Improving electric vehicle battery efficiency through laser welding
Improved electric vehicle battery performance is a major factor in the steady growth of electric vehicle sales. Better performance stems in part from recent developments in laser welding of dissimilar metals, which improves efficiency by increasing energy storage, reducing size and maintaining reliability. In fact, welding less resistive metals to the standard stainless steel terminals of lithium-ion batteries can reduce resistance and improve battery efficiency. However, traditional resistance spot welding cannot effectively join highly conductive dissimilar metals, such as copper and aluminum, because the resulting intermetallic mixture is brittle. But lasers can do the job with amazing results! Both CW and pulsed fiber lasers are capable of successfully joining dissimilar metals. The key is to use high power and very short pulses to join the parts without melting the metal. The image below, achieved using a 500W single-mode continuous wave fiber laser, sho...