The disassembly of lithium-ion battery systems from automotive applications is a complex and therefore time and cost consuming process due to a wide variety of the battery designs, flexible components like cables, and potential dangers caused by high voltage and the chemicals contained in the battery cells.
Battery packs may contain complex control circuitry or a battery management system (BMS), which should also be removed. The disassembly process should avoid accidental shorting of the internal cells. A single cell battery should be stripped down so that all that remains are the external case and the cell itself.
Currently, there are no standards or methodologies for conducting lithium–ion battery disassembly, but IEEE 1625 [ 4 ], “Standard for Rechargeable Batteries for Multi-Cell Mobile Computing Devices,” notes that to conduct disassembly: “… a specialized, highly trained operator is essential.
The laboratory experience showed that the complete disassembly of a battery cell took 20 min . A summary regarding this category of publications can be found in Table 5. The analysis of the above-mentioned publications thereby highlights the fundamental challenges that exist in automated disassembly of LIBs.
The methodology involves upfront consideration of analysis paths that will be conducted on the exposed internal components to preserve the state (operational or failed) of the battery. The disassembly processes and exposures must not alter the battery materials once they are removed from their hermetically sealed containers.
Kay et al. presented the process of battery disassembly using industrial robots under the supervision of human workers. Experiments were performed on the disassembly of dummy modules and dummy cells, which demonstrated that the process time required for automated opening of the modules and cells could be reduced by 50%.