The “Enlarge” project aims to bring together European machine builders and drive forward the digitalization of battery production.
At Schuler in Göppingen, the official go-ahead has now been given for the “Enlarge – Interoperable Production as Enabler for a Data-Driven Battery Value Chain” project, which is publicly funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and has the official funding code 03XP0539A. The aim is to pool the expertise of German and European companies.
The aim is to better serve the growing market for battery cell production equipment and to create a counterweight to established suppliers, especially from the Asian region. The project is scheduled to run for three years.
“The goal is flexible, networked and adaptive battery production,” explains Dr. Hermann Uchtmann, who is responsible for corresponding solutions at Schuler. “This is the only way that mechanical and plant engineering in Germany and Europe will be able to bid for equipment for the gigafactories being built around the world.”
The Enlarge project therefore aims to create uniform interfaces for data exchange. Based on existing standards such as EPCIS, ISO/IEC 19987, OPC UA and related Companion Specifications (CS), a kind of meta-standard for battery cell manufacturing is created in this way, which facilitates the entry of suppliers and enables the networking of systems with each other. The project focuses on the use cases of traceability, battery passport and process optimization.
Project partners in addition to Schuler Pressen GmbH are
– FFT Production Systems GmbH & Co KG
– European EPC Competence Center GmbH (EECC)
– Elabo GmbH, German Engineering Federation (Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau e.V.)
– the Fraunhofer Research Fabrication Battery Cell FFB facility
– the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA
– the WBK Institute for Production Engineering of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
– 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
– Mechanical Engineering Kitz GmbH.
In this function, Project Management Jülich (PtJ) represents the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
Web:
www.schulergroup.com
