Battery
The world of e-mobility is moving more quickly and dynamically than ever before. The growing shift to alternative fuel options goes hand-in-hand with the automotive and transportation industry's goal of moving toward a more sustainable future. High-performance batteries are essential, as energy standards are higher and drivers require reliable energy systems in their vehicles. Quality control and assurance during manufacturing are essential in preventing recalls, reducing product waste, and ensuring safe vehicle operation.
The industry must accelerate the development of quality lithium-ion batteries in order to enable longer distances and higher performance, and to increase battery life and lower production costs.
Some common manufacturing defects of high-performance batteries include errors in cell bonding and battery sealing processes, errors in the coating process, improper joining of materials and air entrapment when casting or mixing. High-volume application of heat-conducting paste that prevents the batteries from overheating can also lead to bubble formation and hindered performance.
Having solid procedures in place helps ensure standard and electric vehicles are manufactured with the highest standards. BST's quality assurance systems are designed to detect potential defects early in the manufacturing process, allowing operators to remedy the issue before excess product is wasted.
Increased industrial production allows for simultaneous cost reduction and quality improvement through economies of scale, automation, and technological innovation, as well as resource and energy efficiency. Absolute precision is required when processing material webs to produce lithium-ion batteries to ensure a safe and high-quality product. BST addresses this issue through our diverse product portfolio, including our inspection and web guiding systems. Our inspection systems can perform a variety of measurement tasks while also communicating their measurement data to web guiding systems. The result is high-end production with optimized processes – Perfecting your Performance.

Coating
The foil (copper or aluminum) is usually coated by a slot die (slurry). The coating process is either continuous or intermittent. Coating of the upper and lower side of the foil is done either on one side, in tandem or simultaneously and is then rewound after drying.
Our coating quality assurance solutions include product areas such as web guiding, automatic alignment and control of top to bottom layer positions, as well as surface and edge inspection for all relevant coating options.

Calendering
In the calendering process, the both-side coated copper or aluminum foil is compacted by a rotating pair of drums. For this purpose, the material that has been rolled up in the coating line is unwound on the calender and rewound again after calendering.
For this process, BST offers surface inspection systems for simultaneous inspection of top and bottom side. Additional web guiding systems ensure the various requirements of this production process.

Slitting
At slitting, the parent roll is cut into multiple small webs using rotating blades. Subsequently, the resulting daughter rolls are rewound.
In this process step, the surface inspection system iPQ-Surface ENERGY can simultaneously measure the cut edges in relation to the coating edge of the top and bottom sides. In addition, a close-loop control with a web guiding system positioned in front of it ensures that any occurring deviations do not become a quality problem in the first place.

Separating
The anode and cathode electrodes are separated from the daughter rolls in a continuous process by a punching or laser cutting the tabs and, if necessary, by a die cut.
BST offers solutions to position the material web exactly to the cutting unit. This is the only way to ensure meeting the geometrical requirements of the electrodes.

Cell-Assembling
In the cell assembly process, for the production of prismatic, round or pouch cells, the separated electrodes are brought together with the separator in a highly precise winding, laminating or folding process to form a single mono-cell or a mono-cell block.
BST solves this application by networking multiple web guiding systems that additionally use functions such as master/slave and offset correction. In this way, any deviation of the target positions of the individual edges can be eliminated and the precise guiding of different webs to each other can be ensured. The use of a high-resolution camera system enables reliable edge detection of all layers for returning to the production process.
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"As a global technology leader, it is our mission to make a positive contribution to the transformation towards electromobility with all its consequences, because only then will we have a chance to counteract climate change."
Klaus Hamacher, New Business Development