Partnership will drive the mobility of the future

Tesa, Vulkan Technic and Liebherr are collaborating to combine their core competencies and bring a joint and fully automated assembly line for battery packs on the market. The solution is built around Tesa ACXplus 76730 Box Seal acrylic adhesive tape.

Battery packs represent the heart of every vehicle that is powered electrically. Previously, many individual companies and/or contacts were necessary for bonding and assembling these battery systems. Now, with an adhesive tape producer, a material manufacturer, and a general contractor working closely together, customers can get everything from a single source. Battery production is thus simplified by implementing an automated and tape-based solution. 

Thanks to its suppleness and flexibility, the reliable adhesive tape solution from Tesa can be attached to battery packs with lids as well as to battery packs that are directly connected to the underbody of a vehicle. Tesa ACXplus 76730 Box Seal does not require any curing times and can be applied easily and automatically without high demands on ambient temperature or humidity. Moreover, health and safety risks for users are minimised.

This is where the two partners Liebherr and Vulkan Technic come into play. They take advantage of their expertise to ensure that the various technical requirements of the customers are met and all the necessary steps within the cooperation – from design, programming and production to commissioning – can take place.

“As one of the leading manufacturers of innovative and reliable adhesive solutions for the automotive industry, Tesa supports its customers in developing new applications for electrically powered vehicles,” says Boris Kawa, corporate marketing director for automotive at Tesa. “With the market launch of the new Tesa ACXplus 76730 Box Seal, we not only wanted to bring an acrylic adhesive tape to the market that is characterised by strong performance and high flexibility, but also to offer a proper application concept. We then talked to our partner Vulkan Technic to set up first tests for such a concept.”

Sven Neumann, technical sales manager at Vulkan Technic, adds: “Together with Tesa, we implemented the application of Tesa ACXplus Box Seal. The high flexibility of the adhesive tape, which is necessary to achieve 100% sealing with different gap dimensions, posed a particular challenge during the development process. However, we found an optimal solution and then implemented it technically.”

The interaction of an innovative adhesive solution and a fitting application also convinced Liebherr. “When Tesa introduced us to the Tesa ACXplus Box Seal, our interest was piqued,” says Viktor Bayrhof from Liebherr. “It promises a secure and automatable sealing of the battery pack, but at the same time also allows the battery pack cover to be dismantled for rework in the factory. This streamlines the production process because individual intermediate inspection testing can be replaced by a later end-of-line-testing, where the cover can be opened non-destructively. This is also interesting for the remanufacturing and recycling process of battery systems."