Article Excerpt from January/February 2020 issue of Charged Electric Vehicles, by Tom Lombardo
Overview
The battery pack is not only one of the most expensive components in an EV—it’s also incredibly complex, in some cases comprising thousands of individual cells. The tasks of preserving a battery’s efficiency, lifespan, thermal stability and safety rest upon the battery management system (BMS), an embedded controller that regulates the flow and distribution of power to and from the cells. Since rechargeable batteries are used in such a wide variety of applications, battery management systems don’t lend themselves well to off-the-shelf solutions, so engineers often design a custom BMS for each application.
To learn more about BMS testing, Charged spoke with Peter Blume, founder and President of Bloomy, and Grant Gothing, the company’s Chief Technology Officer. Bloomy has nearly three decades of experience in the energy storage arena, starting with fuel cells in the early 1990s and moving into lithium-ion batteries in more recent years. During that time, the company has designed and built BMS testing systems for dozens of the top EV manufacturers. It even designed one for a hybrid tank that was built for the US Army, and the cell simulation circuits designed for that project evolved into the company’s flagship product, the Battery Simulator 1200.
Read the full article from Charged EVs
For More information on Bloomy's BMS test products: Battery Management System Test