Battery product development is a costly and arduous process. Developing new battery products requires extensive prototyping, testing, and data analysis -- requiring extensive human and financial resources. An external battery test lab can jumpstart a company’s ability to pilot new and innovative batteries and to scale the production of existing battery and battery-enabled devices. Utilizing a third-party test lab for battery testing capabilities has some advantages that include:

1. Eliminate upfront capital investment. Capital investment is significant in test equipment, the facility square footage and the personnel to operate the lab. The test equipment can easily run into millions of dollars. 
2. Avoid costs of to maintaining a lab. In addition to the initial significant capital investment, obtaining lab accreditations and equipment calibrations is costly. The cost of accreditations can be tens of thousands of dollars annually.  Accreditations and calibrations programs and procedures can each require full time staff as well. 
3. Separate conflicts of interest and remove bias in test results. Perhaps the most important benefit of using a third-party test lab in your battery program. An in-house team might be tempted to insert bias when evaluating a product that is of their own development, even if subconscious.  The larger and more responsible the manufacturer or OEM, the more likely they are to have in place quality procedures that require third-party unbiased testing oversight.  Most quality accreditations also touch on this and require some sort of separation. 

Read on to learn more about how Energy Assurance, a leading battery test lab, is using Voltaiq to provide real-time data access to their customers. 

In 2019, Energy Assurance chose Voltaiq, a Battery Intelligence™ software tool, to automate battery analysis and provide real-time data access to customers.

This solution, ChannelView, powered by Voltaiq, empowers customers to accelerate time-to-market goals with the ability to access battery data in real-time, enabling them to evaluate data, discover problems, and quickly course-correct. Voltaiq automates and accelerates battery analysis, driving on-time product launches and product reliability.

This partnership expands and enhances Energy Assurance’s current offering with the addition of enhanced analytics and automated reporting.

“ChannelView, powered by Voltaiq, permitted our team to review data in real time, allowing us to make critical business decisions even as testing was still in progress.” - Jason Greene, HQA Engineering Manager, Landis+Gyr

Since partnering with Voltaiq, the Energy Assurance team and their customers have benefitted from significant time-savings. What used to take several hours is now served real-time in a format that's easy to understand.

Landis+Gyr, a leader in integrated energy management solutions, was one of the first to benefit from ChannelView, powered by Voltaiq. They used the web-based data plotting tool to allow for easy comparison between multiple samples’ results simultaneously. Intuitive features like the plotting tool and data export make it easy to analyze vast amounts of data at any time.