Developing a data-driven approach for digitalized, sustainable battery cell production

The additional growth and evolution of present storage techniques is a key prerequisite for the vitality transition. The Heart for Digitalized Battery Cell Manufacturing (ZDB) on the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA and acp techniques AG have joined forces to fee a winding system for cylindrical battery cells that includes versatile codecs and design.

It serves as an innovative research and manufacturing platform to check new cell codecs and parts together with tab designs and in addition allows growth of large-format cells for future battery applied sciences. The winding system is the primary of its sort on this planet. It’s embedded in an automatic, digitalized battery cell manufacturing infrastructure.

Electrical car batteries include a number of modules, each comprising many particular person battery cells. These modules are the centerpiece of any battery and are accountable for the lion’s share of worth creation. Cylindrical battery cells have grown an increasing number of widespread within the automotive trade lately, with the pattern favoring giant cell codecs.

ZDB at Fraunhofer IPA and acp techniques AG labored collectively carefully to develop, assemble, and now fee a winding system for cylindrical battery cells, often known as spherical cells. It would function a flexible analysis and manufacturing platform for fast testing of latest cell codecs and tab designs in addition to superior strategies of enhancing high quality and optimizing processes.

The brand new winding system completes a production line not like some other in Europe for the manufacturing of cylindrical battery cells for lithium-ion batteries and future battery applied sciences akin to sodium-ion batteries. The particular function of the manufacturing chain is that all the course of steps are digitalized and interconnected, from coating and winding to meeting, filling, and forming.

“At ZDB, we can cover all of the process steps involved in manufacturing a battery cell. The winding process is one of the core processes in cylindrical cell production, as the jelly roll is the centerpiece of the battery cell. By bringing the winding system online, we have closed a gap in the fully digitalized process chain, so the production line is complete,” says Julian Grimm, head of the analysis crew at Fraunhofer IPA and Deputy Head of ZDB.

Electrodes and separators rolled up into jelly rolls

There are a couple of dozen work steps concerned in getting a cell prepared to be used. In the course of the winding course of, the constructive and destructive electrodes are rolled up along with two separators to type a jelly roll. After that, the battery is assembled, a step that requires the jelly roll to be moved and positioned with nice accuracy. A rod electrode is then inserted by the central gap within the roll and used to weld the roll to the bottom of the cylinder.

However the brand new winding system for cylindrical battery cells is greater than only a manufacturing platform for jelly rolls. It would additionally function a analysis platform for growing progressive cell techniques and codecs and testing their high quality.

“What makes our system unique is its flexibility. It allows us to realize different cell formats in different sizes and tab designs, such as tabless designs, which don’t have a tab welded onto them. The tab, a narrow terminal element on the anode and cathode that the electricity has to flow through, is the chokepoint in large-format cells,” Grimm says.

In spherical cells, the pattern is towards bigger cell codecs, which take up extra space when it comes to each diameter and top. This implies the roll and the cell itself find yourself being bigger. However the challenge is that the bigger the cells are, the tougher it’s to gather the present and dissipate warmth.

“We can respond to this challenge with individual tab designs. In a tabless design, for example, the carrier foil made of aluminum and copper can serve to collect current and dissipate heat, enabling greater conduction of both than a traditional tab,” Grimm explains.

Modern cell designs guarantee homogeneity in cylindrical cells, permitting for big cell codecs. Bigger cells with extra lively materials can be utilized to realize larger vitality density, which in flip extends the vary of electrical autos.

Information assortment related to battery cells

To attenuate waste and enhance high quality, the whole manufacturing course of is digitalized and interconnected. To that finish, sensors accumulate knowledge, which is then aggregated in actual time within the cloud. Traceability applied sciences developed at Fraunhofer IPA make it attainable to affiliate the info collected with the battery cells produced.

Each particular person battery cell produced is out there for knowledge analyses and to coach synthetic intelligence. On this manner, it’s attainable to hint the situations below which the cell was produced and decide how they relate to the ultimate product high quality.

The info is used to develop providers with monitoring, evaluation, and predictive capabilities. This makes it attainable to enhance the manufacturing course of and eradicate sources of error sooner than earlier than.

“Innovative cell designs require redesign and optimization of production processes, which we can study using the winding system. The combination of innovative cell design and agile approaches to production is the key to meeting the requirements of a rapidly changing energy landscape, enabling faster market launches of new solutions, and paving the way forward for sustainable, high-quality battery technologies,” Grimm says.

Producers and customers of electrodes, separators, and cells may also use the system to check their prototypes, merchandise, cell parts, supplies, and designs.