Bosch Rexroth displayed new battery automation solutions at The Battery Show 2025 in Detroit this week, focusing on making batteries in a more efficient manner. The company’s customizable conveyance system can now add the ctrlX Flow HS linear motion system and the ctrlX Flow 6D contactless transport system to move components, promising new options in an era when everyone and their suppliers are looking for ways to make better EVs.
Andreas Letsch, director of the Battery Factory Automation Center of Competence at Bosch Rexroth AG, told SAE Media that the new additions can make a modern battery plant more efficient as its footprint shrinks. Used with the company’s Cartesian multi-axis systems, the new systems offer improved ways to position components and handle tasks. The multi-axis cobots can effectively shift workspace vertically – they need less floor space than traditional 6-axis robot arms – providing another important factor in an efficient facility.
“You need high speed. You need precision, and you need to compress it in some way. And then, of course, you need to go vertical,” Letsch said.
Despite the higher cost of a linear motor system compared to traditional systems, Letsch said there are ways to make it cost-effective. The company can install different systems throughout the plant, adding Flow HS linear motion sections where the cells need to move in a precise way at high speed. Since Bosch Rexroth offers a large selection of transport systems and can link them together, it “makes engineering easier and also more intuitive,” he said.
“You can really optimize the price points, because if you have two different companies selling to your machine builder, they have different software libraries, they have different software stacks, and each of them is trying to sell as many meters as they can,” he said. “We can optimize it.”
Bosch Rexroth’s Linux-based CtrlX Automation system controls the precision movements. It can do so without a vision system, Letsch said, because important physical components, including tightening units, come from Bosch Rexroth. The system’s open-source roots mean it is secure enough to be ready for Europe’s Cyber Resilience Act, the main parts of which will come into force in December 2027.
The Flow HS will allow manufacturers to program actions at the micrometer scale level, Leetsch said, even when running at meters per second. This means companies could do laser cutting on the fly at 40,000 cells per hour in with a system that knows where any single cell is at any moment. That information might also be useful for upcoming battery passport regulations. Letsch said Bosch Rexroth did not design the system with this use in mind, but the system can track, for example, the torque of safety-relevant screws.
Another new addition to Bosch Rexroth’s automated conveyance systems is the prototype ctrlX Flow 6D contactless transport system. The Flow 6D is a heavy circular pallet that floats magnetically above the belt and can rotate and move in six dimensions: x, y, z, yaw, pitch and roll. First developed for the medical industry, it can shake out liquids or mix materials. A grid of QR codes on the conveyor surface allows the system to know where it is at all times. One potential use, Letsch said, would be to perform an inspection or cleaning without needing a robot arm to grab the cell and lift it up. Companies could also mix components while moving the cell down the conveyor, he said, adding that some potential customers are currently testing prototype units to develop other use cases.
