Press Release: "OptiPro"

 

In the battery competence cluster "Intelligent Battery Cell Production" (InZePro), funding for the research project "Optimized cell finalization through innovative plant technology and parameter-based evaluation of process and quality parameters in the virtual production system" (OptiPro) was approved by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. In the project, the IMA, ISEA and PEM institutes of RWTH Aachen University and the iwb and ftm of TU Munich are jointly researching the digital networking of cell finalization processes in battery cell production. The OptiPro project is funded with more than 2.4 million euros.

Up to now, cell finishing in battery cell production has been characterized by limitations in the achievable throughput and insufficiently known influences on cell quality parameters. Among other things, this is reflected in high manufacturing costs. The high energy and resource requirements of some sub-steps (e.g. filling, forming, test storage and EOL test) motivate to minimize process times. The material demand represents a significant cost driver, subsequently a targeted reduction of scrap is driven by process optimization. Thus, there is a great potential to strengthen the attractiveness for a competitive battery production in Germany by influencing the cell finalization holistically.

The goal of the research project is to digitize the entire process chain of cell finalization to the current state of the art. This means using innovative measurement technology to enable parameter-based evaluation of the process and quality parameters of the respective process step. The data will be mapped in a virtual production system and analyzed and evaluated using artificial intelligence (AI). All plant technologies used within the cell finalization shall communicate between the real and the virtual production system in such a way that a permanent feedback loop is created.