An industry consortium including TWI and automotive industry players including Fiat-Chrysler, Ford and Mercedes-Benz came together to deliver a new generation of battery systems for electric and hybrid-electric vehicles.
The ’ALBATROSS’ project, full name, ‘Advanced Light-weight BATteRy systems Optimised for fast charging, Safety, and Second-life applications,’ included the development of battery module and tray welding solutions, innovations in lightweight battery design, cooling technologies, recycling and re-use.
The battery tray was completed by welding extruded aluminium profiles together with conventional friction stir welding (FSW), which ensured no additional weight was added to the tray. Meanwhile, the terminals of nearly 200 cylindrical cells were joined in each battery using laser welding. The use of laser welding ensured that small-sized, low heat input, high performance and safe connections were automatically made in a non-contact manner between every battery cell, even when those connections comprised dissimilar materials.
The project sought to provide improvements to the range, cost, reliability, and charging times of EV batteries, with the project targeting a peak energy density of >200Wh/kg, a driving range increase to 480km, and a 25% reduction in charging times.
You can find out more, here: https://www.twi-global.com/media-and-events/press-releases/2025/albatross-project-concludes
