Global manufacturing automation company ABB has unveiled its new Plant Optimization Methodology for battery manufacturing at the recent trade event in Michigan, United States. Particularly, ABB presented at The Battery Show North America how greenfield battery sites can jumpstart global operations.

Recently, major automakers have committed more than US$500 billion towards electric vehicle production. In addition, many are planning to exclusively offer e-vehicles by 2035. Hence, there has been a huge growth in demand for lithium-ion batteries.

Optimizes Operations

Nonetheless, battery manufacturers are struggling to keep pace while ensuring their production remains profitable, efficient, and safe – without sacrificing quality. For that reason, ABB has banked on its modular, repeatable methodology that uniquely combines electrification, instrumentation, control and digital (EICD) technology. Particularly, ABB the ABB Ability™ Adaptive Execution project execution approach and ongoing operational support into a single source solution delivers an agile offering. This enables new plants to achieve fastest time to market.

The methodology leverages the value of early collaboration, through ABB’s Adaptive Execution, to optimize plant design and performance. In addition, it helps minimize greenfield site project changes. In doing so, it compresses manufacturing schedules, reduces start up hours and delivers CAPEX and OPEX savings.

Unlike traditional approaches, ABB seamlessly integrates EICD technology with centralized collaboration and streamlined processes to optimize operations. Standardization from concept stage through to end product provides the flexibility required to reduce interface complexity and enable a fully optimized approach to battery manufacturing.

Enable Low-Carbon Society

Demand has increased through consumer trends, including the proliferation of smartphone and other mobile devices, distributed energy storage and automobile manufacturers’ response to the growing adoption of hybrid and electric vehicles. Recent government mandates, such as EU and US efforts to keep battery manufacturing local, are placing additional pressure on manufacturers already facing the challenges of managing costs and ensuring safety and environmental responsibility.

“Our approach aims to support the production increases in gigawatt factories around the world to reduce the bottleneck in this fast-growing sector,” said Staffan Sodergard, Global Product Line Manager for Battery Manufacturing at ABB. Furthermore, Sodergard said, “This is a very exciting, emerging space that holds tremendous potential to scale up to meet demand and, ultimately, enable a low-carbon society.”

ABB is already working with Northvolt, one of Europe’s leading battery manufacturers, to develop a sustainable manufacturing base that responds to the needs of an electric world and eliminates the world’s dependence on fossil fuels. Northvolt Ett – one of Europe’s largest gigafactories – will have a production capacity of 60GWh, which would supply batteries for approximately one million electric vehicles annually.