Teardown videos of prismatic LFP cells

[Johan]

Here are two teardown videos of prismatic LFP cells. This can (or not?) be useful when accidentally stripping the terminal threads and considering strategies for repair (or not). Feel free to add more, especially for the "blueys".

1) CA180FI (I think - specs).

Screenshot of the aluminium terminal @ 10:25mm:ss


2) Voltronix 160Ah (specs).

Screenshot after opening @ 1:50m:ss

 

[Maast]

That was fascinating, thank you!

 

[tonyvincent]

It's crazy, but it looks like the battery is of good quality.

 

[gnubie]

Definitely shows why you should take care if ever drilling out / tapping the terminals. Go down too far and you'll end up vomiting bananas into a bucket in a lot of trouble.

 

[Johan]

A bit more about the "blueys" specifically:

Some stills from ETC's marketing video (published Feb 19, 2019, accessed Dec 30, 2019):


Electrode winding or "coiling".


Electrode pack compacting


Pairing of two to-be-paralleled sub-cells (?)


Tab laser cutting (?) or welding (?)


Assembly of top cover sheet

Update: A similar marketing video from CATL:

There is a fundamental difference in the manufacturing of the "blueys" (as they are called on this forum) and other prismatic cells like the CALB CA series and "Voltronix": The blueys consist of continuously wound electrode sheets instead of stacked sheets separated by zig-zagging plastic separators. Proof:

This production method change may have positive consequences: It may (maybe wishful thinking; or not) improve the possibility of electrolyte to be better homogeneously distributed by capillary action for scenarios when the cell is "oriented flat on its side". If so, this could open up so much more "design freedom", especially in electric cars.

Update: The winding is similar to that of the production of phone batteries:
Youtube