SK On Opens Battery Safety Evaluation Center

Electric vehicle (EV) battery maker SK On has announced the opening of its advanced facility for battery safety evaluation in South Korea as the company beefs up its testing and analysis capabilities on batteries.

SK On Battery Safety Evaluation Center, located next to the company’s battery plant in Seosan, South Chungcheong Province, has a gross floor area of 36,510 square feet, the largest among South Korean battery manufacturers.

With the newly built facility, SK On is now the first South Korean battery manufacturer to have a “one-stop shop” for battery safety covering from testing to product improvement analysis. Researchers can perform various tests, including non-destructive inspection using computed tomography (CT) scanning, and conduct structure analysis through battery disassembly in a lab inside the facility.

SK On expects that the center will ultimately enhance efficiency in battery research as all battery safety-related tests and analysis can be carried out in a single building, saving time and costs.

The center is also expected to help SK On to meet various customer needs regarding battery quality, strengthening its manufacturing competitiveness.

Previously, SK On had to conduct tests at a module safety evaluation facility at the company’s battery technology institute in Daejeon, and then send the tested products to external research partners for a CT scan before the company retrieves them to disassemble and analyze the results.

The center will have all of its testing equipment by the end of October, according to the company. Once the equipment installation is completed, the company will conduct safety tests under various scenarios for battery cells, modules, packs, and energy storage systems.

SK On said the center will particularly focus on testing batteries under abnormal conditions, such as verifying batteries’ reliability under extreme temperatures like -40 degree Celsius and 80 degree Celsius.

The center also enables SK On to perform various safety tests to reproduce EV field failures, such as vibration, external shock as well as thermal runaway, short circuit, and battery overcharge. The entire building, excluding some office space, has been built with a blast-resistant design to prevent damage from fire tests.