Wickert wins JEC Innovation Award for pioneering battery housing project

Wickert Maschinenbau GmbH was honoured with the JEC Innovation Award in the category “Automotive & Road Transportation – Process.”

Wickert Maschinenbau GmbH was honored with the JEC Innovation Award in the category “Automotive & Road Transportation – Process.” The award is one of the most prestigious in the composites industry worldwide and recognizes particularly innovative and practical developments with high industrial relevance each year.

The award was given to a joint research and industry project led by Chemnitz University of Technology, in which several strong partners were involved: Mahle Filtersysteme GmbH, Formenbau GF GmbH, In2p GmbH, Gerlinger Industries GmbH, Wickert Maschinenbau GmbH, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology (ICT).

A new battery housing for electric mobility
The project focused on developing a load-bearing traction battery housing for electric vehicles made of glass reinforced thermoplastic. The aim was to create a cost-effective solution for large-scale production that would simultaneously reduce weight and improve the environmental balance.

The use of commercially available long and continuous fiber semi-finished products and a deliberately reduced number of variants made it possible to implement a highly automated compression molding process. Several layers of material are combined to form a single load-bearing component – efficiently, reproducibly, and without errors.

Particular focus was placed on process reliability and series production capability: specially developed lightweight grippers enable the safe handling of heated blanks, while rectangular blanks and a controlled pre-drape mechanism support waste-free production. With cycle times of less than two minutes, the process is clearly designed to meet the requirements of large-scale series production.
An award for innovation
The JEC Innovation Award is one of the most prestigious awards in the international composites industry. It recognizes projects that set new standards in technology, sustainability, and industrial feasibility.