Within the SmartBatteryMaker project, research was conducted at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the Fraunhofer ICT on the prototypical implementation of flexible electrode manufacturing and flexible robot-based assembly of pouch cells. The SmartBatteryMaker was the first step towards a novel cell production process that is highly flexible, fully automated, and resource-saving.
Instead of highly productive but unflexible large-scale machines, the project partners designed the process steps of coating and drying electrodes and the cell assembly processes (single sheet stacking, contacting, packaging) as fully automated, highly flexible production modules with independent controls. The cell assembly processes were subsequently implemented in a robotic cell. The robotic cell is designed as a microenvironment, the processes are flexibly interlinked through a central jointed-arm robot. OPC UA was used as a vendor-neutral communication protocol to connect the individual modules applying the plug-and-play principle.
The proof of concept for the flexible coating and the flexible automatic cell assembly through modular plant technology and robot handling laid the foundation for the follow-up project "AgiloBat". With this, the KIT and its partners are contributing to the development of the battery industry in Baden-Württemberg and to the advancement of its international competitiveness – e.g., to open up new markets based on battery cells that can be flexibly manufactured in medium quantities.
