As international automakers make the high-profile transition to electrical automobiles, the Canadian automation firm ATS Corp. is quietly carving out a distinct segment by constructing the meeting strains that allow automakers to piece collectively the batteries.
The battery pack tucked beneath the ground of a typical EV has about 6,500 cells, and the automated strains made by ATS can produce one in all these packs in simply 60 seconds, mentioned Udo Panenka, president of business automation on the Cambridge, Ont.-based firm.
“That means you have 13,000 welds that you need to produce in one minute,” Panenka mentioned. “If one weld is defective, the range of the vehicle drops by 1.7 per cent, and people don’t want to have the range dropping.”
The stakes are greater nonetheless, provided that a lot of ATS’ clients run their automated strains 24/7, producing US$1 billion to $2 billionworthofbattery packs per yr on every line.
Announcements of big-ticket battery crops have turn into commonplace throughout North America solely up to now few years, however ATS has been designing and constructing automated battery strains for about 15 years, mentioned firm CEO Andrew Hider.
As EVs have transitioned from smaller-scale manufacturing to the mass market, the corporate has expanded its core expertise and has been pushed by clients that want specialised options for his or her batteries, Hider informed Automotive News Canada.
“Often these customers are making these big announcements, and then they’ve got to figure [execution] out,” he mentioned.
‘SUPERAGGRESSIVE TIMELINES’
With the auto business shifting to EVs at excessive pace, battery tasks contain fast-changing expertise and “superaggressive timelines,” Panenka mentioned.
“Everything changes,” he mentioned. “Just one thing doesn’t change, and that’s the launch date.”
ATS has delivered greater than 110 battery meeting programs to clients worldwide, with most of its early orders coming from Europe earlier than the latest shift to North America. Decades earlier than the battery growth, ATS constructed automation tools for gearboxes, motors and different auto parts.
ATS, based in 1978, additionally makes automated strains for purchasers in well being care, the meals business, shopper merchandise and power. It formally rebranded as ATS Corp. in 2022, paring down from ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc.
ATS has six manufacturing crops in Canada and employs about 1,400 individuals. Globally, it has greater than 50 manufacturing websites and greater than 6,000 workers.
Growing battery enterprise has added to this tally. In March 2022, as an illustration, the corporate opened a pair of 240,000-square-foot (22,000-square-metre) crops on the outskirts of Columbus, Ohio, that can produce meeting strains for battery modules.
HOW TO PACK A BATTERY
Source: canada.autonews.com