Illustration by Àngels Pinyol
An EOL tester for NiMH batteries
Article by Albert Escala
This success story describes how performance and financial figures improve with the help of custom embedded electronic developments in EOL testers
Lynx Tester mission is to turn customer problems into solutions. In this case, our client wanted to test all type of batteries they manufacture before delivering them to the end customer. The key factors we had to overcome in this development were:
1. Test time for large current capacity batteries.
2. Possibility to test multiple batteries in parallel.
3. Measurement of the internal resistance.
Quality issues rise when the manufacturing process is out of control
Battery construction features many incidences. Due to outsourcing or manufacturing plant offshoring, the quality of the end product may be poor. Potential issues such as discharged batteries, operating voltage out of the specifications or even high internal resistances are problems that can be easily overcome with the proper control levels (EOL tester).
Customer image gets affected
As a consequence, our customer was facing many returns, per the non-standard parameters of some of the batteries they sold to the end customers. This not only means financial inefficiencies due to the product replacement, but also an undermining of the product and brand image in the social media.
Avoid problems with an EOL tester, based on Lynx Scheduler and custom test boards
This EOL tester is not immediate to build. If it were built with standard test equipment, it would be slow, big, expensive and inflexible. For this reason, our engineers found the solution: they developed a specific, custom embedded electronics to perform the test. Both hardware and software are unique and property of the customer. The main features of the solution are:
1. PCBA is controlled by CAN bus.
2. Battery charger based on state of there are IC.
3. Smart control from the board, which allows the control PC to be less occupied.
4. Embedded circuitry to implement the algorithm for the battery internal resistance calculation.
Our customer wins in quality, reputation, flexibility and, … savings!
Now our customer has an automated EOL tester that filters any bad part to be delivered to the end user. But not only this. With the customized embedded electronics solution, they have:
1. Optimized the test time at the minimum necessary to test each battery type.
2. The flexibility to configure new battery tests by software. They can add different batteries without any cost impact.
3. Eliminated the number of returns from customers due to NiMH battery bad quality, as 100% of the parts are charged and tested before the delivery.
