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Tag: LBT Series News

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Where Are The Flying Cars

July 24, 2019

Introduction
No longer things of science fiction, flying cars are slowly becoming possible as many companies are working to release the first commercial and affordable flying car. These vehicles aim to be alternatives to conventional cars, and through their adoption alleviate road traffic, make short-distance travel faster, and provide a more environmentally friendly option for travel.

There are two design streams when it comes to flying cars currently under development. The first, eVTOLs (Electrical Vertical Take-Off & Landing), otherwise known as passenger drones, are close in concept to small drones seen on the market now. The second are   hybrids, vehicles that have both wheels and wings and can operate on the road and in the air.

Plenty of companies have already developed prototypes. If the technology is already available, what is really stopping us from having flying cars now?

Why flying cars?
As the world taps into its finite fuel reserves, companies and researchers are racing to find efficient and affordable fuel and transportation alternatives. Electric vehicles (EVs) reduce the need for combustible fuel. They are also better for the environment as they reduce carbon emissions and noise pollution on the road. As a replacement for short-to-medium distance travelling, electrical flying cars would reduce the emissions from, and fuel used for trains, planes, and road vehicles.

Compared to electric cars, conventional cars are inefficient in their energy use. Currently, EVs convert around 60% of their energy to propulsion, while only 20% of every litre of fuel burned is used for forward motion in a conventional car. The rest is lost to heat and noise. In the same way, flying cars would allow for better use of energy when compared to fuel-based vehicles.

Commercial air travel has proven to be significantly safer than road travel. Thus, the standards set for the safety of flying vehicles would be higher than that of conventional cars, prompting developers to ensure they would be a safe option for daily use. Moreover, the advancement of technology has allowed for autonomous vehicles, aiming to eliminate human error. This technology is also being worked into flying cars.

Flying cars also allow for more mobility in a shorter amount of time. It would reduce the time spent commuting or stuck in traffic, giving people more time for other activities, like spending time with family and friends. In an urban city where life is busy and fast paced, the extra time would be warmly welcomed.

What still needs to be improved?
Technologically and economically, flying vehicles have not reached a level of efficiency which would allow it to be an effective mainstream option of travel. Ultimately, in order for electrical flying vehicles (eVTOL’s) to become reliable, safe, efficient, and affordable, battery technology still has a long way to go. Compared with jet fuel of the same weight, currently available batteries are just not as efficient for flying. According to one study, a single passenger eVTOL is still less energy efficient than electric road vehicles. The batteries of today are still unable to carry the amount of energy needed for flying vehicles to be considered energy efficient. Moreover, since these batteries would be extremely heavy-duty, the charge rate would be too slow to support flying vehicles as a high-frequency option for travel. 

Besides capacity, the heat generated from the release of power is a huge concern. Batteries in eVTOLs and flying vehicles need to discharge much quicker than road vehicles, requiring special cooling systems, adding to the weight of vehicles. The extra heat would also shorten battery life and possibly make them more prone to catching fire. There are current problems with EVs catching fire while charging or after being involved in accidents. The instability of the safety of batteries must be addressed before flying vehicles can be considered a safe and viable option of public transportation.

What are the next steps?
Developing the right battery is still the key to creating a flying vehicle that can be clean, green, and efficient. Battery testing must also catch up with the needs of battery and vehicle developers to better understand what can be done to make them better. [Battery testing equipment] should be able to detect the smallest changes in the battery early in the testing phase so researches can quickly pick out factors that affect battery health. Equipment like Arbin’s cuts through the measurement noise present in lower quality equipment, allowing researchers to see minute changes and trends. Thus, more effectively assessing and predicting the efficiency and health of the battery.

Temperature control equipment like [Arbin’s MZTC Multi-Chamber], also helps ensure superior measurement precision and safety during testing. Accelerating the [testing and development process] by reducing the chances of one battery cell affecting the other and causing issues like cascade failures. With flying car batteries, where heat and temperature control is crucial, having the right battery testing equipment is critical.

While solid concepts for flying cars are present and the projected benefits of using them are good, technology has yet to catch up to our imagination. However, once battery technology is able to meet the safety standards and efficiency needs of a flying vehicle, commercial, mainstream flying cars will become transportation of the present.

Drones are flying further thanks to battery test equipment

July 10, 2019

Drone technology has come a long way since its first introduction into non-military consumer use in 2010, becoming lighter, faster, and more compact over the years. Improvement in battery technology and battery testing equipment has greatly contributed to the advancement in drones, allowing smaller batteries with higher volumetric and energy densities to carry drones further than before.

Batteries as a limitation
Capacity, safety, and the lifespan of batteries are all factors that limit the creation of faster and more efficient drones. In the current state of battery technology, high capacity batteries are big and weighty, restricting the potential of portable and mobile devices as heavier loads would need a larger amount of energy to be carried. Most commercial drones fly for an average of 10 minutes before needing to be charged for an hour or two. The longest-lasting drones run for around 30 minutes, but the high price of heavy duty batteries increase the upfront cost of the gadget, making these drones also quite pricey.

Latest in battery technology
Researchers and battery chemists are working to improve on the various limitations of batteries and contribute to the progress of portable devices. Some of the solutions currently being worked on aim to find alternative materials that could replace various components of the battery to store more energy and release power more effectively, as well as increase the efficiency and thermal stability of batteries. This could be finding replacements for anodes, cathodes, or the liquid electrolyte found inside batteries. Better, more efficient materials would mean batteries with higher capacities, longer life-spans, and less flammable units, thus making portable electronics, gadgets, and electric vehicles much safer and more reliable. However, research and development within this field is slow and arduous and most researchers so far have found that to improve one element is to compromise on another. There must be a delicate balance between improving technology and ensuring the safety and efficiency of new batteries and products.

The benefits of battery testing and improved battery testing equipment
This is where improved battery testing and battery testing equipment can help maintain the balance between safety and progress. Advancement in testing equipment allows for more efficient and precise testing, measuring the smallest changes in a battery under real-world test conditions. Since many factors affect battery health, such as temperature, charging speed, depth of discharge, load cycles, etc., it is crucial to test these factors to ensure the safety and longevity of batteries and know better how to extend and improve the lifespan of products.

Typically, testing a battery would involve charge cycling for a significant portion of the battery’s expected lifespan. For instance, if a battery is meant to last for around 2 years, testing would last several months and the health of the battery would be projected from its test results. However, now that batteries need to last for more than 10 years, to test them for 2-3 years makes the development cycle too slow. Thus, battery testing equipment must be able to detect the smallest changes in the battery early in the testing phase so researchers can quickly compare batteries and materials. Drone batteries need to be able to release a large amount of power in a short period of time to take off and land as well as maintain a stable power flow while cruising. Better battery testing equipment allows the minute changes within the battery to be detected during these energy releases so researchers can better know what affects the battery and what needs to be changed to make them more energy efficient. Arbin’s battery test equipment offers the best measurement precision by a significant margin, allowing researchers to see the smallest changes and trends within the battery that go undetected among measurement noise with lower quality test equipment. This accelerates the testing and development process, allowing battery-powered devices like drones to improve more rapidly.

Arbin Battery Test Chamber

Safety is also a critical concern during battery testing. It is crucial to measure and control temperature during testing to prevent a failure or thermal runaway event. A typical temperature chamber provides a single large space to test a number of batteries at the same temperature in one go. However, if one battery cell fails, it could cause a cascade failure or ruin other tests in the same chamber. Thus, Arbin has created the “MZTC” Multi-Chamber that isolates cells or pairs of cells into individual mini-chambers to provide greater temperature uniformity and safely isolate cells from one another in case of failure. This speeds up the testing process by stabilizing tests and reducing risks.

How battery testing can help drones fly further
For drones, other portable devices, as well as electric vehicles to improve and become more accessible, battery technology still has a long way to go. However, with better battery testing equipment the research and development process can be reduced with greater resolution, superior precision, and a more consistent test environment, allowing technology to soar to new heights.

 

 

Researchers Use Arbin Battery Test Equipment to Develop AI Predictions of Battery Life

April 9, 2019

A recent [Nature] publication from researchers at Stanford University, MIT, and Toyota describes how machine learning models can be used to predict the useful life of advanced lithium-ion and any future "next-generation" battery chemistry.  [News Article from Stanford]  The research team used Arbin battery test equipment over the past two years for the on-going study. 

About the Battery Research Project

Batteries were tested to end-of-life and then machine learning was used to analyze the Arbin data and develop algorithms to predict battery life based on early cycles.  Charge-discharge cycling to end-of-life can take months or years for advanced chemistry batteries comprising many thousands of cycles.  It is a slow and costly phase of the battery research and development process.  Expediting this process by identifying key metrics and indicators in the data during early cycles (<100) is critical to reduce the time required for battery development.  Beyond material development and cell-grading, these evaluation testing techniques can also be used to evaluate fast-charge protocols, which is the next phase of the research project.

The joint team has published data that is available publicly [https://data.matr.io/1/]. 
Arbin [LBT test equipment] and [cell holders] were used along with temperature chambers.

Request a Quote or Contact us to learn more: sales@arbin.com | +1 979 690 2751 | www.arbin.com 

Capacity Degredation Over Cycle Life

Why Arbin is Most Suitable for This Level of Battery Research

Previous research has been done using coulombic efficiency as the primary metric to predict battery end-of-life [Source]. Arbin was involved in a 3-year [ARPA-E project] from 2012 through 2015 with Ford Motors and Sandia National Lab to develop a new generation of high-precision battery test systems that are capable of performing meaningful coulombic efficiency calculations on high-current cells.  This technology has been implemented across [Arbin’s cyclers] and is available to researchers worldwide.

The new findings from the team at Stanford, MIT, and Toyota is another breakthrough that has utilized Arbin’s 24-bit resolution and superior measurement precision.  Arbin has also recently developed a new [cell-isolating thermal safety chamber], "MZTC," that has 8 independently controlled mini-chambers in 1.  It allows greater temperature uniformity by isolating individual or small sets of cells that can reduce the error calculation and further improve the machine learning algorithms to evaluate battery life.  It also provides a safer environment when testing cells at high c-rates. 

  • Arbin Battery Test Chamber
  • Arbin Battery Test Chamber

Arbin is committed to providing the best test equipment as a tool for researchers because we understand the import role energy storage plays in our everyday life and future.  Battery test equipment is available for [materials research applications], up to [commercial cell testing at high c-rates].  [Arbin’s cell-isolating thermal safety chamber] also provides a greater temperature stability and uniformity than a traditional large chamber can provide. 

Request a Quote or Contact us to learn more: sales@arbin.com | +1 979 690 2751 | www.arbin.com 

[Learn How to Evaluate Battery Test Equipment]

Arbin 96-channel battery tester
Arbin 96-channel battery tester

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