Volkswagen’s PowerCo SE plans to introduce an electrode dry-coating manufacturing course of in its battery cell manufacturing vegetation in Europe and Northern America. The brand new expertise will considerably increase effectivity and sustainability in quantity battery cell manufacturing.
A subsidiary of Volkswagen Group and based mostly in Salzgitter, the battery firm goals to industrialize the dry coating process. The expertise permits a lower in vitality consumption of about 30%; inner exams have already confirmed profitable. Along with German printing machine specialist Koenig & Bauer AG, PowerCo will additional develop and industrialize the dry coating process.
In trendy industrial electrode manufacturing, the battery supplies are blended with components and liquid solvents to a slurry. Afterwards, they’re coated onto foils of copper or aluminum, then dried and calendered.
PowerCo’s dry coating process permits to calender the powdery fundamental supplies immediately onto the foil, just like a printing process. Because of this, two of 4 course of steps in electrode manufacturing develop into out of date. The powder coating will be utilized onto the foil in a particularly fantastic and even method; the ensuing layer is about as skinny as a hair. This ensures glorious spatial vitality density and an extended life cycle, whereas bettering the fast-charging means of the battery.
Electrodes will likely be dry-coated and calendered immediately.
PowerCo and Koenig & Bauer have signed a Joint Growth Settlement. Collectively they’ll develop a curler press for powder coating electrodes at giant industrial scale. The dry coating process permits manufacturing electrodes with out wet-coating and subsequently drying them at excessive prices. With the brand new process, probably the most energy-intensive a part of cell manufacturing and using chemical solvents are not required.
PowerCo is already testing and optimizing the expertise in a pilot line in one in all its laboratories in Northern Germany. As a printing specialist, Koenig & Bauer will develop a machine for the economic powder coating.
In accordance with PowerCo estimates, the brand new expertise has the potential of saving about 30% of vitality in addition to 15% of ground house required and can subsequently save a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of Euros every year.
Per constructing block of an everyday Gigafactory with a manufacturing capability of 20 GWh, 4 parallel coating and drying traces will be saved, equaling an space of seven.000 sq. meters. Because of this, the outside size of the plant will be lowered by about 100 meters. Not having to function the energy-intensive drying furnaces and suction methods will save vitality equal to the annual consumption of 40,000 personal households.
Moreover, using chemical solvents that should be laboriously recycled at excessive vitality prices in silo-like towers outdoors the vegetation is not needed.
What the solid-state cell is to the product, dry coating is to manufacturing—an actual sport changer. If scaled efficiently, it would give us a novel place available on the market and particular aggressive benefits.
—Frank Blome, CEO of PowerCo SE
Because the oldest producer of printing presses on the planet, Koenig & Bauer affords the trade’s largest product portfolio. The brand new processing expertise is to exit improvement stage on the finish of 2024. For the time after, PowerCo has agreed on unique rights. The contractual particulars are confidential and there have additionally been made separate agreements. Estimated begin of manufacturing is 2026/2027.
Our vegetation are designed for fast and simple retrofits. In complete, now we have anticipated about 30 foreseeable improvements in merchandise and manufacturing, so we’re capable of alter our vegetation to all related new processes as quickly as they enter the market.
—PowerCo’s Chief Operation Officer Sebastian Wolf