Some suppliers of battery cell manufacturers Atlas Copco www.atlascopco.com Basler www.baslerweb.com CIC energiGUNE www.cicenergigune.com/en Durr www.durr.com Manz www.manz.com Rheonics www.rheonics.com Sakuu www.sakuu.com Targray www.targray.com ThermoFisher Scientific www.thermofisher.com 40 and cathode. On the other hand, allsolid-state batteries feature a solid electrolyte, which requires certain fabrication techniques and material selections to make it easier for ions to flow. These alternative techniques include stamping to increase the density of the inside of the solid electrolyte, and performing special processing techniques and selecting specific materials to ensure excellent interfacial contact between the electrodes and the electrolyte. Stamping is necessary to increase the degree of interfacial contact between the electrolyte and the electrodes. However, applying too much pressure may damage the microstructure of the materials, and lower battery performance and/or damage other elements of the battery. There are still many unknowns in the field of all-solid-state battery technologies, and there is no established benchmark for the correlation between the density of electrolyte and battery performance; development that focuses on both the realistic needs of massproduction and battery performance is extremely valuable. A conventional production process for liquid lithium-ion batteries has been amended for an all-solid-state battery production process with a roll-pressing technique. This will contribute to an increase in the density of the solid electrolyte layers and it is specific to the production of all-solid-state batteries, making continuous pressing possible. This roll-pressing technique increases the amount of interfacial contact between the electrolyte and the electrodes, and increases overall productivity. It can also consolidate several steps to speed up the assembly processes, including the bonding of positive and negative electrodes to significantly reduce the production time per cell. This consolidation reduces indirect costs such as power consumption and it can minimise the low dewpoint environment necessary in the dry room. Solid-state sensing Many solid-state battery materials are pastes, so it is not the same as an electrostatic powder coating. The sensors used already work with paste materials, such as toothpaste, all the way up to asphalt and tar, so it is even more important to use sensors early on in the process as there is even less opportunity to correct consistency and quality at the later stages. This means checks on incoming materials are vital, and the sensor data can be used to ensure consistency and quality is correct upfront. The same sensor that is used in the liquid electrolyte process can be used for the solid-state materials with a thicker viscosity as the underlying machine-learning model adapts to the different types of materials. While data is different for a solvent rather than a solid, being able to collect all of the data with the same sensors allows battery cell makers to use the same sensor across different production lines, whether liquid, semi-solid or solid-state, regardless of the form factor of the cell. Acknowledgements With thanks to Sunil Kumar and Caroline Giacomin at Rheonics, Edurne Arteta at CIC energiGUNE, Annika Völp and Dirk Leister at Thermofisher Scientific, and Kenta Umetsu at Honda Motors. Tech focus | Battery cell manufacturing January/February 2025 | E-Mobility Engineering The Kavian 3D-printing machines integrated into a cell production line (Image courtesy of Sakuu)
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mzk4