BREYER delivers Calender line for the lithium-ion battery production

End of September 2014, a new research platform was inaugurated at the battery research centre ZSW at Ulm, Germany. At the Centre for solar energy and hydrogen research, ZSW Ulm, German industrial companies will develop cells for automotive and stationary energy storage.

The best batteries for electric cars should in the future come from Germany, according to ZSW. From January 2015, SGL carbon, Siemens, BASF, BMW, Daimler, Elring Klinger, Manz, Robert Bosch, Rockwood will start with the first projects at the research platform of ZSW, Ulm (Germany). 

The number of electric and hybrid vehicles will rapidly increasing worldwide. Thus the need for capacity increases and the race for the best batteries is underway, says Prof Dr. Werner Tillmetz, ZSW Ulm, Board of Directors and head of business area for electrochemical energy technologies. 

The research platform includes everything needed for near-series manufacturing of automobile suitable cells: A plant for the production of pastes, a coating system for two-sided coating and a precision calender for calibration and compaction of the electrode. A fully automatic Assembly of the cell and cell formation completes the chain. 

BREYER has developed a precision calender for ZSW for the compacting and calibration of lithium-ion cells and integrated into the production chain. The complete BREYER Calender line includes unwinding of the coating substrate, the calender, thickness measurement using laser technology, as well as the winder for the manufactured electrodes. 

During the calendering process necessary properties such as increasing the energy density, optimized electron transport and improved contact between the particles must be achieved. The required extremely low tolerances in the calendering process are a challenge for the machine itself. The years of experience by BREYER in the field of calendering manufacturing for optical films and sheets, allowed developing a system that matches the high requirements in terms of precision of the electrodes resp. cell production. 

The precise and reliable calender system allows extremely low thickness tolerances. With the servo-hydraulic gap adjustment and the hardened solid rolls, the required high pressures and high line loads are achieved.  The machine is equipped with a color touch screen for adjustment and operation.  

The new generation of these calendering machines represents a further milestone in the improvement of the lithium-ion battery production. 

Learn more about the calendering of BREYER => click here