A round up of the 10th Battery Experts Forum

Following the invitation from Batteryuniversity, more than 40 top-class speakers and just as many exhibitors informed nearly 600 professional domestic and foreign visitors on the anniversary event about battery basics, latest market and technology trends and most diverse individual topics such as the use of cryptology in battery technology, recent approaches to increase the energy density in lithium batteries, up-to-date anode materials and production processes for cells, modern test methods and analysis options for batteries.

The seminars held on the topics 'lithium-ion-battery technologies', 'battery management systems', 'battery safety' and 'battery chargers' were filled to capacity with more than 120 participants. Furthermore, the five parallel sessions that were offered for the first time, in which experts exchanged their experiences in three subsequent lectures (on the topics of cell design and new materials, cell and battery test, durability and safety, high voltage systems and electric mobility) achieved overwhelming response.

“The 10th Battery Experts Forum has been our most successful event so far, confirming that our enlarged concept actually meets the demands of both battery developers and users in its 10th event year,” commented Dr. Jochen Mähliß, head of Batteryuniversity.

This year Batteryuniversity welcomed BMZ founder Sven Bauer as a key speaker, as well as Shmuel De Leon from Shmuel de Leon Energy Ltd. and Dr. Michael Buser from Risk Experts Risiko Engineering, giving detailed lectures on the world market for cells and batteries, rechargeable Li-pouch cells and fire hazards in respective of safety risks concerning lithium batteries and effective possibilities of risk management.

The panel discussion 'Quo vadis 18650' was accepted with great interest during the course of which Malte Bonk (Panasonic), Dirk Widmann (Samsung SDI), Sven Bauer (BMZ), Julien Scholl (Kärcher) and Klaus Justinski (Fein) held a lively discussion exploring for how long there will be a future for the present industrial standard 18650. At the moment the round cell is installed according to the industrial standard 18650 (18mm diameter, 65mm height) both in consumer products such as notebooks, electric tools and e-bike batteries as well as in EV’s such as Tesla’s Model S.

The discussion, however, revealed that, in spite of the present supply shortfall, an unrestricted enlargement of the production capacities cannot be expected. The reason: although every year a lot of money is invested in further developments, capacity increases will only be achieved with very high efforts. Some manufacturers thus plan to launch different new formats such as the 20650 or the 21700 cell sooner or later, a development that is rejected by some end-product manufacturers because of the lack of compatibility.

BMZ is planning to put their own 'made in Germany' cells on the market due to their enormous purchase volumes and the subsequent dependency risks. As company founder Sven Bauer proudly premiered during the panel discussion, a prototype of this cell will be available at the end of the year. The features of this 'miracle-cell' are impressive: 100% more durability, 68% more performance, 88% more energy, 400% more charging current, up to 60% more capacity and up to a 15 year guarantee!

One of the highlights of the comprehensive supporting programme this year was a 'come together' in the evening including a tour through the most modern battery factory in Europe. All participants again had the opportunity to test electric cars, E-bikes and other vehicles of the future on a special fun course.

According to Dr. Mähliß, for the first time specialist conferences in other European countries based on the same concept and including an exhibition are planned due to the ever increasing number of visitors from neighbouring European countries in recent years, in addition to a further congress in Hamburg taking place from 14 until 15^th November 2016 and a Battery Experts Forum – SPECIAL eBike & Storage – on 22 November 2016 in Aschaffenburg’s city hall.

“In an increasingly mobile world you are obliged to care about an efficient use of resources day by day. As batteries play an important role our goal is to enable even more developers to participate in the latest trends and technologies,” explains Dr. Mähliß.

The initial event will be a Battery Experts Forum held at the training and congress centre of the Selesian University of Technology in Gliwice, Poland. Further events in Sweden, France, England and Italy are being planned at the moment. The date for next year’s Battery Experts Forum in Germany is fixed: 14 to 16^th March 2017 in Aschaffenburg’s city hall.