Siemens today announced a collaboration with Battery-NY, a federally funded Binghamton University-led initiative, to establish an automation and digital manufacturing architecture to be used in a flexible battery development and pilot manufacturing facility in upstate New York.
A major scale-up challenge battery manufacturers face today is integrating equipment from multiple machine builders. Siemens is helping Battery-NY establish standardized automation, equipment-interface and data principles so that future systems can operate within a cohesive manufacturing environment. This will provide battery manufactures with a future guide to build factories faster and more reliably to ensure economic viability.
Battery-NY has adopted Siemens automation across much of its principal production-equipment landscape and is using the Siemens Battery Automation Framework as a standardization reference. The work extends beyond technology supply by connecting equipment-level control with manufacturing data, research translation, workforce learning and the ability to scale over time.
“We started working with Siemens early because we wanted to consider digitalization from the beginning, not add it after the equipment was installed,” said Paul Malliband, Executive Director of Battery-NY. “Our goal is a flexible, modular facility where new battery technologies and manufacturing approaches can be introduced over time while the controls, automation and software foundation evolve with them.”
Specialized battery manufacturing equipment often comes with disparate control and data systems, leading to fragmented information and costly custom integrations. Battery-NY and Siemens are addressing this through a common operational framework across critical processes, including mixing, coating, calendaring, slitting, cell assembly, formation and cycling.
This shared industrial rulebook is intended to support production and quality visibility, real-time dashboards, track-and-trace capabilities and material genealogy. The foundation also provides a path for future simulation, Digital Twin, software-defined automation and AI as Battery-NY’s capabilities expand. Siemens Foundational Technologies in Princeton, New Jersey, will evaluate these capabilities against real world manufacturing challenges to assess research and production value.
“Battery manufacturing is not only about individual machines. It requires coordination across automation, data, software, operations and workforce readiness,” said Vivek Furtado, Head of Battery Vertical US, Siemens Digital Industries. “Our work with Battery-NY shows how integration complexity can be turned into manufacturing clarity, with a practical path toward traceability, analytics and future-ready production.”
Battery-NY is designed to help bridge the gap between battery research and manufacturing execution. The facility will allow promising materials, cell designs and process concepts to be evaluated using manufacturing-relevant equipment, repeatable workflows and consistent production data, helping teams understand what is required to scale beyond the laboratory.
The initiative will give researchers, students, and industry collaborators experience in an industrially relevant environment. Academic users can work with manufacturing processes and data; suppliers can evaluate how their systems behave in a broader production environment; and manufacturers can assess digital workflows before applying them at scale.
“Battery-NY and Siemens Foundational Technologies are exploring to bridge battery research and pilot-scale manufacturing through simulation, digital twins, automation and AI-enabled operations,” said Dr. Sudhir Rajagopalan, Research & Development Project Manager, Siemens Foundational Technologies. “The collaboration focuses on validating research outcomes in a production-oriented environment, reducing scale-up risk and creating a data-driven foundation for future industrial deployment.”
The collaboration is moving forward as the facility advances toward initial operations in the coming months.
Battery-NY is supported by the U.S. Economic Development Administration's Building Back Better Regional Challenge and Empire State Development. It is part of a broader effort to strengthen U.S. battery development, manufacturing capability and supply-chain readiness by bringing university-led research closer to industrial systems, manufacturing knowledge and workforce preparation.
Siemens contributes an industrial system perspective by linking equipment choices to automation standards, manufacturing data, implementation clarity and a digital roadmap that can support future solutions and services.
The long-term value is a reference environment where diverse equipment and stakeholders can work from common principles, introduce new technologies without costly redesign and turn research into practical manufacturing knowledge and industry standardization.
