Electric Vehicle Technology
Research Initiative KOOP
New Battery Project Pursues Highly Cooperative Scaling
The project is dedicated to the product and process development for a sodium-ion battery. The focus is on a hard carbon anode, which is to be produced using the method of trajectory mixing.
HS-Tumbler GmbH
With the aim of accelerating the industrialisation of novel production and battery technologies, RWTH Aachen, the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Battery Cell Production FFB, and the German mixing technology developer HS-Tumbler are launching the KOOP project.
The project funded by the Federal Ministry of Research is planned for a duration of three years and deals with the systematisation of cooperation between innovative companies or research institutions and the Fraunhofer FFB (Fraunhofer Research Facility for Battery Cell Production) based on a specific application case. The Chair of Production Engineering of E-Mobility Components (PEM) at RWTH Aachen and the German mixing technology developer HS-Tumbler are working on the project with the FFB.
The RWTH Chair is developing the approach of "Highly Cooperative Scaling" - a method intended to avoid delays that occur when transferring new manufacturing technologies from the laboratory scale to scaled application. PEM head and co-inventor of the StreetScooter Achim Kampker refers to "idle times ranging from six months to several years" in this context. He sees reasons for these idle times in challenges with knowledge and data transfer, as well as in previously uncoordinated financing and scaling strategies.
Know-how transfer already at the production facilities
In this specific case, it is about product and process development for a sodium-ion battery. The focus is on a hard carbon anode, which is to be produced using the trajectory mixing method. Highly Cooperative Scaling is intended to establish systematic exchange regarding personnel, data, and management between innovators and Fraunhofer FFB. This should enable rapid and comprehensive experience and know-how transfer already at the production facilities. The aim is to minimise knowledge losses at the interface between the innovator and Fraunhofer FFB and to enable access to all product development and process development data.
A management circle of the institutions is also developing a joint scaling and transfer strategy, which is regularly updated. "This allows early preparations - such as adjustments to plant technology or capacity planning - for the innovation transfer to be made and the time required for this to be significantly reduced," says PEM management member Professor Heiner Heimes.
The KOOP project is intended to serve as a future blueprint for high-cooperative scaling in collaboration with Fraunhofer FFB and make a decisive contribution to the industrialisation of sodium-ion battery technology and trajectory mixing. In this regard, it is said that the process has the potential to reduce energy consumption by at least 50 percent compared to conventional mixing methods.
This article was first published at automotive.eu
