This is a big topic, but let us record it point by point from now on.
What I got today is one of the equipment to make a solid-state battery. That is the machinery from German printing machine specialist Koenig & Bauer AG. It is reported that Volkswagen will work with this company to develop PowerCo’s dry coating process for battery cell production.
This machine is for the process of drying coating for electrodes. It is reported that the dry coating process is expected to reduce energy consumption in PowerCo’s battery plants by about 30% and decrease the floor space required to produce cells by 15%.
With the new procedure, the most energy-intensive part of cell manufacturing and the use of chemical solvents are no longer required.
Per the building block of a regular Gigafactory with a production capacity of 20 GWh, four parallel coating and drying lines can be saved, equaling an area of 7.000 square meters. As a result, the exterior length of the plant can be reduced by about 100 meters. Not having to operate the energy-intensive drying furnaces and suction systems will save energy equivalent to the annual consumption of 40,000 private households.
Furthermore, the use of chemical solvents that have to be laboriously recycled at high energy costs in silo-like towers outside the plants is no longer necessary.
As the oldest manufacturer of printing presses in the world, Koenig & Bauer offers the industry’s largest product portfolio. The new processing technology is to exit development stage at the end of 2024. For the time after, PowerCo has agreed on exclusive rights. The contractual details are confidential and there have also been made separate agreements. Estimated start of production is 2026/2027.
