Cell Cycling Equipment for UKBIC Flexible Industrialisation Line (FIL)

Description

UKBIC has a requirement to purchase a range of equipment for manufacturing conformance testing of battery cells to establish a Flexible Industrialisation Line (FIL) at the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre. The UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC) is part of the UK Government's Faraday Battery Challenge. UKBIC is a national battery manufacturing development facility helping to scale-up battery manufacturing and facilitate upskilling in the battery sector. We are a publicly funded, open access facility, funded by the Faraday Battery Challenge at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). This PIN lists the general requirements for cell cycling equipment to be housed in a new self-contained (external) test facility as part of a Flexible Industrialisation Line (FIL) at UKBIC. This requirement will be split into three lots: Lot 1 - Cell cycling equipment Lot 2 - Temperature chambers Lot 3 - Modular building Suppliers will be able to bid for individual lots, however bids that offer combined solutions incorporating more than one aspect of this equipment are encouraged. The ability to fabricate offsite and provide a turnkey solution for a complete self-contained test facility incorporating all aspects would be advantageous. Bidders will also encouraged to put forward energy efficient solutions. All equipment to provide UKCA conformity. Lot 1 - Cell cycling equipment Cell cycling equipment with an operating voltage range of -5V to +5V (or similar) is required. It is envisaged that a quantity of 96 to 192 test channels of 15A per channel capability will be required, along with 16 to 96 channels of 100A per channel capability. The provision of cabling and test fixtures for connecting the cycling equipment to the 21700 cells (for the 15A channels) and 300mm x 100mm x 5-10mm pouch cells (for the 100A channels) would be an advantage. Test fixtures should enable the user to easily and safely connect and disconnect individual cells. Lot 2 - Temperature chambers Temperature chambers are required to house all of the cells and test fixtures (see Lot 1) for long term cycle life testing. The temperature range of the chambers should be -20ºC to +80ºC and the chambers should be rated to EUCAR 5 or 6 (to be confirmed). Lot 3 - Modular building A containerised solution or modular building to house the equipment in Lots 1 and 2 and providing controlled environments for an operator control room, an equipment room and the main testing area is required. This building will be located outside and appropriate fire, safety and security management systems should be incorporated.