Electricity and Control April 2022

INDUSTRY 4.0 + IIOT

Smart manufacturing for the future battery gigafactory

Dominique Scheider,Transportation Industry Strategy & Marketing Manager EMEA at Rockwell Automation, explains why smart manufacturing is pivotal to future battery gigafactories.

B atteries will have a central place in future energy markets, for mobility and energy storage. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), global production capacity for electric-vehicle (EV) batteries will need to more than triple from 2020 to 2025 to meet the world’s estimated EV production target. To deliver the billions of watts of energy that EVs will need in the coming decades will require ‘gigafactories’ for battery manufacturing. This means more than simply scaling up traditional production techniques and technologies. It will require new ways of thinking about production processes to maximise speed, flexibility and throughput. Smart manufacturing will be a crucial tool in battery production. We call it the ‘digital thread’ because smart manufacturing affects not only the execution system, but also the entire lifecycle optimisation. It begins in the early stages of research and development where the chemists and engineers develop new battery concepts. They use the tools offered by computational chemistry and CAD for design, together with product lifecycle management (PLM) to manage product development. The digital thread starts as the information is aggregated in a virtual environment. Throughout the testing cycle, tools such as MATLAB and Ansys generate more valuable data. This data is used to develop digital twins of machines that

will be used later in the manufacturing process, planning and testing operations in the virtual world. Digital twins can also be used to help train staff in the virtual world and allow fast ramp-up of production when it begins. Beyond that, as the products are manufactured, sold and used, data is collected in the physical world and fed back into the virtual world, enabling products and processes to be optimised. This merging of the physical and virtual worlds will be central to the future of battery manufacturing. Smart production monitoring One of the most important facets of the digital thread is increased visibility through production monitoring. Production monitoring forms part of Manufacturing Execution System (MES) software. MES has been used in automotive manufacturing for decades and will be crucial for battery manufacturers, especially with regard to customisation. As the market develops there will likely be a greater demand for customisation – potentially calling for unique lots for each model or car. With MES software it is possible to integrate control and business systems to execute and track orders across the enterprise. Users also gain the additional context needed to turn production data into actionable information. And a manufacturer can start small with MES applications that address specific manufacturing challenges. If the

manufacturer needs to understand defects, an MES quality application can be used to track, identify and raise an alert when either a machine process or the operator’s processes go outside of the prescribed limits. Another application would be in track- and-trace systems to enable traceability of batteries through the manufacturing process and help ensure that batteries are safe for use. Over time, users can scale up the applica- tions to the MES software suite to gather ‘one version of truth’ across their operations. Importantly, automatedandsmart paperless data collection is also essential to the Global Battery Alliance’s (GBA) Battery Passport. The Battery Passport provides trusted information on indicators related to responsible and sustainable practices. This results in a quality seal, capturing authenticated records of the responsible sourcing, management, recycling and use of a battery across its full lifecycle.

Smart data collection will enable battery production at scale, with flexibility and insight.

4 Electricity + Control APRIL 2022