The development and industrialisation of a new type of production system for the manufacture of battery cell stacks is the aim of the EXINOS2 joint project, which involves Siemens, KIT and Fraunhofer FFB, among others.
The system concept that the project partners want to develop as part of EXINOS2 is expected to “significantly improve the efficiency and flexibility of battery cell production,” according to a press release from ACP Systems AG. However, the developers are not starting from scratch, but are building on the results of previous research projects.
To understand the project partners’ approach, a brief excursus into the current processes: For the production of battery cell stacks, the cathode, separator, and anode must be stacked precisely on top of each other – the cathode and anode are coated metal foils, the separator is usually a special plastic film. “In previous system concepts, this is usually realised using several automated gripping processes and rigid tools. This inevitably results in pauses between the gripping processes, which leads to a discontinuous process. At the same time, the format-bound moulds make switching to other battery cell formats difficult,” explains ACP Systems. If a new battery format is produced, cost-intensive new moulds and time-consuming retooling work will be required.
The developers want to solve these two “challenges” with the prototype system that has already been built. On the one hand, a composite of the electrode sheets and the separator is to be produced before the actual stacking process to achieve “continuous and therefore faster overall process control.” The system technology itself is designed to be format-flexible “so that it can be converted to new cell formats within a short time using software,” according to the press release. That will be achieved primarily through the flexibly adjustable handling systems – i.e. the components that cut the individual electrode sheets to size.
With their work on more efficient and flexible battery production, the project partners want to make cell production in Germany more economical: “The efficiency and flexibility of battery production in Germany, which is set to make a decisive contribution to the energy transition in the future, can be significantly improved as a result. That opens up great opportunities to strengthen economic power and technological innovation and promote electric mobility expansion,” says ACP Systems.
The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) funds the project with 3.64 million euros. In the joint project, researchers from the WBK Institute for Production Engineering at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the Fraunhofer Research Centre for Battery Cell Production FFB and the industrial partners ACP Systems AG, BST GmbH, J. Schmalz GmbH and Siemens AG are working on the further development of the prototype system concept.
ACP Systems will manufacture the target system in the project, BST will supply “a high-precision system solution for web guiding and optical electrode inspection for optimum stacking accuracy of the electrode sheets,” and J. Schmalz GmbH is working on the development of suitable vacuum gripping systems within the project. Siemens supports the project on the hardware side with regard to control and drive components and on the software side with the digitalisation of the target system. The WBK Institute for Production Technology at KIT is dedicated to “enabling immature sub-processes and developing the digital twin,” while the Fraunhofer FFB is providing “the corresponding framework conditions for system design and integration into an industrial, physical and digital infrastructure in the context of the innovation modules.”
pressbox.com (in German)
