An Interview with Digatron

Wednesday, 19 May 2021

What technologies do you specialise in?

We are known as the electronic innovators within the battery industry for our advanced turn-key power electronic solutions and our passion is to develop tailor-made and exact fitting solutions for our customers.

We specialise in the manufacturing of equipment capable across several aspects of battery assembly, formation and testing, such as:

• Assembly equipment for Lithium cell prototyping and pilot line production of the pouch and cylindrical cells.

• Laboratory cell formation electronics to offer turnkey solutions for the pilot line cell assembly process.

• A wide specification range of Battery Testing equipment using the  latest Silicon Carbide (SiC) technology to provide energy-efficient regenerative battery testing channels. Our testers are suitable for cell, module and high voltage pack testing.

What excites you most about the EV and battery industry at the moment?

Everything about the EV and battery industry is so exciting right now, the whole industry is moving so rapidly. It is growing at a phenomenal pace, and consequently, we are also growing with the pace to keep up with the global demands of the EV industry. With the enormous rise in electric vehicles over the next decade, there will be an abundance of EV batteries eventually in need of a second life applications, there is a huge market opportunity here. This is also good news for job creation within our organisation and also job creation throughout many other industry suppliers and producers. There are new job opportunities that have not even been thought of yet, how exciting for the future generations is that!

What will you be looking out for yourselves at Battery Cells & Systems Expo and Vehicle Electrification Expo 2021?

It’s been an undeniably hard time since corona and with Battery Cells & Systems Expo, it is a fresh start again into this electrifying world of exhibitions. We at Digatron are looking forward to being present with our colleagues and meeting existing & new clients. The networking opportunities will be a real boost for everyone. It’s being a long time away from in-person client engagement, this will be a thrill for all to be able to safely meet and discuss new opportunities.

As more countries try and fulfil their environmental promises, the need for power electronics within the battery industry will be greater than ever. How are you preparing to keep up with the demand?

The demand for power electronics has gone off the scale when you think of how the automotive and energy storage industry relies on electronics to manage and protect their storage assets. It is also noticeable how the global demand for individual electronic parts, components have increased, so we are having to increase our global supply chain to keep up with these demands. From a production perspective, we have increased our manufacturing capacity and will shortly be moving into a new additional production facility in Aachen – Germany, and similarly, our global manufacturing facilities in Qingdao-China, Pune- India, Shelton CT- USA, and Milan – Italy have all seen similar demand to expand their production.

Digatron recently created a DCA test cycle for Battery Manager 4 in partnership with Ford Motor Company. Could you tell us a bit more about this?

The Dynamic Charge Acceptance test *DCA is a hot topic within the Lead Battery world for automakers and it revolves around the use of Lead Batteries in Stop/Start applications. Such technology that we all now take for granted when we drive a modern car. Improving this DCA capability and finding ways of reducing battery weight in the vehicle is highly desirable for the automakers and we participated with Ford in ways to make the research and testing of Lead batteries with this requirement much easier and more convenient for the automakers and battery manufacturers to perform, previously this was a very complex task.

Digatron supports OEMs and battery manufacturers in managing the testing effort and complexity by offering a DCA testing package.

What innovations and new products are you currently working on?

We have a long list, here are a few examples.

Expansion of our new design and manufacturing division which we set up approx. one year ago headquartered in Milan, Italy called Digatron Systems. This new division designs and manufactures assembly equipment suitable for Lithium cell prototyping and pilot line production for cylindrical and pouch cells. Despite difficulties to travel throughout last year, we have had huge success and the demand for this type of equipment is just incredible! www.digatronsystems.com

We are presently working on a new design for our high voltage EV pack tester and battery emulator using SiC regenerative energy technology capable of up to 1500Vdc. In terms of On Cell testing equipment, we continue to develop SiC regenerative 300Amp peak, 6V

We are also working on our new software suite which benefits from our many years of existing software experience to create something new and exciting capable to meet the immense data challenges that the industry now expects.

What can visitors expect from your stand?

From our stand, visitors would get to have a deeper understanding of our product portfolio and would be able to discuss the various equipment that we produce from cell assembly & formation through testers for all battery chemistries.

If visitors should know one thing about your company and experience, what would it be?

If you ask for one thing, that would be “Partnership”. 

Partnership through experience, Innovation, support and reliability. For more than 50 years, we eat, live and breathe the world of battery testing and formation equipment. We are an international operation headquartered in Aachen Germany with global manufacturing and support structure, and we are ready to assist clients to meet their project requirement. Personally, I look forward to having many interesting discussions at the event.

As a global market leader, Digatron equipment energizes the biggest names in the battery and automotive industry all over the world. The Digatron brand is recognised globally for uncompromising quality, accuracy, reliability and long operational life duration.

Visit us on www.digatron.com & www.digatronsystems.com.