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AIKEMICS / Platform /Coating & drying
Manufacturing platform · Coating & drying

Multi-physics film formation and solvent transport.

Coupled CGMD, DEM, CFD-DEM and Physics-Assisted Machine Learning model the full film-formation step from wet slurry to dry, structured electrode, with capillary-driven binder migration and gas–liquid interfaces explicitly resolved.

A coated electrode foil running over a roller on a battery coating line
From wet film to electrode

By the end of drying, most of your microstructure is already set.

Drying simulation relies on two complementary particle-resolved approaches. CGMD propagates the slurry microstructure through solvent evaporation by progressively removing solvent beads, conserving the chemistry of binder–particle interactions. DEM captures the mechanical consolidation front, capillary-driven CBD (carbon–binder domain) migration, and binder redistribution along the electrode thickness, using surrogate fluid-force models for buoyancy, Stokes drag and lubrication.

CFD-DEM coupling provides the most physically complete picture by resolving fluid–particle interactions and evaporation kinetics simultaneously, at the cost of significantly higher computation times, so we reserve it for the cases where that resolution matters.

The drying method stack

Choose the resolution your decision needs.

01 / 04

CGMD evaporation

Propagates slurry microstructure through solvent evaporation by progressively removing solvent beads, preserving particle–binder chemistry from the slurry step.

02 / 04

DEM consolidation

Resolves the mechanical consolidation front, capillary-driven CBD migration and binder redistribution using surrogate fluid-force models for buoyancy, Stokes drag and lubrication.

03 / 04

CFD-DEM coupling

CFD-DEM resolves fluid–particle interactions and evaporation kinetics simultaneously. The reference physics, used when the decision warrants the compute.

04 / 04

Physics-Assisted ML (PAML)

Alternates deep-learning predictions with periodic DEM correction steps. Cuts full drying simulations from hours to minutes while preserving porosity, tortuosity and radial distribution functions.

PAML in numbers
600 min
full DEM drying baseline runtime
36 min
PAML hybrid runtime
16×
speedup at preserved accuracy
From single recipe to multi-zone protocol

Explore drying protocols at near-interactive speed.

Transfer learning extends the PAML surrogates to new formulations with minimal retraining data. That makes it feasible to explore multi-zone drying protocols (temperature ramps, air-flow profiles, line speeds) and quantify their impact on binder gradients and final electrode microstructure.

The same simulation chain feeds calendering and electrochemical models downstream, so a drying protocol change is evaluated end-to-end, across every downstream step. Engineers see the impact on porosity, tortuosity and electrode performance from a single sweep.

Common questions

What coating teams ask.

Because binder migration is what sets adhesion and impedance, and binder migration is a capillary-driven, particle-scale phenomenon. A 1D evaporation profile gives you a solvent curve but cannot predict CBD gradients or the resulting electrode performance. Particle-resolved DEM and CFD-DEM are the only methods that resolve the mechanism.
PAML is the default for sweeps and protocol optimization. It preserves the key microstructure metrics while running in minutes. Full CFD-DEM is used to validate edge cases, calibrate new chemistries, and certify reference points that PAML then accelerates around.
Yes. We calibrate boundary conditions (temperature profile, air velocity, dwell time) from your line specifications and a small set of dried-electrode characterizations. From there, the simulation predicts what happens when you change a setpoint, well beyond the current operating point.
Coating & drying module

Cut drying simulation from hours to minutes.

Start with a target electrode formulation and your drying line spec. We return a PAML-accelerated drying study, with a CFD-DEM reference point on request.