Success Story – Battery Processing System

Success Story: Battery Processing System

Overview

The client had anew, innovative lead acid battery design that incorporated significantly different components than a traditional lead acid battery. The uniqueness of this design required that new manufacturing methods be developed to build this product.

Project Information

• Product: Lead Acid Battery Plates
• Industry: Energy / Automotive / Transportation
• Key Technologies: Liquid and Powder dispensing and mixing, Dipping, Robotics, Continuous Motion, Material Drying, Ultrasonics, Liquid level control

Background Information

• When Belcan’s Automation Group was contacted, the manufacturing process was still lab based and very low volume
• In order to manufacture this product at high volumes and consistency, new, creative processes had to be applied
• This startup company did not have the engineering or manufacturing staff required to quickly launch the development effort needed to create the manufacturing systems that were required

Belcan Automation Approach

• Since this was a completely new product that had only been made in a lab environment, it was determined that a disciplined phased approach needed to be implemented
• The plan that Belcan put before the client included the following:
  • Conduct a rigorous requirements definition phase
  • Generate concepts that meet the program / product
    requirements
  • Identify proof of principle projects to test processes and
    technologies and reduce the risk of building a capital intense
    manufacturing system

Solution

• A phased approach was implemented
• Belcan’s technical team worked with the client’s product, manufacturing, and management team to conduct a rigorous requirements definition session. The results of which were used to the create process concepts.
• Belcan designed and built a proof of principle system that allowed the client to test a unique technology for this application and develop the manufacturing process parameters
• In parallel to the process development phase, Belcan proceeded to design and build the high speed manufacturing system, based on the results of the requirements definition work
• Throughout the entire process, Belcan and the client were in
  close communication, sharing progress with each other on the
  design and the process development work

Benefits to Client

• The client was able to quickly supplement its technical product development staff with an experienced engineering team capable of supplying practical ideas to manufacture their unique product
• The requirements definition phase enabled the team to quickly select the technologies with the highest probability of success to test and develop the manufacturing process around
• By parallel processing the efforts of process development and system design and build, the entire equipment development cycle was reduced
• The resultant production system significantly increased the manufacturing capacity of the client