Kurimoto Ltd. and Hitachi High-Tech Commence Collaboration to Optimize Kneading Process Conditions Utilizing Kneading Data and Physical AI
Kurimoto Ltd. and Hitachi High-Tech have begun a collaboration to optimize the kneading process in battery manufacturing. By combining Kurimoto's kneading technology with Hitachi High-Tech's AI and analytical technologies, they aim to ensure a stable supply of high-quality slurry and shorten development periods.
📋 Article Processing Timeline
- 📰 Published: May 11, 2026 at 20:12
- 🔍 Collected: May 11, 2026 at 11:31
- 🤖 AI Analyzed: May 12, 2026 at 05:03 (17h 31m after Collected)
Kurimoto Ltd. (hereinafter, Kurimoto) and Hitachi High-Tech Corporation (hereinafter, Hitachi High-Tech) have commenced a collaboration (hereinafter, this collaboration) aimed at optimizing conditions for the kneading*1 process in battery manufacturing.
This collaboration addresses the challenge that optimizing kneading process conditions in the slurry*2 manufacturing process, which significantly impacts battery performance, heavily relies on advanced expertise and experience. Kurimoto, a pioneer in the kneading field, will leverage its long-cultivated kneading technology, domain knowledge, and extensive operational data. Hitachi High-Tech will contribute its analysis and analytical technologies, as well as AI and informatics technologies, integrated into Physical AI*3. Together, they will work on verifying the optimization of the kneading process and shortening the study period to achieve a stable supply of high-quality, high-solid-content*4 slurry. This initiative aims to advance and streamline high-quality slurry manufacturing processes, contribute to improved battery performance, and enhance yield*5 during production ramp-up.
■ Expected Effects from Verification in This Collaboration
・Reduction in prototyping and verification man-hours
・Increased efficiency and sophistication of kneading condition studies
・Stable manufacturing of high-quality slurry
・Stabilization of quality and improvement of productivity in the mass production phase
*1 Kneading: The process of uniformly mixing multiple substances to create a new substance with different properties.
*2 Slurry: A mixture of multiple battery materials, such as powders and liquids, kneaded with a solvent, which is coated and dried on current collectors like aluminum or copper to be used as electrodes.
*3 Physical AI: Developed and provided in collaboration with Hitachi, Ltd.
*4 High-solid-content: Refers to a high proportion of non-volatile components remaining after volatile components like solvents are removed from a mixture, allowing high performance with less coating volume.
*5 Yield: The ratio of good products among manufactured items (Yield = Number of good products / Number of manufactured products).
Background
In recent years, the demand for secondary batteries, including lithium-ion batteries, has remained high for applications such as home appliances, smart devices, and industrial equipment, necessitating efficiency improvements and quality stabilization in manufacturing processes. Among these, the kneading process, which uniformly mixes multiple materials to produce slurry, is considered a critical step that affects the precision of electrode thickness and density, thereby influencing battery performance. However, continuously producing uniform slurry under optimal kneading conditions requires high technical skill and know-how, making it a challenging and difficult process.
Kurimoto Ltd. possesses advanced kneading technology and contributes to accelerating the development of manufacturing processes in the chemical industry and next-generation battery material fields. Its twin-screw continuous kneader, "KRC Kneader," allows for adjustment of the kneading degree by combining various paddle shapes within the kneader according to the purpose. By leveraging this feature, even raw materials prone to aggregation can be dispersed and homogenized, minimizing lot-to-lot quality variations in continuous production and achieving both quality and productivity improvements. On the other hand, deriving the optimal paddle arrangement involves countless combinations and trade-offs. Furthermore, setting optimal kneading conditions in combination with operating conditions has been a challenge due to reliance on advanced expertise and experience.
Hitachi High-Tech has provided analytical and inspection equipment to a wide range of fields, including batteries, semiconductors, and chemicals, and possesses knowledge in quality control, evaluation, and measurement technologies tailored to customer needs, as well as industry know-how. Utilizing digital technologies, it has also offered solutions*7 for materials development and manufacturing processes leveraging Materials Informatics (MI)*6, supporting the DX promotion of manufacturing customers as "One Hitachi."
This collaboration aims to solve quality and production efficiency issues in uniform slurry manufacturing by integrating the technologies, know-how, knowledge, and digital technologies of both companies, particularly in setting kneading conditions that previously relied on advanced expertise and experience.
*6 Materials Informatics: A technology that integrates and analyzes data such as material composition, structure, properties, and experimental conditions, utilizing AI and data science to predict material characteristics and design optimal materials.
*7 News release announced in January 2025.
Specific Initiatives
(1) Optimization of Kneading Process Conditions Utilizing Hitachi's Proprietary Generative AI Technology
By inputting publicly known knowledge from patents and academic papers, along with proprietary knowledge extracted from Kurimoto kneader manuals and paddle information, into Hitachi's proprietary generative AI technology, the collaboration will propose optimal kneader settings and kneading process control conditions for manufacturing ideal slurry. This approach can provide concrete directions based on knowledge, even when sufficient actual prototype data is not available. The utilization of this technology aims to shorten the study period and reduce the number of prototyping and experimental trials.
(2) Process Informatics
This collaboration addresses the challenge that optimizing kneading process conditions in the slurry*2 manufacturing process, which significantly impacts battery performance, heavily relies on advanced expertise and experience. Kurimoto, a pioneer in the kneading field, will leverage its long-cultivated kneading technology, domain knowledge, and extensive operational data. Hitachi High-Tech will contribute its analysis and analytical technologies, as well as AI and informatics technologies, integrated into Physical AI*3. Together, they will work on verifying the optimization of the kneading process and shortening the study period to achieve a stable supply of high-quality, high-solid-content*4 slurry. This initiative aims to advance and streamline high-quality slurry manufacturing processes, contribute to improved battery performance, and enhance yield*5 during production ramp-up.
■ Expected Effects from Verification in This Collaboration
・Reduction in prototyping and verification man-hours
・Increased efficiency and sophistication of kneading condition studies
・Stable manufacturing of high-quality slurry
・Stabilization of quality and improvement of productivity in the mass production phase
*1 Kneading: The process of uniformly mixing multiple substances to create a new substance with different properties.
*2 Slurry: A mixture of multiple battery materials, such as powders and liquids, kneaded with a solvent, which is coated and dried on current collectors like aluminum or copper to be used as electrodes.
*3 Physical AI: Developed and provided in collaboration with Hitachi, Ltd.
*4 High-solid-content: Refers to a high proportion of non-volatile components remaining after volatile components like solvents are removed from a mixture, allowing high performance with less coating volume.
*5 Yield: The ratio of good products among manufactured items (Yield = Number of good products / Number of manufactured products).
Background
In recent years, the demand for secondary batteries, including lithium-ion batteries, has remained high for applications such as home appliances, smart devices, and industrial equipment, necessitating efficiency improvements and quality stabilization in manufacturing processes. Among these, the kneading process, which uniformly mixes multiple materials to produce slurry, is considered a critical step that affects the precision of electrode thickness and density, thereby influencing battery performance. However, continuously producing uniform slurry under optimal kneading conditions requires high technical skill and know-how, making it a challenging and difficult process.
Kurimoto Ltd. possesses advanced kneading technology and contributes to accelerating the development of manufacturing processes in the chemical industry and next-generation battery material fields. Its twin-screw continuous kneader, "KRC Kneader," allows for adjustment of the kneading degree by combining various paddle shapes within the kneader according to the purpose. By leveraging this feature, even raw materials prone to aggregation can be dispersed and homogenized, minimizing lot-to-lot quality variations in continuous production and achieving both quality and productivity improvements. On the other hand, deriving the optimal paddle arrangement involves countless combinations and trade-offs. Furthermore, setting optimal kneading conditions in combination with operating conditions has been a challenge due to reliance on advanced expertise and experience.
Hitachi High-Tech has provided analytical and inspection equipment to a wide range of fields, including batteries, semiconductors, and chemicals, and possesses knowledge in quality control, evaluation, and measurement technologies tailored to customer needs, as well as industry know-how. Utilizing digital technologies, it has also offered solutions*7 for materials development and manufacturing processes leveraging Materials Informatics (MI)*6, supporting the DX promotion of manufacturing customers as "One Hitachi."
This collaboration aims to solve quality and production efficiency issues in uniform slurry manufacturing by integrating the technologies, know-how, knowledge, and digital technologies of both companies, particularly in setting kneading conditions that previously relied on advanced expertise and experience.
*6 Materials Informatics: A technology that integrates and analyzes data such as material composition, structure, properties, and experimental conditions, utilizing AI and data science to predict material characteristics and design optimal materials.
*7 News release announced in January 2025.
Specific Initiatives
(1) Optimization of Kneading Process Conditions Utilizing Hitachi's Proprietary Generative AI Technology
By inputting publicly known knowledge from patents and academic papers, along with proprietary knowledge extracted from Kurimoto kneader manuals and paddle information, into Hitachi's proprietary generative AI technology, the collaboration will propose optimal kneader settings and kneading process control conditions for manufacturing ideal slurry. This approach can provide concrete directions based on knowledge, even when sufficient actual prototype data is not available. The utilization of this technology aims to shorten the study period and reduce the number of prototyping and experimental trials.
(2) Process Informatics