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Comau and LiNA energy manufacturing solid-state sodium batteries

December 16, 2023

Comau, a manufacturing solutions company owned by Stellantis, has partnered with LiNa, a sodium-metal-chloride battery maker, to design a scalable manufacturing solution for their cells.

The companies aim to validate an oxygen-free dry box environment for safe, efficient, and sustainable large-scale manufacturing.

The companies’ teams collaborated to design the enclosure and handling equipment for the specific components of the solid-state battery cell. They also identified and integrated the proper existing commercially available equipment, including Comau’s cleanroom classified, high-speed Racer-5 SENSITIVE ENVIRONMENTS articulated robots. This joint effort allowed Comau to suggest modifications to LiNa’s existing manufacturing methodology to optimize process dynamics for automatic cell assembly.

Advancements in sodium-based battery cells are contributing to the deployment of a safe, sustainable energy source that can operate at high temperatures. Next-generation solid-state sodium batteries will offer high-performance energy storage that is cost-efficient and can be optimized for renewable energy integration in key solar growth markets such as India.

Kris Barr, LiNa Director of Operations, said, “This automated manufacturing concept, designed with Comau’s engineering team, provides a clear technology roadmap to significantly increase production capacity of our patented battery cells. Having successfully researched the process dynamics and finalized an innovative design proposal, we are looking forward to taking the next steps in our mission to commercialize our sustainable, low-cost solid-state sodium batteries. This approach not only ensures progress and cost control but also guarantees the quality, performance and reliability of the final product.”

Gian Carlo Tronzano, Comau Head of e-Mobility Global Competence Center, stated, “Our steadfast commitment to energy transformation is a perfect match for a company like LiNa, whose vision and engineering competence are promoting and enabling the development of high-performance sodium-based energy storage solutions. It was a great opportunity for us to have worked side-by-side to validate a manufacturing process design that will put LiNa on the path toward larger-scale industrialization of their solid-state sodium cell technology.”