Improving battery production capabilities in Europe: Eirich helps ACC to smoothly ramp up battery production

Automotive Cells Company (ACC) is a leading European joint venture between Mercedes, Stellantis, and TotalEnergies (Saft). As a specialist in the production of battery cells for electric vehicles, ACC is committed to using the latest technology in the development of its production processes. The company is currently investing in state-of-the-art plants across Europe and is explicitly backing Europe as a resilient and globally competitive location for battery production. As part of its efforts to ensure that the ultra-modern ACC pilot plant in Nersac, France, can be upscaled efficiently and sustainably, ACC took the decision to opt for technology from Eirich, the experts from Southern Germany in the fields of process engineering, mixing machines, and plant manufacturing. A core pilot line with an RLV12 W/Vac MixSolver® set up in the Eirich Test Center allowed extensive preliminary tests to be carried out under realistic conditions before the pilot lines were implemented on a large scale.

Reliable scaling and a future-proof solution

EV battery systems are central to the future of the automotive sector as part of Europe's transition to emission-free transport. Within this context, ACC is part of the ongoing strategic effort to meet the growing demand for battery production from within Europe. 

One of the central challenges for ACC was to identify powerful and future-proof mixing technology that could be readily upscaled to industrial series production without major complications. Delivering and building a dedicated testing environment would have taken time and required financial investments that could have had a crucial impact in terms of global competitiveness. Instead, Eirich provided ACC with access to a core pilot line with exactly the same mixers at its Test Center in advance. Here, ACC was able to test and validate the technology under realistic conditions before even embarking on setting up its own pilot lines.

Pilot line at the Eirich Test Center

In order to establish a solid, well-founded decision basis for factory production and to minimize time delays until its own pilot line was ready for commissioning, ACC took advantage of a tailor-made pilot line set up by Eirich especially for this task at the Test Center in Hardheim, Germany. Thanks to this test line it was possible to test the mixing process at a scale of 1:1. The throughput and filling capacities of the mixers were reviewed and optimized under conditions that mirrored real production conditions. During the test phase at the Test Center, employees from ACC were trained directly on the machines, equipping them with extensive knowledge about the processes and about how the system is controlled. This induction under realistic conditions made it much easier to subsequently integrate the technology in ACC’s own pilot production line in Nersac, France.

Seamless integration in the existing building

On the basis of the first successful tests on smaller laboratory and pilot mixers, ACC decided to opt for Eirich technology at its own pilot production line in Nersac, France. The line was installed in a cleanroom atmosphere while production was ongoing – a particular challenge for the installation team, as not only was this part of the building originally designed for different mixing technology, but it was also not possible to suspend production for any extended period of time. Thanks to the flexibility and experience of the teams from Eirich and ACC, the production line was ready and operational after just a few weeks.

One of the main advantages of the chosen technology is its versatility: the mixing technology that has now been implemented will enable ACC in the future to manufacture not only wet electrodes, but also dry electrodes on a large scale. This has meant that, right from an early stage, ACC has been well positioned for the key developments currently taking place in battery cell production.

Yann Vincent, CEO of ACC, explains: “To ensure that we can continue to occupy a leading position in our industry in the long term, there are two factors that – despite seemingly being in conflict with each other – are absolutely crucial: we need technology that is both completely dependable yet flexible enough to allow us to smoothly and quickly adapt production to the fluctuating demands that are being placed on battery solutions.“

“The battery industry continues to develop at a rapid rate, and at Eirich we are able to keep pace with the dynamic changes that are taking place. Our customers are investing in our technology even before the downstream machines are in place – powerful evidence of the trust they place in in our solutions,” emphasizes Dr. Stefan Gerl, Head of Process Engineering at Eirich.

As part of the project, Eirich supplied two complete mixing lines – one for the anodes and one for production of cathodes in a tower layout. Both systems include the dry materials handling with big-bag stations, bag emptying stations, and special extraction systems in order to meet the high cleanliness requirements of a cleanroom atmosphere. Eirich also installed the complete fluids dosing system so that a wide range of fluids with different viscosities can be used in different proportions in the recipes for slurry production. These are fully integrated in the flexible mixing process control system, and at the heart of each system there is an RLV12-W/Vac MixSolver® with EvacMix® vacuum technology, which is also equipped for the production of dry electrodes. A fully-automated plant control system has been implemented to control and monitor the entire process. This enables maximum recipe flexibility and makes it possible not only to easily adapt mixing processes and mixing parameters, but also to ensure consistently high production quality. In addition, the plant control system is also integrated in the network of ACC to ensure smooth communication and monitoring of the production data. Material for the coating machines is supplied via special mobile tanks that offer incredible flexibility for anything from frequent product changes to longer production campaigns.

Eirich know-how in battery production

The pilot line at the Test Center played a central role in persuading ACC to choose Eirich for its pilot production line in Nersac. Together with the testing and the training provided for staff under realistic production conditions at the Eirich Test Center, the successful commissioning of the system in Nersac shows that the collaboration between these experienced and expert teams not only opens up the path for innovative technology but also plays a valuable role in helping to ensure sustainable and lasting success for Europe.