The industrialized winding of electrode–separator composites (ESCs; “jelly rolls”) applies bending stress to the winding mandrel. This affects the mechanical integrity of the substrate's coating and adhesion and may reduce the cycle stability and the battery life. Even though this motivates strong interest in the minimization of bending stress during production, there is no testing method available yet to characterize the composite such that process parameters can be derived. This article introduces a test method and apparatus for the effect of bending stress of electrodes. In this test method, electrodes are pulled over defined radii while the coating adhesion is observed continuously. This resembles the variation of the mandrel diameter and gives detailed insight into the limits of the allowed production parameter window. In a case study, a cathode material with Li(LiMnAl)₂O₄ (LMO) as active material is selected as an example to show the effectiveness of the method.

The rising number of lithium ion batteries from electric vehicles makes an economically advantageous and technically mature disassembly system for the end-of-life batteries inevitable. The disassembly system needs to cope with the size, the design and the remaining state of charge of the respective battery system. The complex design resulting from the number and type of connection elements challenges an automated disassembly. The realisation of an automated disassembly presupposes the consideration of elements from Design for Disassembly throughout the battery system development. In this paper a scenario-based development of disassembly systems is presented with varying possible design aspects as well as different amounts of end of life battery systems. These scenarios point out the resulting implications on battery disassembly systems in short, medium and long term. Using a morphological box the best option for each disassembly scenario is identified and framed in a disassembly system design. The disassembly systems are explained and the core elements are introduced. Newly developed and innovative disassembly tools, such as a robot that allows a hybrid human-robot-working-space and an advanced battery cell gripper are introduced. The gripper system for the battery cells enables with an integrated sensor an instant monitoring of the battery cell condition. The proposed disassembly element is verified in an experimental test series with automotive pouch cell batteries.

Companies are confronted with increasingly demanding environments, including globalization, technologization, intergenerationality, and crises such as the coronavirus pandemic. To accept uncertainties as a challenge and to recognize opportunities for development, well-educated and resilient founders are needed who can foster innovation and sustainable development within society and the economy. The majority of today’s entrepreneurs have an academic background. Hence, institutions for higher education need to provide comprehensive educational offerings and support initiatives to train and sensitize future entrepreneurs. Therefore, since 2013, agile teaching formats have been developed in our project at a Bavarian university of applied sciences. In two stages, we founded a limited company for hands-on experimentation with entrepreneurship and also conceptualized an elective course and an annual founders’ night. Based on a theoretical model and continuous teaching evaluations, we adjusted the individual modules to suit the target group. The objective is to promote the acquisition of key competencies and exert a positive influence on the startup quotient in the region. There are six startups by students who can be traced back to our project. This indicates that a target-group-oriented educational program encourages motivation and awareness of entrepreneurial thinking and action among students.

The integration of lithium ion battery technology in the automotive sector has increased enormously during the last years. Additionally, beside the production and operation of these battery systems the recycling has to be taken into account concerning the challenge of ecologic sustainability. An economical recycling depends on the possibility to mechanize or automate several disassembly steps in order to separate the valuable battery cells or active cell materials. Hence, this contribution presents the challenges of disassembly automation in the special context of lithium ion battery technology in general. Furthermore, a flexible gripper system is presented in detail to show how the disassembly process can be supported by automation. Next to the mechanical design of the gripper system, the control architecture and the integrated functionalities, such as voltage or resistance measurement, are described.