Creating the better battery

Battery Manufacturing

Proven automation and digital solutions for the battery industry

In the wake of eMobility and distributed energy storage, the worldwide demand for Li-Ion batteries is soaring. Still, batteries don’t sell themselves: The global market is highly competitive. Battery manufacturers need to improve their processes from end to end to ensure lasting business success in their volatile market. 

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First Worldwide Virtual Battery Exhibition 

End of June, the first worldworde Virtual Battery Exhibition took place. In case you missed it, you can now watch the recording of the presentation our battery experts Marc Deyda and Can Elver held during the show.

Get to know how to boost your battery production!

Recent posts about hot battery topics

No more one-size-fits-all: Coil2Stack fits battery cells of different shapes and sizes

Question: What do shopping for a new suit and battery manufacturing have in common? Answer: You can have a standard version that’s nice and (relatively) inexpensive. Or one that fits you perfectly but comes at a price…

By Luciano Wolke da Silva

Sourcing resources: How efficient battery recycling helps reduce costs and emissions

Today, battery recycling is still considered a sideshow to the more immediate challenges of electromobility such as increasing battery capacity and reducing production costs. However, with the required number of lithium-ion batteries multiplying in the next few years…

 

By Marc Deyda

Living on the edge: A quick guide to cell stack consistency

To achieve mass-market production of electric vehicles, production costs must be reduced. According to a study by Boston Consulting Group, roughly 35% of total vehicle costs relate to the battery pack. The battery cells themselves make up about 70% of the battery pack…

 

By Luciano Wolke da Silva

Market requirements

Improvements along the entire value chain enable the better battery

More flexible, transparent, and efficient processes across all fields of cell, module, and pack production help ensure lasting success in battery production and speed up time to market.

The digital transformation in battery manufacturing

Virtual Summit Battery manufacturing: Recycling
Digital Enterprise Virtual Summit

Battery recycling and e-mobility: Creating sustainability

Driven by e-mobility the required number of lithium-ion batteries will be multiplying in the next few years. We discuss challenges and opportunities in connection with battery recycling and how battery recycling can become a key strategy not only for disposing of spent batteries but also for sourcing valuable base materials.

Use cases

The big view

Improvements in battery production and of production machines for batteries flexibility, quality, efficiency, as well as time to market, can be achieved in numerous work steps. Many factors have to mesh and many challenges need to be met on the way to the better battery.

The digital twin

Digitalization is the key

A comprehensive end-to-end solution of the digital enterprise for the workflow of battery manufacturing making consistent use of digital twins positions Siemens as the ideal partner to support enterprises in the industry along the entire value chain.

The digital twin is the precise virtual model of a product or a production plant. It displays their development throughout the entire lifecycle and allows operators to predict behavior, optimizing performance, and implement insights from previous design and production experiences. 

 

Our comprehensive concept of the digital twin consists of three forms: the digital twin of the product, the digital twin of production, and the digital twin of the performance of both product and production. Thanks to our comprehensive domain expertise and optimized tools, Siemens is the only company that offers this holistic approach. 

Virtualization improves the real batteries

The digital twin of the product integrates all technical domains in a single data model. 

 

These data allow to simulate, test, and optimize the battery and its performance in a completely virtual environment. Possible problems and failures can be identified and fixed before the battery is being built in the real world. Consistent data is also the foundation for parallelizing the work of different disciplines like research, design, and mechanics.

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Product design and simulation

Speed up engineering

Our planning software Simcenter uniquely combines system simulation, 3D CAE, and testing for fast and reliable optimization. The complete multi-physics solution Simcenter STAR-CCM+ supports the design and simulation of a battery’s electrochemical composition, the single cell, and battery modules and packs. It also supports the entire battery production process with work steps such as mixing and coating.

Consistent data warehousing

Make consistent information available

Teamcenter software connects people and processes across functional silos with a digital thread for innovation, this way leveraging product information across more domains and departments, such as manufacturing, quality, cost engineering, compliance, service, and the supply chain.

Optimized product development

Deliver better products faster with CAD/CAM

Siemens NX software supports every aspect of product development, from concept design through engineering and manufacturing. It gives you an integrated toolset that coordinates disciplines, preserves data integrity and design intent, and streamlines the entire process.

Revolutionary machine design

Say goodbye to models

Mechatronics Concept Designer (MCD) is an end-to-end machine design solution based on a functional model that provides a common language for mechanical, electrical, and automation disciplines to work together in parallel. Unlike a model-based tool, MCD doesn’t only show how a machine will look like: It will validate that it works, this way ensuring better decision making through concept to production evaluation in a fast and reliable manner.

An entire plant optimized in one go

Just like batteries, are designed and tested digitally before production the entire production process and machine line is planned, simulated, and optimized in a fully virtual environment with the help of its digital twin.

 

An entire suite of software from Siemens is available to cover the process from graphic modelling all the way to virtual commissioning and even to line monitoring.

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Plant and process simulation

Assess the entire lifecycle

Plant Simulation enables battery manufacturers to virtually plan and analyze characteristics and process dependencies in battery manufacturing. For example, energy flow and consumption analyzes, material flow, logistics and business processes in battery production, what-if scenarios and their optimization as well as bottleneck analyzes can be viewed and performed. Process Simulate makes it possible to virtually check  production concepts in advance across their entire lifecycle.    

Virtual commissioning

Get rid of risks and time constraints

Virtual Commissioning enables the simulation and validation of all functions and the interaction of mechanics, electrics, and automation can be simulated and validated at an early stage. Errors are detected early on, which speeds up commissioning at the customer site and at the same time eliminates risks.

Synchronized production lines

Benefit from standardization

Standardized data interfaces and status models (e.g. OMAC State Model) ensure the optimal combination of individual machines into a synchronous line. If the behavior of the machines is also standardized, all machines can be controlled by a central line control unit. The OPC UA Modeling Editor links the standardized data interface with the controller data into a standardized interface.

TIA and OPC UA ensure reliable communication among machines and also provide a secure connection to the company IT and into the cloud. 

Line monitoring

See what’s really going on

The seamless integration of the entire shop-floor into the superordinate SCADA / line monitoring level provides an essential plus in production transparency and efficiency. SIMATIC SCADA systems ensure optimal plant monitoring with either a single-user system or a distributed multiuser system.

SiStar/BRAUMAT process control system is the optimal solution for effective control of recipe-controlled processes like mixing in electrode production. It ensures the, maximum transparency, maximum flexibility, and optimum quality.

Library for machine solutions

Just open the toolbox

The Battery Toolbox provides an extensive library of standardized and canned converting and handling applications that can be integrated and customized easily. For example, the application for prismatic winding through a continuous process ensures higher productivity.

TIA portfolio

Make the safe choice

Totally Integrated Automation (TIA) is the world’s leading automation concept. This unique portfolio of hardware and software has the right solutions for every sector and is future-proofed from the start.

Data-driven production and product performance optimization

Today’s batteries as well as their production generate massive amounts of data in terms of product utilization and effectiveness. A digital twin of performance embraces these operational data and analyzes them to improve all virtual models continually. It also provides actionable insight for informed decision making in the real world.

 

Leveraging these abilities in battery production helps enterprises improve their products and production systems efficiently and even create new business opportunities based on precise insights into aggregated and analyzed operational data.

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Energy management

Make the most of energy

Efficient energy management is a key factor for competitiveness in battery manufacturing. Knowing how much energy is being consumed as well as where and when it is consumed is the prerequisite for targeted energy saving measures and subsequent production costs reduction.

The SIMATIC Energy Suite and SIMATIC Energy Management Software provide everything it takes for end-to-end energy management that comes integrated into the automation system – from the measurement of individual loads to the detailed efficiency evaluation of entire machines.

Industrial Security

Play it safe

Siemens’ unique defense-in-depth concept is the basis for the holistic protection of entire industrial plants comprising plant security, network security, and system integrity. Integrated security functions prevent unauthorized access to automation processes, this way protecting existing know-how.

Industrial Edge computing

Close the gap between cloud and field

Siemens Industrial Edge introduces the next level of digital automation. This next-generation approach infuses the intelligence and scalability of the cloud directly into the production process in a simple and powerful manner – and without any data leaving the area of production. It combines local, performant data processing within automation with the distinct advantages of the cloud, this way enabling app-based data analysis, data processing, and infrastructure-as-a-service concepts with central update functionality.

Cloud-based, open IoT solution

Connect your products, machines, systems, and plants with MindSphere

MindSphere is the cloud-based, open IoT operating system from Siemens that connects your products, plants, systems, and machines, enabling you to harness the wealth of data generated by the Internet of Things (IoT) with advanced analytics. It provides a wide range of device and enterprise system connectivity protocol options, industry applications, advanced analytics, and an innovative development environment.

Industry Services

Get support from the experts

Battery manufacturing machines and plants need to operate reliably throughout their entire lifecycle for quick, flexible, and efficient reactions to market demands and production at highest quality levels. Siemens’ unique service and support offering that also covers the digital transformation provides everything it takes to optimize the overall effectiveness of a production facility, achieve maximum performance, and improve competitiveness.

Proof points

Automation and digitalization expertise for your battery production

Siemens' flexible automation and digitization solutions have already proven themselves in numerous industries. They enable reliable and efficient mass production, ensuring long-term economic success.

Industry expertise in the automotive and electronics industries

The automotive as well as electronics companies are relying on the digital transformation to increase their overall competitiveness. Siemens looks back on many years of trustful cooperation with the automotive industry and other industry segments such as electronics. Having supported many companies on the path towards digitization with great success, our experts offer unparalleled experience in implementing the digital transformation.

Worldwide service and support

Siemens offers a variety of services for all phases of the products and system lifecycle – from planning and implementation to commissioning and all the way to maintenance and modernization.

A long-standing commitment to the battery community

Siemens rose to the challenge of optimizing battery production with automation and digitalization solutions at an early stage. The company is involved in numerous R&D co-operations with universities, private institutions, and industrial associations.

 

Learn more about our memberships:

References

Strong performance and noticeable added value

Siemens solutions for battery manufacturing are in operation around the globe. The following reference projects illustrate their capacities and performance in various fields of application throughout the entire value chain.
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Together for your success in battery manufacturing

Siemens’ Digital Enterprise solutions enable more transparent, efficient, and reliable processes in battery manufacturing. They cover the entire value chain in battery production from product design to production engineering and all the way to production execution and service. The Siemens experts, present in all main battery markets worldwide, will be happy to support you.

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