Scaling up Production of Ultrasound-based Battery Inspection System

Project Innovation

The project will scale the manufacturing of the EchoStat ultrasound-based battery inspection system, transitioning from predominantly manual assembly of testbench prototypes to mostly-automated LRIP of factory-ready equipment. The project will establish a robust supply chain, especially for critical components (ultrasound transducers and electronics), develop standardized manufacturing and quality control processes, create documentation for subsystems and full-system assemblies, and define factory and site acceptance testing criteria to validate production. The recipient will work to automate systems to meet customers’ throughput requirements, reduce the amount of product customization for each customer, and work closely with customers (e.g., Cuberg, Natron Energy, Panasonic) to validate the performance and economic value of EchoStat in commercial cell production. The technology is currently at TRL 5 and MRL 4. This project will scale manufacturing capability from one-off prototypes to low-volume system production to reach MRL 8.