Automated battery box production at Chemnitz University of Technology

A load-bearing battery housing made of long and continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic was developed. It acts as a load-bearing element and contributes to the overall rigidity. The commercially available semi-finished products were combined in a multi-material system and arranged for processing in an extrusion process in accordance with the desired properties of the subsequent battery housing. Thanks to the production-oriented component design in combination with the pre-assembled materials, it was possible to manufacture a flawless component with only a single semi-finished product board. New grippers had to be developed to handle the material blanks, as conventional needle grippers were no longer able to grip the lofted blank securely after preheating, and too many actuators would have driven the weight of the dynamically moving handling system to unacceptable levels. Special attention was also paid to the use of waste-free semi-finished products, which was made possible by the use of simple rectangular blanks and a sophisticated pre-draping mechanism in the closing mold. With a cycle time of less than 2 minutes, the process is also suitable for large-scale production and, with an emission reduction of around 25% across all life cycle phases, demonstrates its enormous potential compared to the reference component made of aluminum.