Battery pack remanufacturing process up to cell level with sorting and repurposing of battery cells

Abstract Traditional remanufacturing is characterized by disassembly of a core up to an optimal depth of disassembly and by the replacement of some parts in order to achieve the specifications and reliability of the original product. Because of the product architecture and the reliability characteristics of electric vehicle batteries, such an approach does not recover the full residual value of battery cells. For batteries, a depth of disassembly up to cell level is necessary, but problematic because of inconvenient battery design features. Hence, an alternative framework will be presented, where each of the battery cells and the battery system key components are considered a core in itself, and the value of a remanufactured battery module depends on the combination of its cells. The product architecture and component requirements will be explained for batteries made of the three most common cell types used in the automotive industry. In addition, three solutions will be presented for the implementation of the proposed framework for remanufacturing regarding both product design and key aspects of the process chain, such as laser cutting and laser welding of battery cells.