The mobility of the future demands innovative solutions – now more than ever before. The transition to electric mobility offers enormous potential, but also poses complex challenges. How can batteries be produced more sustainably, used more efficiently, and recycled sensibly at the end of their life? This is precisely where Festo and Comau come in, because with their pioneering automation solutions they contribute to resource-saving recycling management. You can find out here that this is more than just a statement.
With 50 years of experience and a global presence, Comau, a Stellantis Group company, is a world leader in advanced and sustainable automation solutions.
"In addition to developing innovative and user-friendly technologies, our portfolio includes products and systems for vehicle production as well as advanced digital and robotic solutions to meet the production needs of fast-growing markets such as logistics, renewable energy, and shipbuilding," says Francesco Beccarisi, Innovation & Process Technologies at Comau. The market for electric mobility is growing sustainably. "Although lithium-ion batteries will remain the dominant technology in the automotive sector for the next 5 – 10 years, the market will see a significant increase in demand for next-generation batteries, such as solid-state batteries."
New technologies and more efficient, sustainable and cost-effective manufacturing processes are needed to support the large-scale industrial production of next-generation batteries and to accelerate the energy transition.
"Electric mobility and the significant investments made in recent years mark the beginning of the evolution of transportation," explains Claudio Giovando, Global Key Account Manager Automotive & Electric Vehicles Business Developer at Festo. "In addition to solutions for manufacturing cells, battery modules, and electric motors, Festo has been interested from the outset in closing the production cycle of the batteries themselves in order to reduce waste and promote the reuse of materials. This will help to reduce the extraction of rare and limited raw materials that would otherwise not be able to meet the demand of this fast-growing market."
The energy and ecological turnaround in the transport sector is becoming a reality. "In line with the European Union's decarbonization targets, the European Commission has adopted the Fit for 55 legislative package, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles by 55% by 2030, and 100% by 2050," confirms F. Beccarisi. "Electrification is therefore the future of mobility."
The demand for more efficient and sustainable production of batteries and electric motors is undoubtedly one of the most important challenges for companies operating in various phases of the automotive and transportation industry. "For the energy transition to be truly sustainable, not only the efficient production of state-of-the-art electrification technologies but also the environmental impact of batteries at the end of their service life must be managed," explains F. Beccarisi. Comau has therefore joined the Battery Regeneration Project, which is supported by Class, a non-profit organization, and Cobat, a platform for recycling management services. The aim is to create an Italian supply chain for the recycling and reuse of lithium batteries.
The focus on sustainability has prompted Festo and Comau to address the important issue of recycling or reusing old batteries from electric vehicles. This is how Flexible Battery Dismantling (Flex-BD) came about. This project is about "developing an automation solution for the automated dismantling of battery packs right down to the modules", explains F. Beccarisi. "The modules can be recycled into black mass via the shredding process or reused to produce new batteries."
The project, for which Comau received the Innovation Award at SMAU 2023, "aims to create a highly flexible station that can dismantle various types of battery for electric vehicles", explains C. Giovando. "It has brought together various European players, including Festo and Comau, to develop high-quality solutions for a more sustainable economy."
Various Festo technologies were used to create the Flex-BD station, "from electromechanical actuators with motors and drives through to certified MS6-SV safety valves with quick exhaust function, ensuring that the system area will be shut down in the event of a hazard or emergency," explains C. Giovando. These components were chosen to facilitate format adjustment and automatically compensate for the positioning of the battery packs. "This led to the creation of an efficient and innovative station that can work with different types of battery packs and minimizes the need for manual intervention."
The main feature of the developed station is its flexibility, which allows it to handle different types of battery pack and potentially to be used by any manufacturer. "In addition, the use of simple and innovative solutions has significantly reduced implementation and set-up costs as well as cycle time, allowing a greater number of components to be processed in the same amount of time," explains C. Giovando. "In addition, the station can also be used in the production phase for battery assembly, rehabilitation, or replacement of modules that have been identified as defective to ensure that an efficient battery pack is output as the final product."
"The solutions used in Flex-BD include the VTUG solenoid valves, which offer fast switching times, low energy consumption and high flow rates with a lightweight and compact design, making them suitable for use in flexible automation and robotics applications," continues C. Giovando. "These solutions are available in various communication bus languages, such as Point-to-Point, Multipin and IO-Link®. In particular, the AP version allows a network to be created with inline, star, or tree topology that communicates with the customer's PLC using the most common communication buses. That is why we have the Profinet version of the CPX-AP-I station, which, in addition to extremely fast communication times, enables up to 500 components to be connected and integrates the management of valve units with a self-learning function, significantly reducing and speeding up the work of software engineers."
Two axis types, the belt-driven ELGG and the spindle-driven EGC, have also been integrated into this network to ensure precise positioning and to process modules of different sizes in the future. "Festo has chosen technologies and solutions that guarantee high flexibility and adaptability," confirms F. Beccarisi. One example is the pneumatic muscle DMSP, "which can provide high forces without moving mechanical components back and forth," explains C. Giovando. "In certain phases, the muscle has allowed us quickly to compensate for tolerances and play in the battery packs, leading to significant time savings in the cycle." This solution also "simulated human behavior in battery module gripping to ensure proper coupling between the gripper and robot, so that a connected module could be released by applying an impulse force without causing errors in the robot due to the application of force," comments F. Beccarisi further. "In addition, thanks to Festo's electric motors, the grippers of the modules can be reconfigured. This is an important aspect, as dismantling a battery requires gripping different workpieces, which may have different sizes due to mechanical and thermal deformations during their lifetime."
This project "highlighted the ability of both companies to solve complex problems with unpredictable scenarios", concludes F. Beccarisi. "This collaboration has highlighted how technology is an essential tool for the development and adoption of sustainable and resource-efficient practices, including in the industrial sector. It is an approach that enables companies to use natural resources more efficiently, reduce energy consumption and waste, and help protect the planet for current and future generations."
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