The manual dismantling of end-of-life batteries in electric vehicles is now a thing of the past: Liebherr has developed a system that automatically removes the battery cover screws - regardless of whether they are attached horizontally or vertically to the battery housing. The CMAD servo-pneumatic position controller from Festo, which makes position-independent unscrewing possible in the first place, plays a major role in this automation solution.

The number of vehicles with electric drives worldwide is forecast to grow by around 30% per year until 2030. At the same time, the production processes for the electrified powertrain are changing. While semi-automated production processes have dominated traditional automotive manufacturing with combustion engines up to now, the manufacture of battery cells and electric motors is increasingly developing into fully automated production processes. As a leading manufacturer of automation technology, Festo has the right solutions for this along the...

Experts estimate that around 3 million tonnes of used batteries from electric cars will be due for recycling in 2030. This inevitably raises the question of sustainability, as batteries are energy storage devices made from critical raw materials. Festo therefore not only offers modular automation concepts for cell production, the assembly of battery modules and packs and for platform integration, but also for dismantling and recycling or separating the materials.

Controlled Pneumatics is the revolutionary compressed air technology from Festo that is opening up new perspectives for pneumatics. Thanks to this technology, the pressure control of the compact proportional valve terminal VTEP is extremely sensitive, down to less than 1 mbar. This is perfect for applications such as wafer polishing or patch clamping in life science. In addition, Controlled Pneumatics uses high-precision piezo valves to reduce compressed air consumption by up to 50%.