Battery Research

Power storage systems are essential to the energy and mobility revolution. As a development center, the Fraunhofer Research Factory for Battery Cells FFB aims to modularize and flexibilize the production of large-format Li-Ion battery cells using digitization approaches, thereby gradually contributing to the replacement of the existing rigid production lines. For example, the Fraunhofer Research Factory for Battery Cells FFB will promote the production technologies' innovation and commercialization process with regard to existing and future cell formats, reduce risks in the transfer of innovative cell concepts and production technologies to mass production, and create competitive advantages for industrial cell manufacturers. This offer is aimed at established companies that are building mass production in Germany or other European countries, as well as newcomers and start-ups.   

The Fraunhofer Research Factory for Battery Cells FFB sees itself as part of an excellent German battery research landscape, in which it fulfills the role of a specialist for production technologies with advanced technological maturity (TRL > 6). This means that it is at the end of a research pipeline, fed by publicly funded research clusters, which in Germany are responsible for research on new materials, processes and cell concepts for battery storage. The close cooperation with these established battery competence centers is therefore decisive for the research production of battery cells.

The Fraunhofer Research Factory for Battery Cells FFB is being set up as a sub-institute of the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT. In Münster, Fraunhofer cooperates closely with the university institute Münster Electrochemical Energy Technology – MEET, under the leadership of the internationally renowned battery researcher Prof. Martin Winter, and with the chair of Production Engineering of E-Mobility Components under the leadership of Prof. Achim Kampker at RWTH Aachen. Together with these two battery competence centers in North Rhine-Westphalia, the Fraunhofer scientists created the concepts for setting up a production line for lithium-ion round cells in the 21700 format, which will be incorporated into the planning of the building at the Hansa Business Park in Münster. In addition, the battery cell research department is working with local partners to establish and test individual process steps until the building is completed.