Efficiency in battery cell production supported by digitalization
May 18, 2022
FREYR Battery aims to develop industrial scale clean battery solutions to reduce global CO2 emissions, by speed, scale and sustainability.
To do this FREYR Battery has to pay attention to each part of the value chain from mining, through battery cell manufacturing to the recycling of batteries.
In the manufacturing of the battery cell, there are a number of risks FREYR has to mitigate to avoid and reduce line stoppages, yields, scrap (cells that have errors and must be scrapped), maintenance, etc including an efficient use of raw materials that are in high demand. All these are factors that affect the cost of the cells and the capacity of the facility to deliver for a battery cell producer.
- In battery cell production up to 70 % of the cell cost can be connected to the raw materials, says
EVP Supply Chain Management FREYR, Tilo Hauke.
My job is to secure supply at a good price according to the standards of sustainability FREYR requires. Utilizing the raw materials efficiently is then important.
FREYR has ambitions to optimize our production process. Digitalizing the production is therefore a necessary tool for FREYR and we acknowledge data as a core element to succeed.
- Our belief is that digitalisation may be an enabler for FREYR’s battery cell production process and may unlock optimisation potential across the battery value chain. FREYR plans to apply digital tools and focus on interconnectivity, automation, machine learning, and real-time data Industry 4.0 solutions thus aiming ay leveraging the power of data to improve speed, scale, and sustainability in battery production, says
VP Operations Digitalization in FREYR Battery, Pascal Viala.
Viala continues; - Striving towards a high degree of automation is an important key driver for higher quality and reduced downtime, and using digital solutions (e.g. predictive maintenance, product simulation and digital twins) are will contribute to meet required availability/uptime. To enable this, full data traceability from supply chain, R&D, manufacturing, with the customer and until the end-of-life is important.
- My experience stretches over 30 years in industry, and I know the mentality required to constantly learn and improve.
With digitalization we can drive machine learning, induce artificial intelligence, draw benefits from augmented reality and use predictive tools to reduce the risk of learning the “hard” way every time; we don’t have to make the errors to learn, we can simulate and take large steps in developments as we are running and planning for the next, says
EVP Operations in FREYR Battery, Tove Nilsen Ljungquist.
