Depending on the capacity that the inspection system detects, a high-voltage battery may be reused in a vehicle either in whole or in part, receive a second life as a mobile or stationary energy reservoir, or the material might be returned to cell production by means of an innovative recycling process.
The first version of the BattMAN (Battery Monitoring Analysis Necessity) software was developed by the Audi Brussels quality management department for the quick and reliable analysis of Audi e-tron’s high-voltage battery. It is already in use as a diagnostics tool for several brands of the Volkswagen group.
BattMAN then underwent further development in cooperation with recycling experts at Volkswagen Group Components prior to the opening of the pilot plant for battery recycling in Salzgitter. After several months of programming and testing, BattMAN ReLife emerged as the new analysis solution that provides a reliable first assessment of a battery in just a few minutes to help set its further course. Previously, this process took several hours.
After plugging in the low-voltage connectors, the device first checks whether the battery is even able to communicate and transfer data. The system then detects and displays any error messages as well as insulation resistance, capacity, temperatures, and cell voltages. Axel Vanden Branden, Quality Engineer at Audi Brussels, explains: “We are able to measure all a cell’s most important parameters. Then a traffic light system indicates the status cell by cell – green means a cell is in good order, yellow means it requires closer inspection, and red means the cell is out of order.”
