Battery Manufacturing and Battery Cell Grades – Part 1

What is involved when a battery is manufactured? What materials are needed to manufacture a battery? What are battery cell grades? What do battery grades mean? How do the different grades affect the quality of a battery? How can you know what battery grade you have? And is any one grade more important then another?

To understand battery cell grades we have to understand how batteries are manufactured. Battery manufacturing involves the collection of raw material, the development and setting of design specifications, and the assembly of an individual battery pack. On a very high level that is ultimately what is involved when a battery is made. Furtherore battery manufacturers utilize manufacturing principles, much like manufacturers of other products, to get the batteries made efficiently and effectively.

When it comes to the collection of raw materials manufacturers have to collect very specific material to be used in the assembly of battery packs. This material includes the following:

The casing – for enclosing and hermetically sealing a battery body – is manufactured in one, two, or three layers that include for example polyethylene terephthalate layers, a polymer layer, and a polypropylene layer.

The chemistry which is often times lithium based for its high electrochemical potential. An example could be a {Solution of Lithium hexaflourophosphate (LiPF6) – a mixture of Organic Solvents: [Ethylene Carbonate (EC) + DiEthyl Carbonate (DMC) + DiEthyl Carbonate (DEC) + Ethyl Acetate (EA)]}.

The electrolyte – The actual conversion of chemical energy into electrochemical energy can only be done if an electron flow passes between two electrodes, an anode (the negative end) and a cathode (the positive end). The battery’s electrical current (electron flow) runs from one electrode to another through a conductive chemical called an electrolyte solution.

The battery’s specialized hardware that includes: the connector, the fuse, the charge and discharge FETs, the cell pack, the sense resistor (RSENSE), the primary and secondary protection ICs, the fuel-gauge IC, the thermistor, the pc board, the EEPROM or firmware for the fuel-gauge IC..

Now part of the manufacturing process is the categorization of battery cells. Categorizing battery cells are done in grades (Grade A, Grade B, and Grade C). In part 2 of this article series I will explain what the different grades mean and how manufacturers use the different grades and what the grades mean to you and your battery.