Electric vehicle industry: A key market for part marking
Discover the challenges of marking, traceability, and identification of electric car components in our article.
As electric vehicles (EVs) continue to transform the automotive industry, it has become essential to guarantee the traceability of their components. It plays a key role in ensuring safety, compliance, and quality in the electric vehicle industry and of EV systems.
With their complex, battery-centric design, EVs introduce new challenges for manufacturers. To meet these challenges, advanced identification solutions are required to track and monitor components throughout their lifecycle. Among these solutions, laser marking stands out as a precise, efficient, and durable method tailored to the specific needs of EV production.
What role does traceability play in the electric vehicle industry?
Traceability is the ability to track components through every stage of their lifecycle, from manufacturing to end-of-life, ensuring compliance with quality, safety, and regulatory standards.
It enables manufacturers to manage recalls, troubleshoot problems, prevent counterfeit, and maintain safety protocols for advanced high-voltage and high-tech EV systems. Marked information includes:
- Vehicle make and model
- Serial number
- Battery pack ID
- Electronic Control Units (ECUs)
- Chassis number
- Safety and compliance labels
- Date of manufacture
- Warranty information
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What to mark on your EV part?
Code vs. Alphanumeric
There is a large variety of ways to permanently mark a vehicle part; the main technologies being laser, dot-peen and scribing. Then there is the way the information is written on the part:
- 2D codes or Datamatrix marking: essential for traceability and data storage on electrical vehicle components, this 2D code encodes many alphanumerical characters and is capable of being marked on very small surfaces. But is unreadable to the human eye.
- Alphanumeric marking: ensures permanent and human-readable identification of EV parts, supporting lifecycle management and compliance requirements.
Both, and more identification methods can be used on a single piece: it depends on the traceability requirements set by the manufacturer or client.
Which electrical vehicle components require specific markings for traceability?
Core components of EV batteries
- Battery module: consists of interconnected cells to optimize energy efficiency and thermal management, essential for EV storage and performance. Critical to performance; traceable markings aid in maintenance and safety compliance.
- Battery tray (bay), tray top plate (cover): these components house the battery and require identification for quality and safety checks.
- Cooling system: vital to EV performance and longevity, key to thermal management and safety. Markings help with quality control and monitoring.
- Inner tray compartment & battery protection layer: ensures battery stability and security.
- Separator (anode/cathode separator): critical to battery safety and performance.
Electrical motor housing
Other key components
- EV "motor" casing: Houses the electric motor and other key electronic components, providing protection from environmental elements and wear, ensuring motor longevity.
- Converters: Transform DC power from the battery to different voltages for various systems.
- Inverters (DC-AC, DC-DC): Convert DC from the battery to AC for motor operation. Both converters and inverters are critical for handling high voltage and current.
- Specialized EV axle: Custom-designed for EV powertrain configurations, supports electric motor integration directly onto the axle, boosting efficiency. Markings aid in maintenance and lifecycle tracking.
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What marking solutions are used for EV parts?
Gravotech offers integrable laser solutions for reliable, high-speed marking of diverse materials like metal, plastic and glass, enabling traceability for sensitive electrical vehicle components without compromising performance.
Our laser stations and integrable laser machines can easily answer to these requirements with permanent and contrasted identifications. Laser marking is preferred for EV-specific parts as many of them are sensitive, and require small and precise markings.
The Mini-inline, Gravotech’s compact and adaptable laser protection system, integrates seamlessly into EV production lines to efficiently and securely mark high-volume parts, including battery separators and converters.
Integrated laser system to mark and engrave on all metals.
FIBER Laser
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Medium fully automated laser marking station.
LW2
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Laser protection nose for integrable laser markers.
Mini-inline
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Integrated laser system for high quality marking on plastics and metals.
HYBRID Laser
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Integrated laser system for high quality and cold marking on plastics and precious metals.
GREEN Laser
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Small laser engraver for all kind of engravings.
WELASE
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Large fully automated laser workstation with Fiber, Hybrid or Green sources
LW3
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The increasing need for precise and durable identification has led to the use of advanced marking technologies tailored to the unique needs of EV components.
Dot-peen marking machines, such as the XF510p, XF510m or XF530 are perfect for high-speed production lines while the Impact benchtop machine is a more suited to small to medium marking processes; requiring versatility in part marking.
Often used to mark common parts between electric and conventional vehicles, this method provides deep and durable markings.
Standalone dot peen marking station.
IMPACT
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The fastest pneumatic dot peen marking machine.
XF510p
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The VIN scribing marking machine.
SV530
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The most precise and consistent electromagnetic dot peen marking machine.
XF510m
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Deep and permanent dot peen marking system.
XF530 p/m
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The quiet metal scribing marking machine.
XF510r
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EVs have seen significant growth in recent years, bringing with them unique parts that require specific markings for traceability. While they share some components with internal combustion vehicles, EVs also contain specific parts that require precise identification.
Effective traceable marking is critical to ensure safety, regulatory compliance and efficient lifecycle management of EV components. Gravotech's laser marking systems provide an excellent solution that streamlines the marking process for EV parts.
Want to see our products in action? Discover how Fischer Group has successfully implemented Gravotech’s laser protection systems (Mini-inline) to improve their marking processes.
