The Hague, March 1^st – Solvay and Airborne have collaborated on the Battery Enclosure Materials Automation (BEMA) project.

By working together, both companies bring the best expertise to the table on developing an all-composite solution for energy efficient battery packs.  Airborne is a 100% composites-focused digital automation company with more than 25 years of experience in developing composite solutions for high-tech industries such as aerospace, automotive and renewable energy and sees great potential in the design of more compact and lightweight enclosures for high-energy batteries in future electric cars and aircraft, and are interested in the sustainability aspect of this project which aims to reuse composite waste. Solvay is a world-renowned company that specializes in Materials, Chemicals, and Solutions, and has made significant strides in advancing the fields of aviation, automotive, battery technology, smart devices, medical devices, and water and air treatment. Their innovative solutions are instrumental in addressing crucial industrial, societal, and environmental challenges.

“There is a pressing need to meet net-zero emission regulations and targets with more energy efficient electric powertrain and propulsion solutions.” says Mark Wright, EMEA Sales manager, Automotive, at Solvay Materials. “While already lending structural and weight saving advantages over metals in existing EVs and aircraft, fully composite battery designs for larger production volumes have yet to show their technical and manufacturing feasibility. BEMA seeks to deliver on these challenges by combining the benefits of Solvay’s advanced thermosetting material technology with Airborne’s expertise in flexible automated composite manufacturing systems to create lightweight next-generation battery packs. This will provide a significant step-change towards higher energy efficiency at reduced size.”

“As the demand for industrial quantities of composite battery enclosures grows, the challenge is to shorten the design phase, and provide Design-for-Automation guidance” says Joe Summers, Commercial Director of Airborne. “Working with Solvay will build material characteristics into Design-for-Manufacture rules for our multi-material automated ply placement technology, and subsequently allow us to connect our adaptable automation platform with intelligent planning and optimization”.

More information: www.airborne.com