Disturbance Estimation for the Control of Web Tension in Electrode Calendering

This study presents a control method for electrode web tension in the context of battery manufacturing, which integrates a state and disturbance observer. This optimization method is applied to the calendering process of electrodes, in order to estimate non-measurable state variables. Desired web tensions before and after calendering are defined as set values, and are obtained by controlling the respective velocity inputs of the calender rolls and nip rolls. For the controller design, the nonlinear dynamic system model is linearized. The results show that this approximation approach for the controller is able to estimate the disturbance of the electrode web tension due to the calendering force. The methodology described in this paper can serve as a baseline approach for state-feedback control and disturbance estimation in the framework of digital twin integration with the aim to optimize process workflows in various battery manufacturing stages.