A new research centre for battery fabrication which is part of the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology, IPT has begun operations in Munster. The Fraunhofer Research Fabrication Battery Cell (FFB) hopes to become the centre of modern, scalable battery cell production for Germany and Europe, providing the infrastructure for companies and other research institutions to test, implement and optimise near-series production of new electric batteries.

The first project in the “FFB Workspace”, commissioned by the MEET Battery Research Centre of the Westphalian Wilhelms University Münster and the Fraunhofer Society, involved the creation of a state-of-the-art mixing and coating facility for testing electrode production.

MEET researchers have already started work on the development and optimisation of so-called slurry formulations for electrodes of high-energy and high-power cells at the FFB. They are using digital simulations to identify the cause-and-effect relationships of all the relevant process parameters in relation to the quality of the cell. The findings will then be fed into the construction of a digital factory that will simulate the battery cell research production.

"Our goal is to optimise the electrode recipe as well as the production steps of mixing and coating with regard to cell quality," explains Professor Fritz Klocke, Managing Director of IPT’s battery cell research production in a press release. "The production process should become more reliable and efficient in this way. The newly-built infrastructure is an important step for us to test the process steps and use the knowledge gained for the further development of the battery cell research production."

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia are funding the development of battery cell research production in the area with up to a total of EUR 680 million.