B&R has named Ronny Guber to the newly established position of industry manager for electromobility, offering automakers and their suppliers a single point of contact for solving a new set of manufacturing challenges. As the combustion-electric transition shifts into high gear, global demand for EV battery systems is headed into a steep curve, and Guber is convinced that automation will be the key to lowering unit costs and making the necessary leaps in productivity.

Working with car manufacturers and their supply partners to solve this crucial pinch point in the EV supply chain, Guber has noticed a common theme: "Traditional approaches to battery production are throttled by stop-and-go inefficiencies and vulnerable to downtime in the event of even minor disruptions." As industry manager, he looks forward to promoting B&R's vision for a new generation of battery factories that deliver continuous high-speed productivity on a dramatically reduced footprint. "It's a pivotal moment in the automotive industry, and we're excited to help battery producers accelerate through the turn and come out ahead."  

According to Guber, the speed and efficiency challenges faced in battery production play right to the strengths of an integrated ecosystem with robotics, machine vision and other components tightly synchronized around a mechatronic track system. Instead of the traditional linear model, battery cells are moved individually through a network of process stations and historically stationary tasks are accomplished in motion at high speeds. "With this approach, we're able to accelerate many production steps by 90% or more and bring order-of-magnitude gains in output per square meter of footprint," says Guber. 

Guber has been with B&R for over 15 years, most recently heading its sales office in Regensburg, Germany. First as an application engineer and later in sales, he gained valuable experience working with customers in the automotive industry and battery production. As industry manager, he shares the insights he gathers with B&R's sales and R&D teams to help align development and optimization of B&R's solutions with real-world needs and emerging trends.