By ensuring that the market standards are applied, we guarantee the quality of the work developed by the DEFACTO project, which will generate confidence in future customers. – Interview with UNE

José Antonio Jiménez Caballero from UNE – the Spanish Association for Standardisation speaks on this interview about their main role in the DEFACTO project, their expectations and the work they will carry out to analyse the standardization landscape and applicable standards to be adopted by the DEFACTO Project.

Q: What is the main role of UNE in DEFACTO?

A: First of all, our role as a Standards Body, is to ensure that the consortium developing the project knows and has at its disposal the standards that apply to the industry. Standards are the common language used by industry to specify the technical requirements of the market and, in addition, they are often used to meet regulatory requirements. Therefore, when a research project wants to develop a product aimed at a specific market, it is essential that the standards that govern that market are known and applied. By ensuring that the market standards are applied, we guarantee the quality of the work developed by the DEFACTO project, which will generate confidence in future customers.

Taking into account that standards are developed by groups of industry experts, the so-called technical standardisation committees, we also aim to use the standardisation system as a way to promote the project. By carrying out dissemination activities and presenting the project in these technical committees, we reach a very targeted publicity, in a place where a multitude of potential customers are present. Moreover, their feedback can be received for a better approximation of the project results to the market.

Likewise, the standardisation system can also be used to improve the long-term impact of the project. If any of the project results can be translated into an international standardised document, on the one hand, these results will be visible in the long term at the place where the standards used by a particular industry sector are developed. On the other hand, this document will be available to any interested party outside the consortium developing the project, which means that the society as a whole can benefit from the knowledge generated in a project that receives public funding.

Q: What are your expectations from the project?

A: I hope our work serves to align the project with as many of the identified standards as possible. In the first phase of the project, we have identified the standards used by the cell and battery industry, focusing on high-power applications, where there are more players in the market and therefore more future customers. The more standards we can align with, the more market sectors will be within our reach.

Likewise, I also expect to generate high-quality content that can be translated into an international standard document that can serve as a reference for the development of cells in the coming years.

Q: Can you elaborate on the work you are doing/planning to do?

A: As mentioned above, during the first phase of the project we have produced a report with the most relevant standards in the battery industry. One of our priority markets is the battery market for electric vehicles, and in this sector the standards IEC 62660 Secondary lithium-ion cells for the propulsion of electric road vehicles, ISO 12405 Electrically propelled road vehicles -Test specification for lithium-ion traction battery packs and systems and ISO 6469 Electrically propelled road vehicles – Safety specifications are used. Additionally, we have identified further standards for electrical energy storage, industrial applications and railway applications.

We are currently closing some presentations of the project in technical standardisation committees, and soon we will start to select the content we want to transfer to a standardisation document, depending on the availability of this content within the project schedule and the time needed to develop this standardisation document.