages and temperatures, the BMS effectively serves as the ‘brain’ of a battery pack. 

Its design synchronizes with cell specifications and safeguards the battery, all while communicating externally for diagnostics and safety checks.

Levels of Integration

Integration in modern battery systems encompasses communication between key internal components, such as the vehicle control unit, charger, and battery. 

This can be segmented into three primary categories:

• Basic Integration – The simplest form of integration where individual components operate in relative isolation (mirroring standard lead-acid setups).
• Semi-integration – Facilitates closed-loop communication between the BMS and charger, optimizing the battery's charging cycle based on real-time data exchange.
• Full Integration – Comprehensive communication among all devices. This further enhances real-time optimization in tandem with a variety of charger types, such as DC fast chargers.

Leveraging data analytics and machine learning, full integration allows for substantially reducing downtimes via safety and performance fine-tuning. 

This intricate synchronization of varied components exemplifies the challenges and advancements in the field, underscoring the importance of standardization.

Compliance and Safety 

While regulatory standards and compliance specifics vary globally, universally ensuring safety is paramount, especially when aiming for standardization. 

Essential tests for compliance include:

• UN 38.3 for transportation – This encompasses a spectrum of evaluations, such as vibration, ingress protection, crash tests, nail penetration, and immersion.
• ECE R100 for on road vehicles – This rigorous testing involves the battery's endurance against an external fire for approximately two minutes. Additional assessments under this standard include shock and external short circuit, among others.

Additional considerations must be made for proper transportation and storage of battery packs, such as maintaining ideal state of charge (SOC) levels and performing regular checkups on stored batteries.

Maintaining compliance in these areas ensures that batteries perform optimally and adhere to safety parameters, guaranteeing safe deployment across applications.

Standardization: The Fast Lane to Electrification 

As the industry powers forward, it’s clear we are swiftly accelerating towards an electrified future. 

From the complexities of optimal battery design to overarching guidelines grounded in safety and regulatory benchmarks, standardization carves a decisive path forward—for off-highway equipment and other commercial sectors.

The horizon looks electric—and Inventus Power, charged by Delta-Q—stands poised to blaze the trail.