DMC joined National Instruments (NI) at The Battery Show this past September and showcased some of the battery testing solutions we offer.
Three of our engineers attended the conference – Jesse Batsche, Senior Director of Test & Measurement, Steven Dusing, Senior Project Engineer, and Brent Hoerman, Project Manager – and all agree that it was cool to attend such a large conference and to see every different part of the electric vehicle (EV) supply chain in one place.
“It was quite impressive in terms of scale, the number of vendors, and the size of the audience,” Batsche said. “The EV industry has obviously been booming and booming at an increasing pace. There was just a massive increase in scale of this conference. It was a huge expo hall and a huge sea of demo booths with companies represented – from suppliers of low level materials and tiny subcomponents, all the way up to companies that are developing the whole power train and everything in between.”
We brought our Battery Production Tester (BPT) solution to the booth – showing off the capabilities and design of the BPT to everyone that came by.
“We had a full rack there showing our solutions; that was really cool to actually have a complete BPT system with all of the hardware there in addition to our software demo,” Dusing said. “That made it a really impactful event for us. A lot of people stopped by just to check out what this large rack was and to learn the purpose and capabilities of all the instrumentation within it.”
As one of the tallest demonstrations at the conference, the BPT stood over 8 feet tall.
We were one of two partners exhibiting at NI’s booth displaying our solution next to NI’s Battery Test Solution (BTS).
“It was really nice to be alongside NI to show that we’re a key part of the entire battery testing lifecycle,” Dusing said. “NI has their BTS solution for the validation test case, and DMC now provides NI’s recommended solution for the battery production test case. It was nice to get that elevated visibility alongside NI as a much bigger player in the test sphere.”
NI's booth at The Battery Show
This year, the solution we were highlighting fit well as the focus of the conference and the industries of the attendees evolved.
“As everything is reaching a high volume production and delivery scale these days, there was conveniently an increased focus on the actual manufacturing side of battery packs, and that was great because the solution we were highlighting was our Battery Production Tester,” Batsche said. “I think DMC is well-poised to offer a very capable and compelling production test solution that meets market needs and demands, based on where the battery market is at and where it’s headed.”
Many attendees were starting to think even beyond production, according to Batsche.
“We had a lot of good conversations around that remanufacturing and warranty service and support test case. Conveniently, while these tests do have some of their own unique requirements – it is a test case that is fundamentally quite aligned with DMC BPT capabilities in terms of test flow and measurements and diagnostics about the pack that we need to do,” Batsche said. “It’s fairly similar to what we do at the end of the production line – therefore well served by the capabilities the DMC BPT already provides.”
With the number of EVs needing warranty servicing and remanufacturing growing, Batsche believes we are ahead of the largest need and growth in this sector. At the conference, both existing and new customers stopped by our booth to learn about these capabilities.
“I saw a number of existing customers come by and had some good conversations with them. This was actually the first time a lot of them were seeing the product that we’ll soon deliver to them,” Dusing said. “That was neat to get to connect with them and then meet a lot of new potential customers who had interest in the DMC BPT, and in NI’s BTS solution as well since DMC is NI’s Preferred Integration Partner for NI BTS deployment in the Americas. It was a win-win for us to be alongside NI so that we can start collaborating from day on one future potential future system deployments that originated through these Battery Show conversations.”
Our joint presence alongside NI and the market strategy discussions we had together while sharing a booth, specifically with the battery-focused individuals on the NI Transportation Business Unit team, was Batsche’s favorite part.
“We had a lot of good discussions about how we are teaming up and partnering,” Batsche said. “[We talked about] the strategies we’ll use to jointly develop all the right solutions across various battery test domains, and how to deliver those systems at scale to customers. We put our heads together on emerging industry trends and evolving market needs and requirements, both within the battery production space as well as other complementary ones.”
DMC has been involved in the battery industry for over 15 years and has seen firsthand how things have changed over the years, according to Hoerman.
“We have been doing this for over 15 years, which makes us more experienced than most people when it comes to battery testing,” Hoerman said. “I think getting it out there and advertising the solutions that we have been developing over the years [is important] so people can take advantage of them. In most cases, we’ve got to be one of the top people competing for a test opportunity – especially for large scale battery tests.”
Learn more about DMC's partnership with NI and contact us today for your next project!