The CARL: Center for Ageing, Reliability and Lifetime Prediction of Electrochemical and Power Electronic Systems was opened at the ISEA Institute at RWTH Aachen University in 2023. More than 120 researchers are analyzing the aging and failure mechanisms of battery cells and systems as well as power electronic components and systems. An investment of over 100 million euros has created a unique, interdisciplinary research center that can model, measure and optimize the service life and reliability of batteries, from the molecular level of a battery to the chemical processes involved in charging and discharging under various influencing factors to the behaviour in coupled systems. Several thousand battery cells can be aged and analyzed simultaneously in the laboratories.
Weiss Technik has supplied various high-end test benches, climate chambers and temperature test chambers for environmental tests and continuous cycling for CARL. They are used in 40 containerized test cells and other laboratories, primarily for checking model assumptions and verifying measurement results.
Stephan Bihn heads the Battery System Technology and Vehicle Integration department at the Chair of Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage Systems Technology. He describes how the collaboration between materials scientists, chemists, physicists, mathematicians and electrical and mechanical engineers is rapidly increasing our understanding of the system. Whether Prof. Figgemeier's group is analyzing interface effects at the material level, Prof. Sauer's department is modeling the behavior of the battery cell or Prof. de Doncker is developing a new charger or a new drive - the knowledge is in-house. The connection to Münster University, the Helmholtz Institute and the Fraunhofer FFB is particularly close. Weiss Technik recently supplied a drying room for the FFB in Münster and is currently building a second one.
At CARL, weisstechnik's devices are used in a variety of ways to achieve the goals set: optimal battery systems for stationary and mobile applications - from the initial design, selection of the most suitable battery cells and electrical dimensioning, the battery management system, thermal management, detailed CAD designs through to physical and functional integration into the application and suitable tests.