Gigafactories for battery production: how to catch up

SICK has been supplying quality assurance solutions for battery manufacturing for more than ten years. The company is now using the experience it has gathered to join forces with European battery manufacturers. Because Europe wants to catch up in the strategically important battery market.

A few years ago, the West would move its production to Asia, as manufacturing costs were lower there; for its part, Asia benefited by receiving technological expertise. However, the US and Europe still maintained the upper hand from a technological perspective. This has since all changed. Asian firms are fully conversant in strategically important sectors such as battery production, and firms in Europe and the USA need to make huge efforts to stay competitive. It’s a competition between two systems.

The race can currently be observed in Europe. According to Fraunhofer, battery production on the continent could increase tenfold by 2030, thus rising to up to 1.5 terawatt-hours. Dozens of battery manufacturers have announced plans to build gigafactories. These include the market leaders in Asia, who are aiming to conquer the European market. But the Europeans themselves have woken up. They want to catch up in terms of battery production and build their own factories. After all, anyone who masters the battery cell holds a strategic position. In electric vehicles, it is not so much the engine that represents the unique selling point, but rather the complex battery.

To give some context, batteries must be made as close as possible to where the cars themselves are manufactured, as an automotive battery comprising hundreds of cells can soon way half a metric ton – and is also classed as hazardous cargo. It is not something that anyone wants to transport halfway around the world.

“The challenge facing Europeans is that they need to produce more efficiently than their Asian competitors,” explains Philipp Mutz. Asian manufacturers can get away with being less productive, as they enjoy cheaper access to raw materials and dominate the market. What’s more, achieving this efficiency is easier said than done. Many European manufacturers struggle with high reject rates when getting their own battery production up and running.

For more than ten years, SICK has been supplying automation, quality assurance, and safety engineering technology in the field of battery production. It all started with an innovation focused on smartphone batteries. The IDF double-layer sensor allowed users to verify whether the various layers of electrode film had been correctly picked up by the grabber. This sensor is still used today, including in battery production for electric vehicles. “This shows how we started,” says Philipp Mutz. The traces lead to the future.

Since then, technologies from almost all areas of the SICK portfolio have been used in battery manufacturing. In order to satisfy new and ever-changing requirements for battery production processes, SICK enhances its technologies on a continuous basis and – with Surface+, for instance – now has a unique and patented solution for the final inspection of battery cells in its portfolio. This technology is now also being used by the European companies looking to catch up in the battery market.

Read more

Read more