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Flexibility to adapt

The customer

A young yet capable company with a vision of an innovative, agile approach to battery production, and with plans to open and operate gigafactories in several European countries by 2030.

Our collaboration benefits the customer not only for the products we are able to provide, but the expertise we are able to share in seeking an engineering solution.

The process

We are involved in different applications during the production process, each of which presents a different challenge inside and around the battery’s cell.

Stack fixation requires an electrolyte resistant adhesive solution to secure the cell assembly process. The dedicated tesa^® product is also laser writable to enable traceability within production.

Then there is the production step of cell wrapping – offering electrical insulation to protect the cell’s components against dielectric breakdown is the key challenge here.

We adapted these applications several years ago for supply to more established cell makers, and now can use the knowledge and experience we have picked up to help new entrants in the sector.

The challenge

Matching the customer’s product specifications and agile working mode. As a young company in a fast-moving market, the customer can pivot to new processes, plans and strategies rapidly.

As the testing and development phases progressed, the customer’s needs kept evolving, resulting in frequent foundational changes back at the planning stage. This meant it was important for us to be precise about the real product design they need, from an engineering point of view.

Getting the broader picture of their ways of working was our priority here, as it allowed us to design the right solution efficiently and more quickly than repeated iterations would otherwise have allowed for.

How we developed a solution together

Adhesive solutions are required for thermal resistance and electric insulation inside battery cells, but their exact specifications shift with every new iteration of a battery cell.

By monitoring these shifting needs closely, we were able to develop a new product which shares characteristics with a number of existing adhesive solutions. This gave us the flexibility to adapt our offering just as the customer required.

With our background in these applications for other use cases, we could point to our existing product lines and showcase their effectiveness for the task required.

In addition, we could bring in the expertise about automating the application, saving resources and time in the production process.

The reactivity of supplying samples for testing was another major factor – but equally importantly, we drew from decades of expertise to help specify the products needed. Upon providing the recommended sample we were also able to advise the customer on what to pay attention to in the testing phase. This meant the customer could make informed decisions on the suitability of the products and materials we specified.

We supported the ongoing process with extensive product testing in our own Customer Solution Center, so we could prove the performance of our recommended solutions at automotive standards. This saved time within the customer’s qualification process, creating valuable efficiencies.

Working together on game-changing technology

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Our partnership took on another dimension as we also played an advisory role regarding some of the company’s internal processes. As a fast-growing company in its early years, the customer benefited from our help in specifying products, which allowed us to recommend other courses of action and share our expertise in other aspects of the customer’s project management.

With a dedicated department for application process engineering, we were able to offer both a product and a solution on how to integrate it seamlessly into the customer’s individual production process. This approach benefited the customer greatly as it gave them the resources and headspace to focus on innovating their own product line.