Coating Control – intelligent networked edge alignment for renewable energy

Presented by Mauro Consalvi, BST North America

The coating process is one of the most important and most sensitive production processes in the fuel cell and battery industry. In this process step, the quality, and the production efficiency in the manufacture of a fuel cell or a battery are decided right at the beginning regarding the chemistry used as well as the coating quality and its geometric alignment. These challenges are very similar in both industries.

The battery industry a foil (copper or aluminum) is usually coated by a slot die (slurry). The coating process is either continuous or intermittent. Coating of the upper and lower side of the foil is done either on one side, in tandem or simultaneously and is then rewound after drying. The coating process in the Fuell Cell industry is slightly different. A carrier foil known as a "decal" is coated on a single side using a platinum catalyst or "electrode" using a slot die. Alternatively, the PEM can be directly coated on both sides. Subsequently, the web is dried within a convection oven and re-winded.

Coating control is a predictive inline process control strategy to avoid quality issues before they arise. It includes high precision web guiding systems networked with high performance vision technology to ensure an automatic alignment and the control of top to bottom layer positions.