Battery Production

Scope / Goals

The “Battery Production” joint working group will standardize machine and system interfaces in battery production and develop OPC UA Information Models for selected machines in the production chain of a battery – from cell production to the ready-to-use battery.
The aim is to include all machines involved in battery production. This will enable a plant operator to access this preliminary work during line planning and set up standardized battery production without having to redevelop the entire information models from scratch.
The information model will use OPC UA constructs to expose general and process specific information to OPC UA applications and to exchange general and production-specific information between inline machines or from machines to higher level systems.

This should include information in the following context:

• Collection of product-specific data (Traceability, Quality Management)
• Production Monitoring and Control
• Information for Key Performance Indicators calculations
• Counters for maintenance purposes
• Energy Monitoring
• Asset Identification

Working Group

The Core Group essentially assumes an advisory and supporting function, while experts from science and industry contribute their expertise in the subgroups.

Source: Technology Radar by Fraunhofer Research Institution for battery Cell Production FFB

The division and number of subgroups was based on the typical manufacturing steps for a battery cell in three main process steps:

• Electrode production Production steps from mixing to vacuum drying
• Cell assembly manufacturing steps separation to final sealing
• Cell finalization manufacturing steps formation to end-of-line tests

A fourth subgroup is developing a harmonized structure and providing standardized object types and models used in battery manufacturing. These common types form the basis for all companion specifications developed. This baseline standard for battery manufacturing will be published first to ensure interoperability and consistency between different systems and devices.

• General Types Definition of the harmonized structure