World's first agile production facility for battery cells opened
Close cooperation between science and industry
Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have set up an agile battery cell production facility in order to be able to manufacture battery cells - for example for electromobility or power tools - more flexibly in the future. Using highly flexible robot-based automation, they have achieved a degree of flexibility that was previously only possible in manual cell production. This enables companies to adapt more quickly to new technologies and volatile markets and can strengthen Germany's competitiveness as an industrial location. The federal and state governments provided a total of almost 19 million euros in funding for the construction.
With guests from industry, science and politics, representatives of the participating ministries and KIT symbolically opened the new agile battery cell production line in the Karlsruhe research factory by cutting a ribbon. (from left to right: Stefan Jung, BMBF; Jürgen Fleischer, KIT; Ronny Feuer, MWK; Joachim Knebel, KIT)
Amadeus Bramsiepe, KIT
According to the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection, battery cells are becoming increasingly important as versatile and efficient energy storage systems. For example, they are the driving force behind the ongoing electrification of mobility. This key technology is of great strategic and economic relevance for manufacturing companies. Demand is currently being met primarily by cost-driven mass production in Asia and North America, which is also having an impact on mechanical and plant engineering. "In Germany, we do not have the prerequisites to be competitive in the purely cost-driven mass production of cells and the associated mechanical engineering," says Professor Jürgen Fleischer, Head of the wbk Institute for Production Technology at KIT. "The opening of the world's first agile battery cell production facility in the Karlsruhe research factory shows how we can differentiate ourselves from the global market with highly flexible and resource-efficient production and specifically address the high-margin premium segment and niche markets."
Flexible and resource-efficient battery cell production
Together with the company Exyte, the KIT researchers developed special robot cells for battery cell production. "These are a world first in this field. They serve as local drying rooms, also known as microenvironments, to protect the moisture-sensitive battery materials," says Fleischer. Compared to conventional drying rooms, the room volume to be dehumidified is significantly smaller. This technology therefore offers particularly high energy-saving potential. Four such microenvironments with their associated process modules represent the physical structure of agile battery cell production at the wbk research factory in Karlsruhe.
In addition, the project participants built a "digital twin", i.e. a virtual image of the production system. This enables the scientists to use software to investigate economies of scale through the multiplication of individual microenvironments and determine production-related parameters such as the optimum batch size. This simulation can also be used for production planning in agile battery cell production. The real plant is connected to a database so that all processes can be adapted and improved using AI in the future.
Close cooperation between science and industry
The scientists in the AgiloBat research project have developed battery cell production together with medium-sized machine and plant manufacturers. The aim is to enable them to jointly offer competitive system technology along the entire process chain. The process knowledge contributed by KIT for a more flexible and modular system technology will also enable the participating companies to manufacture battery cells in a sustainable, flexible, resource-efficient and automated manner in the future and to test new material systems through industry-oriented production with small material quantities. The infrastructure developed complements the research infrastructure in the field of battery cell production that has been established at KIT since 2011.
Further information on AgiloBat
In the AgiloBat research project, researchers from seven KIT institutes are working together with partners at the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg and the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology. Coperion GmbH, SAUERESSIG Group, Schunk Group, Herrmann Ultraschalltechnik GmbH & Co KG, Siemens AG, DEHOF ingenieur+technik and Exyte Technology GmbH are also involved from the mechanical and plant engineering sector.
The Federal Ministry of Education and Research is funding the project with 14.5 million euros and the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts with 4.5 million euros.
Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.
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The topic world Battery Technology combines relevant knowledge in a unique way. Here you will find everything about suppliers and their products, webinars, white papers, catalogs and brochures.
