Implementation of a Fuzzy Controller for Battery Electrode Coating with a Slot Die

Growing awareness of the impact of climate change is accelerating the development of sustainable technologies. One example is the increasing electrification of various systems, such as transport. Lithium-ion batteries are currently the preferred solution for providing the required energy. As a result, the production capacity for these energy storage systems has grown tremendously. Due to this rapid scale-up, low to mid-double-digit percentages of production scrap are common for lithium-ion battery production lines, especially during ramp-up. Nevertheless, process control is largely abandoned. To exploit this enormous potential to reduce costly material scrap, a controller concept for the coating gap and angle of attack in the slot die coating process of electrodes is presented. Extensive expert knowledge is available for this process, describing the fundamental interactions between process parameters and quality characteristics. However, it has not yet been possible to formulate a comprehensive model that predicts this with the required accuracy and is transferable between systems and electrochemical formulations. The data sets required for ML are also only available to a limited extent or are not available for new formulations and systems. ... mehrTherefore, there is great potential in the implementation of a fuzzy controller. This paper shows the advantages of a fuzzy controller and the concept’s theoretical plant and product transferability. Finally, an exemplary implementation with formulated rules is shown.