feedback and hence opportunity for minimizing scrap (discarded material). This is also helpful from an NDE perspec- tive, since the accessibility constraint eases the further upstream you are in the process. For example, we have access to both sides of the electrode during the roll-to-roll processes prior to electrode stacking. Accessibility is greatly reduced post-electrode stacking, when the elec- trodes are sandwiched between many tens of layers of other electrodes and separator material. Nevertheless, it will still be necessary to inspect a fully assem- bled cell since any defect that occurs upstream is important to catch. A fully assembled cell is a complicated structure comprising multiple layers and mate- rials. This is where technologies, such as fast CT, are seeing an emergence, since they enable geometric inspection such as dimensional conformance, elec- trode alignment, and so on. While these technologies are promising, they do not yet perform at the speed necessary to enable 100% in-line inspection. Detecting the presence of soft or hard shorts8,9 is a second example of why there may be interest in inspecting a fully assembled cell. NDE inspection technologies for lithium-ion battery cells are just the start. We will also need to be ready for any potential future cell electrochemistries, such as lithium metal anodes or solid state. This is an exciting time to be a part of the NDE community, and I believe we are up to the challenge of creating inno- vative technologies that can withstand the complicated constraints imposed by battery cell manufacturing. AUTHOR Megan McGovern: General Motors R&D, Warren, MI, USA megan.mcgovern@ gm.com REFERENCES 1. GM. “GM Will Boost EV and AV Invest- ments to $35 Billion Through 2025.” Newsroom, General Motors, 16 June 2021, accessed 20 September 2022, news. gm.com/newsroom.detail.html/Pages/ news/us/en/2021/jun/0616-gm.html. 2. GM. “GM to Invest in Next-Generation Battery Facility That Will Lower EV Costs, Accelerate Speed to Market.” Newsroom, General Motors, 5 October 2021, accessed 20 September 2022, news.gm.com/ newsroom.detail.html/Pages/news/us/ en/2021/oct/1005-batterycenter.html. 3. He, K. (Q.) and Y.T. Yeh, “Battery Manufacturing Basics from CATL’s Cell Production Line (Part 1),” BatteryBits, 13 June 2021, accessed 27 May 2022, medium.com/batterybits/battery- manufacturing-basics-from-catls-cell- production-line-part-1-d6bb6aa0b499. 4. Tech-Sonic, “Closed Loop Control Tech- nology Overview (Multi-Step),” Tech-Sonic, 4 December 2021, accessed 27 May 2022, tech-sonic.us/closed-loop-control-overview. 5. Zwicker, M.F.R., M. Moghadam, W. Zhang, and C.V. Nielsen. 2020. “Auto- motive battery pack manufacturing – a review of battery to tab joining.” Journal of Advanced Joining Processes 1:100017. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jajp.2020.100017. 6. McGovern, M.E., T.J. Rinker, and R.C. Sekol. 2019. “Assessment of Ultrasonic Welds Using Pulsed Infrared Ther- mography.” Journal of Nondestructive Evaluation, Diagnostics and Prognostics of Engineering Systems 2 (1): 011009. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4042260. 7. Arimoto, K., T. Sasaki, Y. Doi, and T. Kim. 2019. “Ultrasonic Bonding of Multi-Lay- ered Foil Using a Cylindrical Surface Tool.” Metals 9 (5): 505. https://doi.org/10.3390/ met9050505. 8. Zhang, X., E. Sahraei, and K. Wang. 2016. “Li-ion Battery Separators, Mechan- ical Integrity and Failure Mechanisms Leading to Soft and Hard Internal Shorts.” Scientific Reports 6: 32578. https://doi. org/10.1038/srep32578. 9. Seo, Minhwan, M. Park, Y. Song, and S.W. Kim. 2020. “Online Detection of Soft Internal Short Circuit in Lithium-Ion Batteries at Various Standard Charging Ranges.” IEEE Access 8:70947–59. https:// doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2987363. PHMSA PIPELINE SAFETY R&D REPORT The public final report is available for the project Program to Advance Computed Tomography for the Development of Reference Standards for Pipeline Anomaly Detection and Characterization. This project was completed for the US Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) by Pipeline Research Council International, and the report was prepared by ADV Integrity Inc. and written by Chris Alexander and Atul Ganpatye. This project will utilize computed tomography to significantly advance inspection capabilities for the pipeline industry, including in-the-ditch and in-line inspection (ILI) tools. This will be achieved by generating a set of “truth data” based on a set of refer- ence synthetic and real-world crack-like features. The project will provide a basis for establishing industry calibration and reference standards against which both ILI and NDE technologies can be evaluated. PRIMIS.PHMSA.DOT.GOV/MATRIX FAILURE ANALYSIS OF PIPELINE COATINGS Element has published Failure Analysis of Pipeline Coatings. This free report includes an extensive case study of the failure analysis of a 12-in. diameter fusion bonded epoxy (FBE) coated steel pipe that was under cathodic protection while in service and showed blistering of the FBE coating and corrosion on the surface. Standard failure analysis tech- niques were applied to determine the primary causes of the blistering. This report provides an analysis of pipeline coatings and considerations for an objec- tive investigation of the fundamental causes behind a coating failure. 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