Waygate Technologies partners in US DoE funded electric vehicle project

Waygate Technologies becomes exclusive NDT partner for sustainability project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy  

Together with partner organizations, Waygate Technologies will work on an automated process for managing the lifecycle of lithium-ion batteries, contributing to the efficient and sustainable energy transition driven by electrification.

We are proud to be named exclusive non-destructive testing (NDT) partner for the US Department of Energy (DoE)-funded project to catalyze the transition from a linear to a circular supply chain for domestic EV batteries with solutions that extend battery life and facilitate repair and reuse to reduce waste.  

With more than 20 years of industry experience and involvement in the R&D and production environments of eight of the ten largest EV manufacturers in the world, we are the best NDT partner to choose. The project is part of the Catalyzing Innovative Research for Circular Use of Long-lived Advanced Rechargeables (CIRCULAR) program that was initiated by the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E).  

CIRCULAR projects aim 

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Together with our partners, Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc. (TEMA, project lead), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) we are working on the project Development of an Autonomous Robotic Disassembly Process for Applications in Battery Pack Circularity. The project pioneers an industry-ready blueprint for tomorrow’s battery facilities and addresses three primary bottlenecks in current battery circularity:  

(a) Automation for scalable disassembly of end-of-life (EoL) or manufacturing scrap battery packs and cells,  

(b) data-driven battery classification in alignment with pack or cell state-of-health (SoH), and  

(c) addressing cell degradation to reduce the need for recycling.

The battery industry and electric vehicles (EVs) in particular will become much more important in the near future. Following years of investment, global battery manufacturing capacity reached 3 TWh in 2024, with the potential to triple over the next five years if all planned projects come to fruition. In 2024, a total of 17 million electric vehicles were sold globally, equipped with a combined battery capacity of 864.0 GWh (incl. plug-in hybrids, range extenders, and conventional hybrids). This represents a 25% increase from 2023.

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Scaling battery production while managing end-of-life challenges

This enormous growth poses a variety of challenges for manufacturers. On the one hand, production has to be scaled up enormously in a short period of time, which is a difficult task given the high-quality requirements. On the other hand, this growth means that many batteries will also reach the end of their (first) life cycle in the near future. This means that a decision has to be made whether they are still suitable for further use, for example in home storage systems, or whether they need to be recycled. 

In order to meet this demand with a strong offering, the partners have joined forces to develop a 3R approach — Reduce, Reuse, Recycle — that focuses on maximizing the lifecycle of lithium-ion batteries while minimizing waste and environmental impact. Reduce involves identifying battery cells with minimal degradation to extend their life without further intervention, lowering the need for new resources. Reuse targets cells that can be rejuvenated and repurposed in secondary applications, reducing the demand for new battery production. Recycle applies to cells with irreversible damage, where valuable materials are recovered for use in new batteries, completing a sustainable circular process.

Driving battery lifecycle management with our advanced NDT portfolio

As a market leader in NDT solutions for industrial inspection, we play a crucial role in this initiative as the exclusive provider of NDT technology, using advanced CT and ultrasonic imaging to assess battery cells and modules. In this project, one Phoenix V|tome|x M300 system will be used for cell imaging, and another V|tome|x C450 for module imaging, both targeting EoL and aged batteries to detect issues such as inclusions, gas bubbles, and weld defects. To complement CT scans, we will deploy ultrasound imaging (Krautkrämer RotoArray comPAct and USM 100) to identify specific failure modes such as electrolyte dry spots, wrinkles, delamination, and lithium plating. Additionally, our machine learning algorithms enhance Automated Defect Recognition (ADR), enabling precise detection of degradation modes with high accuracy and ease of use.  

For us as a company, this recognition is a triple award. It shows that:

1. We are a technology leader with the broadest NDT technology portfolio, and we are proud to be selected as an exclusive NDT partner in this very competitive landscape. This recognition underscores our leadership position, driven not only by our outstanding systems – enabling faster scans and higher throughput without compromising on image quality and measurement precision – but also by the fact that we can offer the full range of requirements, across X-ray and CT, and also industrial ultrasound inspection. In addition, we have over 20 years of experience in the battery industry and can advise our customers on a wide range of tasks and challenges.  

2. We help our customers in the battery industry to improve their production and thus contribute to their economic success: As described above, the battery industry will continue to grow enormously in importance in the coming years. If we can help our customers to produce less scrap in their production, this will quickly have a significant impact on their economic performance.

3. We play our part in the energy transition and the efficient use of resources: Our everyday lives are becoming increasingly electrified. Batteries play a crucial role in this and are needed in huge quantities. At the same time, battery production requires large quantities of rare resources (metals such as cobalt, nickel, and copper) that must be processed at great expense before they can be turned into batteries. Production is also energy intensive. By helping to ensure that the best possible batteries are produced with as few defects as possible and that these batteries remain in use for as long as possible, we ensure that the environment and climate are protected and that we can take a real step towards a circular domestic supply chain.

This collaboration marks an important step in advancing a sustainable, circular battery supply chain in North America.  

Learn more about NDT for the battery industry here.