In a bid to scale up India’s capabilities in battery cell manufacturing, the government, academia and industry are collaborating to create a country-specific framework for establishing Rapid Prototyping Centres (RPCs).

The Department of Science and Technology (DST) held consultations with stakeholders last month on developing India-specific RPCs with appropriate governing structure. It was decided that the modalities regarding the structure will be conceptualised by October this year, sources said.

RPCs are applied research facilities that help businesses scale-up prototypes faster, and take products to the market quickly. It is a valuable resource for process as well as product validation.

These units essentially help create a commercial manufacturing structure, on a pilot scale, aiding businesses formalise standards and practices for sourcing, manufacturing and quality control.

Sources said that to enable the Indian industry to take lead in battery cell manufacturing, DST has been holding a series of consultations with stakeholders to set up RPCs. In line with these, the third round of consultations were held in July 2024.

From the government side, the deliberations were attended by officials from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), IIT Tirupati, National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), Central Manufacturing Technology Institute (CMTI), National Physical Laboratory (NPL), among others.

Industry body India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) and battery cell manufacturers such as Amara Raja and Godi Energy also participated in the meeting. Start-ups, material supply chain and battery recycling companies were also part of the deliberations. “The discussions were focused on the size and capacity of the proposed centres, testing and certification facilities, manpower skilling, governing model and so on. It was concluded that a suitable and India-specific rapid prototype centre with an apt governing structure will be evolved in the next two to three months for quicker implementation,” said one of the sources. Rapid prototyping involve technologies that can automatically construct physical models from Computer-Aided Design (CAD) data. These three dimensional (3D) printers allow designers to quickly create physical prototypes of their designs.

The Department of Science and Technology (DST) is already setting up shared and professionally managed science and technology infrastructure facilities that will be accessible to academia, start-ups, manufacturing units, industries and R&D Labs. It will be known as Sophisticated Analytical and Technical Help Institute (SATHI).