Public Funding for JW Froehlich UK Limited

Project AcouBat (Acoustic test for Batteries) will address the next generation of battery production assurance, using novel inline testing processes, and ensuring the delivery of quality, competitive UK products in a high-volume manufacturing environment. The consortium's vision will be to; 1) reduce overall lithium-ion cell production time and cost, while maintaining and/or improving quality 2) validate the acoustic test concepts on functioning cell production lines and 3) validate the business opportunity of the acoustic test. This project will bring together fundamental research organisations, with test integrators and production end-users, to develop leading concept designs for the developing electric vehicle industry. The project will focus on; 1) impact of implementing the acoustic test solution into the overall production time 2) establishing requirements and expectations for the acoustic inline test equipment 3) determining the optimal use of the acoustic inline test method and 4) design and scale-up of the acoustic inline test for high volume manufacturing of cells. The acoustic test method identified in the Faraday Battery Challenge Round 1 project 'VALUABLE' and methods developed by UCL, will be practically assessed on AMTE Power's cell manufacturing line. This non-destructive testing enables quality assurance processes to be implemented throughout the production line, from initial electrode creation to internal analysis of the completed cell. Existing production line testing focuses on mechanical and electrical inline testing methods to qualify the battery joints and connections. Whilst this approach aids manufacturers in ensuring quality product delivery, they cannot establish the overall electrochemical state of the components, which presently can only be measured offline statistically, or in lengthy cycle testing. The use of inline acoustic testing will detect faulty cells or poor electrode coatings early in the process, stopping errors at the source, and preventing their progress through the entire production line, to the expensive bottleneck of final battery cycle testing.

"Jaguar Land Rover is leading an exciting research project to investigate and develop strategies and capability to convert internal combustion engine manufacturing facilities to also make electric drive units for hybrid and electric vehicles. The company's engineers will work with industrial partners, Mapal, JW Froehlich, Fives Landis and Horizon and with the Manufacturing Technology Centre, the High-speed Sustainable Manufacturing Institute and Birmingham City University to ensure that its state-of-the-art manufacturing machinery, systems and processes are flexible enough to manufacture both internal combustion engine and electric drive units efficiently along the same production line. This ambitious and highly innovative project will deliver manufacturing flexibility at a time when the exact speed of the changeover to electric motoring remains uncertain. If car buyers want more electric cars than expected, Jaguar Land Rover will be able to ramp up supply quicker than some of its rivals. If demand for diesel and petrol persists for longer, there will be no expensive electric drive factory sitting idle. The project will also ensure that the company builds on its existing manufacturing capability, rather than having electric drives built separately. The project therefore helps protect Jaguar Land Rover facilities and the staff during the switch-over to electric. The Government is supporting the project through its Advanced Propulsion Centre because the technology involved is both innovative and has the potential to benefit a range of UK businesses. The project will help ensure that the UK becomes a major centre for the production of electric drive units, encouraging suppliers of electric car components to invest and develop their businesses in this country."

The project's aim is to create complimentary engineering capabilities and skills for ultra-high volume manufacture of next generation powertrains. The consortium brings together collective capabilities from manufacturing engineering, the machine tool industry and supply chain, augmented with a cross sector digital visualisation partner. The consortium will develop new processes and validate their suitability for high volume production. They will integrate new manufacturing concepts deploying Industry 4.0, where applicable , with the aim to create a factory digital clone. The ambition of the consortium is to merge new process and powertrain technologies with the latest advancements in digital manufacturing. They will also identify repurposing opportunities for conventional powertrain manufacturing equipment. The project will be a key project to anchor the high volume manufacturing engineering capabilities and its supply chains in the UK