Automotive Engineering - November/December 2021 - 34

Q&
A
Readying VW's new U.S. battery-pack plant
The Volkswagen ID.4 is set to begin localized production in
the U.S. in early 2022. The 2-row battery-electric SUV is engineered
on VW's MEB platform and will share an assembly
line with the MQB-based 3-row Atlas SUV, both rolling off
the line at Volkswagen of America's (VOA) Chattanooga,
Tennessee facility. Being an EV and using a different architecture,
the ID.4 requires a battery-assembly plant and its
own body shop, both of which VW is currently completing
on the VOA Tennessee site.
During the recent media launch of the all-wheel-drive ID.4,
SAE Media senior editor Paul Seredynski spoke with Jacob
Hilmes, who is helping create
the space whole-cloth as the
planning coordination specialist,
and Tim Lovvorn, who
will serve as its production
manager, overseeing production,
maintenance, and
engineering. The duo has
spent the better part of the
last few years directing the
facility's creation from a
greenfield site.
How long a timetable for you
on the project?
Hilmes: I've been on this
project three years now. It
started with benchmarking
the other battery plants inside
Volkswagen. We went
around and saw different
technologies and decided
what makes the most sense
for Chattanooga. Long story
short, we decided to go
with a line builder that's
internal to Volkswagen out
of Braunschweig [Germany],
who did the first MEB battery
line. This allowed us to
copy-and- paste as much as
we could, get all the lessons
learned because they were
through a ramp-up while we
were still designing.
Of course, it's not exactly
copy/paste, because
Braunschweig is a component
plant and Chattanooga is a
car-assembly plant. We have
different standards, so we
adapted the Braunschweig
34 November/December 2021
concepts to the car-plant standards, called VASS [Volkswagen,
Audi, Seat, Skoda], and it was our main benchmark.
Would you consider the main tasks to be logistical?
Hilmes: It's coordination. The planning department is making sure
that Tim will be happy with it when he gets it, that we didn't put a
bunch of random technology inside it. Another big thing for us,
Braunschweig uses Kuka [brand] robots. At Chattanooga, we use
Fanuc. Making the Braunschweig concept fit Chattanooga is where
all the real work was. The battery leaves our factory and goes directly
to the car body. We'll be ready for production next year.
With such large masses involved
with battery packs,
these robots must be highly
specialized?
Lovvorn: Fanuc has differentsized
robots. We got the second
biggest one they make. In
five locations in the plant, they
pick the battery up, and they
have to reach far with it. We
call it T-Rex. They're much
larger than what we're used to
seeing here at the plant.
Jacob Hilmes (right) is the VOA Chattanooga Battey Plant planning
coordination specialist. Tim Lovvorn (quoted below), will serve as the
facility's production manager.
" When I first went to the
plant, I thought, 'It's just a
box. That's no big deal. I'm a
production guy. "
Hilmes: Six-meter reach and
1,200 kilograms. I think at the
time we purchased them, they
were the strongest robots in
the world. Now I think they've
come up with another one that
might do a little bit more, but
they can lift a lot. Braunschweig
actually used a gantry,
but because we had so much
heavy handling, to not have
several designs of gantries, we
said, " Just use one robot. One
robot, one gripper. "
Sharing the production line
with Atlas must present challenges?
Lovvorn:
We've got to make
sure that our part is to the right
level for those guys, or we'll
stop [Atlas] production. It's not
just the electric car, because
right now, that's a very low
part of our output. I've got to
make sure I don't hinder the
other money train.
AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING
PAUL SEREDYNSKI
Automotive Engineering - November/December 2021

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