Schuler and partners begin ENLARGE battery value chain project
In Germany, the official go-ahead has been given for the project called “ENLARGE – Interoperable Production as Enabler for a Data-Driven Battery Value Chain.”
The project, involving the collaboration of German and European institutes, companies and universities, aims to bring together European machine builders and drive forward the digitalisation of battery production. Funding is being provided by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
The aim is to bundle the competencies of German and European companies, to better serve the growing market for battery cell production equipment and to create a counterweight to established suppliers in Asia. The project is scheduled to run for three years.
The project will be working to create uniform interfaces for data exchange. A kind of meta-standard for battery cell production should be created based on existing standards such as EPCIS, ISO/IEC 19987, OPC UA and associated Companion Specifications (CS). This should facilitate the entry of suppliers and enable the networking of systems with each other. Focus will be put on the use cases of traceability, battery passport and process optimization.
The project was announced by Schuler Pressen, a German press manufacturer Schuler Group that took over Italy’s Sovema last year and wants to provide battery cell production systems and to develop machines and production lines for the mass production of lithium-ion batteries.
Schuler will be joined on the project by partners FFT Produktionssysteme GmbH & Co. KG, European EPC Competence Center GmbH (EECC), Elabo GmbH, the German Engineering Federation, the Fraunhofer Research Unit Battery Cell FFB, the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA, the wbk Institute for Production Engineering of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and the Chair of Production Engineering of E-Mobility Components (PEM) at RWTH Aachen University.
Associated project partners include Siemens AG, SAUERESSIG Group, NanoFocus AG, SICK AG and Maschinenbau Kitz GmbH. Project Management Jülich (PtJ) represents the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in this function.
0 Comments