Benchmarking is just one of many purposes you might put battery cells and packs through performance testing. A robust list of testing protocols might include some or all of these:
- Performance testing
- Failure analysis
- Safety testing
- Competitive benchmark testing
- Environmental testing
- Product teardowns
- Abuse testing
So where does competitor benchmarking fit in? Let’s take a look.
What Is Competitive Benchmarking?
A benchmark test is fundamentally a comparison. It helps you to understand how your product’s performance compares against some other product, other chemistry, a control sample, or a battery that’s experienced different conditions. When you’re undergoing competitive benchmarking, the idea is to see how you stack up against your competitors. If you’re evaluating multiple suppliers, a competitive benchmarking protocol and evaluation is an excellent way to make a more informed choice.
Through comparative evaluation, you can assemble precise scoring outputs and detailed reports that reveal the overall performance and quality of the battery under test. This makes your battery selection and supplier selection as easy as possible. If you want to stay competitive, you’ll opt for the battery that can keep up with (or exceed) the competition.
The Value For Your Battery Performance Testing
Battery products are always in competition with similar chemistries and designs. A benchmark test provides real value by helping you select suppliers or continue with R&D until the design’s performance lives up to engineer specifications and brand expectations.
You can accumulate highly specific battery data, depending upon the custom range of performance traits you’re benchmarking, such as:
- Storage temperatures
- Forced discharge performance
- Low pressure/altitude performance
- Crush/impact performance
- Capacity
- Cycle life
- Overcharge performance
- Vibration
- And more
Benchmarking As Engineering & Failure Analysis
Healthy product performance is not the only thing you can test with competitive benchmarking. When you’re seeing benign but troubling performance issues or have taken note of one or two unexplained, catastrophic failures, a failure analysis can help you to determine the root cause. However, this doesn’t need to be a purely reactive process.
With proactive battery teardowns and product performance benchmarking, you can often identify design flaws or potential failure points well before they become an issue. Benchmark your battery’s performance against the competition to not only see how it compares, but to stress the battery and verify its quality and authenticity. Substandard and counterfeit batteries will often underperform (or even fail) versus both your expectations and the competition.
In this way, your battery benchmarking test can help you identify design, performance, and safety issues while illuminating cost structure. A teardown can also help you study what’s inside of a battery, so that you can accurately benchmark it against competing products or gold samples to see if patent infringement applies.
Benchmarking As System Validation
In the final stage of battery testing, after engineering characterization and sub-system validations, you’ll want to understand how well the whole system works. Benchmarking of the battery system against a competing product helps you to verify the system’s competitive performance and the integrity of the surrounding components — not just the battery’s chemistry itself. How will the housing, cables, and other components react to different temperatures, stressors, and charge states, and will they hold up as well as other products? Will it meet regulatory compliance requirements?
Where to Do Battery Performance Testing
Collecting battery test data can be resource intensive, and standard battery datasheets are often inadequate measures of performance. As the leading accredited cell and battery testing facility in North America, Energy Assurance provides knowledge, flexibility, and a complete menu of testing services. We give you the capability to test virtually all major battery chemistries—including the latest lithium-ion formulations—and a wide span of size formats.
Partner with our expert team to leverage a full range of competitor benchmarking, performance evaluations, and engineering services. Set up a consultation today!
