Battery knowledge · Testing methods

Helium leak test

Checking that a cell can, pouch or cooling plate is sealed by detecting, with a mass spectrometer, helium escaping from it into a vacuum chamber. Helium goes in before sealing or is forced in under pressure afterwards; cells are typically screened at around 10⁻⁶ mbar·L/s, tight enough to keep moisture out and electrolyte in for the cell’s life.

Also called
leak test, helium bombing, tracer-gas leak test
Unit
mbar·L/s

Example

Testing methods: an example situation

Resistance immediately after a current step can differ from a ten-second value because slower polarization contributes.

Read Helium leak test alongside Can in this context. The rigid metal case of a cylindrical or prismatic cell, usually nickel-plated steel or aluminium. It holds the stack under pressure, contains the electrolyte and, in a cylindrical cell, doubles as the negative terminal.

Use in Lemonergy

Record specimen, state, instrument, temperature and timing.

This is a reference concept. No executable Lemonergy block has been verified for this term.

References & further reading

Further reading on this topic

These sources provide broader context; they are not presented as citations for every statement in this entry.

  1. Battery Test Manual For Electric Vehicles, Revision 3

    Jon P. Christopherson · Idaho National Laboratory · 2015

    Topic background · Performance characterization, pulse resistance/power, life testing and reference performance tests; historical 2015 edition.