What is a pouch cell?

A pouch cell is a soft battery design where most of the cell components are enclosed in an aluminum-coated plastic film. Only two tabs stick out, each welded to current collectors in the pouch. These highly conductive tabs carry out the positive and negative connector tabs and allow to get the electric energy out of the pouch cell.

How is a pouch cell assembled?

With the electrode sheets prepared, the pouch cell is assembled in a controlled environment to prevent moisture from damaging the battery cell components. The first step in the assembly consists in welding a metal strip to the current collector. This strip will later be used to fix the terminals.

How to make a pouch battery?

To make a pouch battery, we need a pouch case and battery ingredients consisting of the cathode, anode, separator, and electrolyte. Unlike cylindrical batteries, pouch batteries are simple to assemble because they do not need cans and parts. To begin with, a 7-layer pouch film is put on a mold and pressed flat in a machine to make a pouch case.

How do pouch cells work?

Pouch cells look like an aluminium jiffy bag with +ve and -ve terminals protruding from the edge. They need to be supported mechanically and need a controlled pressure applied to the surface to deliver the power and energy over their lifetime. This is normally achieved by mechanically fixing and supporting the pouches in a well constructed module.

How does a pouch battery work?

The gas created in doing so is gathered in the air pocket. Once pouch batteries are sealed after the electrolyte injection, the next step is degassing which is to remove gas by cutting the air pockets in order to reduce volume and increase energy density. When degassing is done, the assembly of a pouch battery is finished.

Why do we need a pouch cell?

The design of the pouch cell and the optimisation of the cooling system have gone hand in hand. The cell has been optimised to reduce internal resistance and to improve the pathway to the cooling plate. This optimisation of the edge cooled design has also reduced cost, space requirements and mass.