Project Details
[Return to Previous Page]Battery Cell Manufacturing Monitoring and Analytics
Company: General Motors / Ultium Cells
Major(s):
Primary: ME
Secondary: CMPEN
Optional: CMPSC, EE
Non-Disclosure Agreement: YES
Intellectual Property: YES
Description: -Design a System to monitor/alert operating personal of levels in sediment collection bins located throughout the Cell Manufacturing Factory. Key Parameters/Background: Battery Cell Manufacturing plant is located in Lordstown, Ohio This plant is a joint venture between LG-Energy Solutions and General Motors The plant is currently in a validation phase with start of production targeted Q4 2022 The approximate size of the facility is 2.8 million square feet (2 floors) Sediment collection bins are located through the facility: 40 to 50 bins currently there is no automated means to monitor levels; manual inspection required The objective of this project is as follows: Identify/design a mechanism to determine sediment level in bins Design mechanism to alert operations team to bin levels outside of accepted limits Provide alerts and levels on output device; focus on mobile device use Eliminate need for manual inspection Solution identified for Lordstown plant will be applied to future Battery Cell Plants. Benefit: Drives efficiency and provides time savings in comparison to existing process of manual inspections Provides a safe means of understanding fill levels of sediment collector bins without the need of human presence in close proximinty of manufacturing equipment Eliminates the need to shut down production equipment to perform the manual inspection Reduction in exposure of sediment to surrounding environment Provides “Status at a Glance” for the user community consisting of Facilities and Production Engineers. Deliverables: Design a physical system to determine fill level of bins (bucket style and drawer style at Ultium). The focus of the previous semester was the “bucket style”. The focus of this project will be the “Drawer Style” A prototype setup is acceptable (i.e setting up a mock drawer in the lab) Provide an “electronic” means of alerting the end user (WiFi, SMS/Text message, Bluetooth, email, flat file, etc..) Provide a user interface with provisions to set tolerances, alerting criteria, real-time monitoring and capability to add/remove equipment (expand beyond current quantities of equipment). Optimize interface for use on mobile devices. Weekly status reporting with progression to schedule, list of tasks and any issues with mitigation plans Final report summarizing learnings, instructions on use and expansion of system
