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Electric Vehicle Battery Testing Accessories

As electric vehicle battery technology continues to evolve, the mechanical testing requirements for battery materials, components, and assemblies are becoming increasingly demanding. Instron offers a comprehensive range of accessories designed to support EV battery testing across a wide variety of applications — from tensile and compression testing of electrode materials and separators to puncture, peel, and crush testing of cells and pouches. The accessories below are compatible with Instron's testing systems and can be configured to meet the specific requirements of your battery testing program.

Grips Environmental Fixtures Sensors Software

Grips

Pneumatic Side Action Tensile Grips

2712 Series

Instron’s pneumatic side action grips feature a versatile design for testing various battery materials and components. They are most commonly used for testing foil, separator film, and various welds used in the production of batteries. Featuring adjustable clamping pressure and quick-change jaw faces, these grips can be adapted to test a wide variety of specimens.

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Screw Side Action Tensile Grips

2710-100 Series

Instron’s advanced screw side action grips offer similar versatility to pneumatics, without the use of an adjustable or constant gripping pressure. These grips are an ideal solution when testing components and welds due to their increased jaw face separation and allowable offset.

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High-Temperature Pneumatic Side Action Grips

Catalog No. CP122505

High-temperature pneumatic side action grips are useful for tensile testing in both ambient conditions and inside environmental chambers. Inspired by the design of our 2712 Series tensile grips, these grips are made of a stainless-steel construction to endure high and low temperatures and are compatible with a wide range of accessories and jaw faces.The grips can also be positioned at 0, 30, and 90 degrees, making them fully compatible with our non-contacting video extensometer.

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Precision Specimen Loader for Thin Films and Foils

Catalog No. 2701-240, 2701-241, 2701-242, 2701-243, 2701-244

The precision specimen loader streamlines alignment and setup for testing thin films and foils, reducing result variation while improving safety and ergonomics. Designed for our 250 N pneumatic side-action tensile grips (catalog no. 2712‑052), it uses a detachable alignment clip and linear rail to guide specimens into place. Multiple sizes are available to accommodate various specimen dimensions. To learn more about why proper alignment matters in thin‑film tensile testing, read our white paper detailing experimental results on alignment impact.

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Wide-Body Screw Side Action Grips EV Cell

Wide-Body Grips

Catalog No. CP137924

Instron's wide-body screw side action grips are designed to accommodate cylindrical cells up to 51 mm in diameter. These grips retain the dual screw actuation with graduated cylinders and the convenient quick-release jaw face design of our standard screw side action grips, while featuring an expanded opening to securely hold larger specimens.

Environmental

Environmental Chambers

Materials, cells, modules, and packs used in EV batteries can perform differently under varying environmental conditions. A testing chamber integrated with the Instron test frame allows specimens to be tested under a variety of environmental conditions while under load.

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High-Temperature Pneumatic Side Action Grips

Catalog No. CP122505

High-temperature pneumatic side action grips are useful for tensile testing in both ambient conditions and inside environmental chambers. Inspired by the design of our 2712 Series tensile grips, these grips are made of a stainless-steel construction to endure high and low temperatures and are compatible with a wide range of accessories and jaw faces. The grips can also be positioned at 0, 30, and 90 degrees, making them fully compatible with our non-contacting video extensometer products.

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Fixtures

Pneumatic 90° Peel Fixture

Catalog No. CP134660

The pneumatic 90° peel fixture was developed specifically for electrode adhesion testing. This peel fixture is designed to help an operator align and clamp down a specimen quickly and consistently while ensuring that a 90° angle can be maintained from start to finish. With its improved clamping and specimen alignment aides, the fixture provides greater repeatability, throughput, and reduced operator involvement over a standard manually-controlled and set up peel fixture. All of this makes the pneumatic version a preferred option over a standard 90° peel fixture with manual adjustments and clamping.

90° Angle Peel Fixture

Catalog No. 2820-035

The standard 90° peel test fixture consists of a bearing-mounted sled that is linked to the testing machine’s crosshead by a cable and pulley system. This fixture has a T-slotted sled that allows the substrate clamps, which secure the substrate to the sled, to adjust to a variety of substrate widths.

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Puncture Fixture

1 mm Probe (Catalog No. CP132292) and 0.8 mm Probe (Catalog No. CP105780)

Designed in accordance with EN 14477 for puncture testing of separator film and other flexible materials, this fixture provides a lower clamping mechanism paired with an upper probe of either 0.8 mm or 1 mm in diameter. The lower fixturing includes guidance for the probe and the means to hold a specimen taut for each test.

S4425P Puncture Resistance Fixture for Flexible Barrier to ASTM F1306

CP120825 Pneumatic Puncture Test Fixture

Pneumatic Puncture Fixtures

To reduce slippage during puncture testing, pneumatic puncture fixtures can be used and are available for testing in compliance with EN 863, ASTM F1306, and EN 14477. The specimen under test is held in place by a set of pneumatically actuated clamps that provide a consistent and stable clamping force throughout the test.

Tack Test Fixture

Catalog No. CP131999

Designed for ease of specimen preparation and throughput, this fixture is optimized for testing the adhesion strength of electrodes to their current collector. The contact area of the tack can be designed to various sizes as needed. It is designed with five specimen locations and able to perform five consecutive tests without the need for additional specimen preparation in between each test. The upper and lower fixtures consist of lightweight, separate parts to simplify installation and cleaning. The upper fixture is also spherically seated and lockable to ensure parallelism between both fixtures during testing.

Flexure Fixtures

Instron offers a wide range of flex / bend fixtures for specimens of only a few millimeters in length up to 600 mm and for loads of a few newtons to several kilonewtons. Three and four-point bend tests of raw materials, battery materials, and cells are all possible using standard and custom fixtures that can incorporate displacement sensors and be mounted on all frame types. A high accuracy version of our most common 5 kN flexure fixture (catalog no. CP139080), integrates a digital displacement gauge to measure specimen displacements with an accuracy down to 1 µm.

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Bending / Hemming Test Fixture to VDA 238-100: 2020

Bending / Hemming Test Fixture to VDA 238-100: 2020

Catalog No. CP130604

This hemming test fixture has a maximum force capacity of 20 kN and is designed specifically for tight radius bend testing of sheet metals in accordance with VDA 238-100. The punch radius, roller diameter, and roller distance are constrained to reduce lab-to-lab variability. The fixture is used to evaluate formability and crash behavior of the high-strength metal casings that house and shield EV batteries.

Coefficient of Friction Fixture

Catalog No. 2810-005

Instron’s coefficient of friction fixture measures the static and kinetic coefficient of friction of plastic film and sheeting. This fixture is commonly used to measure the friction forces of separator film material used in batteries.

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Weld Test Fixture

Catalog No. CP132001

This custom-made prismatic battery weld test fixture features a cantilever style hook and alignment fixture for testing the cumulative welding of anode/cathode tabs to their respective current collector. It is also paired with a crosshead extension to provide more space behind and around the specimen/alignment device when using a single column frame. By using the alignment fixture, an operator can ensure the prismatic cell is properly gripped in an upper grip. Fixturing can also be easily swapped out to accommodate different sized prismatic cells and/or welds. This is done by replacing the specimen alignment fixture and lower hook, all of which can be acquired separately, as needed.

Busbar Clamping Stage

Catalog No. CP128348

Designed for clamping busbar and other battery components, this fixturing allows for adjustable sizing and clamping force for testing various welds used in the production of batteries.

Battery Swell Testing Platens

Catalog No. CP136688

These custom-made battery testing platens are designed for measuring compressive loads, swelling, and compressive strain of batteries. They are designed with four integrated LVDT mounting locations and fit with an integrated spherical seat capable of locking to provide parallelism or being left unlocked to determine swelling in separate regions during charging and discharging. The lower platen also has a threaded hole pattern for mounting specimen guides in the event of stack testing for multiple battery cells. The platens are temperature rated from -40° to 150° C to allow for testing inside an environmental chamber.

Resistance Measurement Compression Anvils

Catalog No. CP139006

These compression anvils measure a material's compressive load, strain, and electrical resistivity. The set includes an upper spherical seat that ensures platen parallelism and electrical isolation from the frame. Integrated contact plates enable accurate measurement of specimen resistance, with the option to customize your plate geometry and material to fit specific testing needs. When connected to an ohmmeter, data collection is seamlessly integrated in Bluehill^® Universal, allowing synchronized acquisition of load, displacement, and resistivity data.

Sensors

High Accuracy Digital Displacement Sensor

High Accuracy Digital Displacement Sensor

Catalog No. CP134297.

This digital version of a LVDT provides a repeatable and highly accurate method of displacement measurement for a variety of tests on battery materials, components and assemblies. The sensor is easy to set up, is automatically recognized by the software and can provide a high precision and localized displacement or strain measurement. It can be used in tension, compression and flex tests and many other specialized tests such as to measure cell expansion during charging/discharging cycles.

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LVDT Deflection Sensor with Compression Platens

LVDTs

LVDTs can be a valuable addition to a test system to obtain precise, localized strain measurements. These sensors are particularly useful in tension and compression applications where the fixture or system compliance needs to be eliminated. Instron offers a suite of LVDTs for use in normal conditions and specialized versions like CP130176 for use in extreme temperatures from -40°C to 200°C.

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AVE3 extensometer with CDAT airflow technology

Non-Contacting Video Extensometer

The AVE3 advanced non-contacting video extensometer delivers precise strain measurement with micron-level accuracy for tensile, compression, and bend testing. Compliant with ISO 9513 and ASTM E83, the AVE3 can be used for small to large gauge lengths, low to high elongations, sensitive materials like films, explosive failures of composites, and even non-ambient testing in a chamber or fluid bath.

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Thermocouple Conditioners

Catalog No. CP132303

This thermocouple signal conditioner has been modified with wiring to Instron’s sensor conditioner module to allow for a live data capture and display of temperature for testing. It comes factory programed to work with type J and K thermocouples and configured for -100° to 350° C, but can be changed by the user depending on the measurements needed.

Barcode Scanner

A standard USB barcode and QR code scanner allows you to seamlessly enter sample or specimen information into Bluehill Universal testing software. Simply create a barcode or QR code, inclusive of the tab function, and information can be added in any text or number input fields.

Software

Bluehill Central

Lab Management Software

Bluehill Central software is a laboratory management tool that enables centralized, remote management of Bluehill Universal software applications associated with multiple Instron test frames. The software allows you to remotely manage all Bluehill Universal users, test templates, results, file revision approvals, and audit trail data from multiple Instron systems.

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Bluehill Universal API

Bluehill Universal’s Application Programming Interface (API) allows Bluehill system administrators to program their own custom interfaces for various applications and devices to control pre- and post-test actions. In the simplest terms, the API allows you to automate some components of the testing sequence and create your own interface for running certain parts of the system (exporting, importing, starting, etc.). The Bluehill API is included with the standard purchase of Bluehill Universal and is accessible with simple Visual Studio .NET based programming.

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