A consortium of German research institutions and industry partners has launched TRAICELL, a three-year research project aimed at boosting efficiency and traceability in battery cell production using artificial intelligence, according to a statement by the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Battery Cell Production (FFB).
TRAICELL aims to create a digital system that allows production and quality data to be traced down to individual electrode layers. The initiative also focuses on optimizing the mixing and coating processes in battery manufacturing to improve material yield and minimize waste. The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
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“At the end of the project, machine learning models will make it possible to predict cell quality in early production phases in order to minimize waste and improve material yield,” Fraunhofer FFB stated. The system under development is intended to enable real-time insights and predictions during the battery production process, significantly shortening quality control times.
The project is the result of a prior collaboration between experts from academia and industry, who identified three key focus areas for TRAICELL. The consortium plans to present three near-series prototypes reflecting different scaling stages of battery cell production by the end of the project term.
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“Innovative solutions – including those from digitalized battery cell production – must be transferred from research to industry more quickly,” said Professor Achim Kampker, Director of the Chair of Production Engineering of E-Mobility Components (PEM) at RWTH Aachen University. “In future, it will be important to be able to make reliable quality predictions during the forming process in order to reduce production times and detect rejects at an early stage.”
In addition to Fraunhofer FFB and PEM at RWTH Aachen, the TRAICELL project includes UniverCell, a German electrode and battery cell manufacturer, BST, a quality assurance solutions provider, and Merantix Momentum, a developer of AI technologies.