The concept of the digital twin as the representation of a physical object is currently under development and is delivering promising first results. At the same time, the goals and the definition of digital twins differ, sometimes significantly, depending on the area of application and use case. Therefore, the descriptions and concepts of digital twins in a specific application cannot simply be transferred to new fields of application. Meanwhile, battery cell manufacturing is a key of the energy and mobility transition that is still characterized by high costs as well as scrap rates and will benefit enormously from the use of digital twins.

To provide a basis for the development of digital twins in battery cell manufacturing, this white paper presents a unified definition for the digital twin in battery cell manufacturing, based on existing work. For this purpose, three forms of the digital twin are described: the building twin, the machine twin, and the product twin. Each of these forms must be examined in detail so that components of the respective forms can be identified, exemplary use cases can be shown, and concrete goals as well as challenges can be defined. Based on the concepts described in this white paper, the digital twin will be used in battery cell production to track, optimize, and control products and processes in the future. In perspective, this can significantly improve energy, raw material, and cost efficiency.

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