Uniform, defect-free electrode coatings are essential for battery performance. That’s why battery manufacturers inspect electrodes during production to insure the uniform quality of the coatings. However, as Thermo Fisher Scientific explains, traditional in-line coating weight measurement gauges use a single spot sensor traversing the electrode sheet to assess coating quality, but several meters of electrode are produced in the time it takes to complete a single profile scan, so much of the electrode goes unmeasured.

Thermo Fisher says its new Thermo Scientific LInspector Edge In-line Mass Profilometer measures the entire electrode in real time, at full production speed, providing battery manufacturers with the data needed to make better, safer batteries. The LInspector Edge analyzer uses a new analytical technique, in-line mass profilometry, to measure complete edge-to-edge coating profiles in milliseconds with high resolution and precision.

“Thanks to a greater insight into mass loading of active material on the coating edges and a complete mapping of mass loading on the entire electrode, battery manufacturers can now benefit from previously unobtainable richness of data for production control and full traceability for each electrode patch, stripe, or roll, allowing them to meet increasingly stringent quality requirements for energy storage devices,” says the company.

“The LInspector Edge In-line Mass Profilometer sets a new benchmark for electrode coating analysis and provides a foundation for higher-performance batteries, reduced risk to quality, better process control, and more profitable operation,” said Miguel Faustino, President of Chemical Analysis at Thermo Fisher Scientific.

According to a beta user, “Thermo Fisher Scientific’s new technology enables the inspection of 100% of the area of all electrodes manufactured, eliminating blind spots in the data and reducing the risk of defects reaching the final product.”

Source: Thermo Fisher Scientific