09:00 – 09:30 Can the UK Deliver OEM-Ready Gigafactories at Scale?
This session evaluates whether the UK can realistically transition from policy ambition to industrial execution in gigafactory deployment. It examines OEM expectations for localisation, throughput reliability, and cost competitiveness, and benchmarks UK readiness against established European and Asian manufacturing ecosystems. The focus is on the structural gaps between investment announcements and production-grade facilities.
09:30 – 10:00 Designing Gigafactories for Fast Build and Fast Ramp-Up
Explores modular construction approaches, repeatable factory architectures, and standardised engineering frameworks that reduce build timelines and accelerate commissioning. The discussion focuses on design-to-build optimisation, supply chain synchronisation, and the elimination of bespoke engineering bottlenecks that slow scale-up.
10:00 – 10:30 Why Gigafactory Projects Fail – Integration, Equipment & Commissioning Risks
A technical breakdown of failure points across EPC delivery, equipment integration, and commissioning phases. The session highlights mismatches between process equipment vendors and plant engineering assumptions, and explains why late-stage integration issues remain the leading cause of delay and cost overrun.
10:30 – 11:00 Networking Tea Break
11:00 – 11:30 Pilot Line to Mass Production – Why Scaling Battery Manufacturing Breaks
Focuses on the scale-up discontinuity between pilot lines and gigafactory production. Key challenges include process instability, yield degradation, and material variability under high-throughput conditions, with emphasis on industrialisation physics rather than laboratory performance.
11:30 – 12:00 Dry Room Engineering – Energy, Precision & Contamination Control at Scale
Examines dry room systems as a core determinant of cell quality, energy consumption, and production stability. Topics include humidity control strategies, HVAC design optimisation, and lifecycle energy cost implications for large-scale battery manufacturing environments.
12:00 – 12:30 Coating, Calendering & Cell Assembly – The Heart of Yield Performance
Covers high-precision electrode coating, calendering pressure control, and assembly line stability. The session links mechanical tolerances and process control directly to yield, scrap rates, and throughput efficiency in mass production environments.
12:30 – 13:00 Formation & Ageing – Eliminating the Biggest Production Bottleneck
Analyses formation and ageing as the dominant constraint on factory throughput and energy consumption. Focus is placed on cycle time reduction, system-level optimisation, and innovations in formation protocols that improve plant economics.
13:00 – 14:00 Networking Lunch Break
14:00 – 14:30 Designing Gigafactory Energy Systems – Power, Storage & Load Stability
Explores industrial-scale energy system design, including grid connection strategies, on-site storage integration, and load balancing for high-intensity manufacturing. Emphasis is placed on cost exposure and energy resilience as competitive differentiators.
14:30 – 15:00 Site Readiness – Grid, Water & Infrastructure as Critical Constraints
Evaluates real-world constraints in site selection and development, focusing on grid capacity, water availability, transport logistics, and permitting timelines. The session highlights how infrastructure readiness determines project viability more than capital availability.
15:00 – 15:30 Automation Strategy – Balancing Flexibility vs Full Integration
Discusses automation architectures in gigafactories, weighing fully integrated production lines against modular flexible systems. Focus includes robotics adoption, process adaptability, and the trade-offs between efficiency and future-proofing.
15:30 – 16:00 Networking Tea Break
16:00 – 16:30 Digital Twins for Gigafactories – Designing Before You Build
Covers the role of digital twin simulation in reducing engineering risk, optimising plant layout, and improving commissioning accuracy. Emphasis is placed on predictive modelling for cost and performance optimisation prior to physical construction.
16:30 – 17:00 EPC Execution Models – How to Deliver Without Delay or Cost Overrun
Analyses engineering, procurement, and construction delivery models used in gigafactory projects. The session identifies governance structures and contracting approaches that reduce schedule slippage and budget escalation.
17:00 – 17:30 Commissioning & Ramp-Up – The Final Bottleneck to Profitability
Focuses on operational ramp-up challenges including yield stabilisation, defect reduction, and process tuning. The discussion frames commissioning as the most underestimated phase of gigafactory delivery.
17:30 – 18:10 PANEL DISCUSSIONS: What Will It Take to Deliver an OEM-Grade Gigafactory in the UK?
Senior industry leaders debate the practical requirements for attracting and anchoring OEM investment in UK gigafactories. Topics include policy support, execution capability, supply chain readiness, and infrastructure constraints, with focus on bridging the gap between ambition and industrial delivery.
18:15 Cocktail Reception & Dinner
8:55am Welcome by Organiser and Event Chairman
09:00 – 09:30 Localising Battery Supply Chains – What Can Realistically Be Built in the UK?
Assesses which parts of the battery supply chain can be competitively localised in the UK, and which remain structurally dependent on global trade. Focus is on economic feasibility, scale thresholds, and policy alignment.
09:30 – 10:00 Black Mass Processing – Turning Waste into Strategic Feedstock
Explores the industrialisation of black mass recycling, including hydrometallurgical processing, recovery rates, and feedstock economics. Highlights the role of recycling in securing critical material supply chains.
10:00 – 10:30 Battery Recycling Plant Design – High Recovery, High Throughput Systems
Focuses on engineering design principles for scalable recycling facilities, including throughput optimisation, chemical processing efficiency, and environmental compliance.
10:30 – 11:00 Networking Tea Break
11:00 – 11:30 Keynote 17: DLE-to-Cathode Direct Integration – Eliminating Intermediate Refining Costs
Eliminating intermediate lithium refining by linking DLE eluate directly to pCAM/CAM synthesis. We analyse the chemical interface requirements and the cost-per-kWh reduction of localised UK mineral-to-material loops.
11:30 – 12:00 Cathode Manufacturing Scale-Up – CAM Production Engineering Challenges
Covers scale-up challenges in cathode active material production, including precursor supply, process control, and quality consistency at industrial scale.
12:00 – 12:30 Anode Innovation – Silicon & Next-Gen Material Manufacturing at Scale
Explores industrialisation barriers for advanced anode materials, including silicon-based chemistries and hybrid composites, with emphasis on manufacturability and cost reduction.
12:30 – 13:00 Solid-State Manufacturing – How Factory Design Will Change
Discusses how solid-state battery technologies will fundamentally alter factory design requirements, equipment configurations, and production flows.
13:00 – 14:00 Networking Lunch Break
14:00 – 14:30 AI in Gigafactories – Yield Optimisation & Predictive Manufacturing
Explores AI-driven process optimisation for defect detection, yield improvement, and predictive maintenance across high-volume battery production lines.
14:30 – 15:00 Advanced Quality Control – Toward Zero-Defect Battery Production
Focuses on inline inspection systems, machine vision, and statistical process control methods designed to reduce defects in high-throughput environments.
15:00 – 15:30 Networking Tea Break
15:30 – 16:00 Safety Systems in Gigafactories – Preventing Thermal & Chemical Risk
Covers industrial safety engineering in battery manufacturing, including thermal runaway mitigation, chemical handling systems, and regulatory compliance frameworks.
16:00 – 16:30 Immersion Cooling & 6C Charging – Managing Extreme Thermal Loads at the Cell-to-Pack Level
Solving the thermal limits of 6C charging using dielectric immersion cooling. Focus on 360° cell contact efficiency, fluid-material compatibility, and 800V/1200V pack-level safety under extreme thermal loads.
16:30 – 17:00 Dry Electrode (DBE) Scaling – The Mechanical Engineering of Solvent-Free Coating
The mechanical physics of solvent-free, PTFE-fibrillated coating at scale. We tackle the hurdles of micron-level thickness uniformity and high-pressure calendering at 80m/min line speeds.
17:00 – 17:30 Gigafactory as a Power Plant – Virtual Power Plants (VPP) and Factory Energy Arbitrage
Turning the Gigafactory into an active energy asset using on-site storage and VPP software. Quantifying the ROI of grid-balancing and frequency response to offset up to 20% of annual OPEX.
17:30 – 18:10 DAY 2 PANEL DISCUSSIONS Building a Competitive Battery Supply Chain Outside Asia
Industry leaders assess the feasibility of establishing competitive battery material and manufacturing ecosystems in Europe and the UK, focusing on cost structures, scale limitations, and strategic independence.
18:10 End of Day2
APEX INTERNATIONAL has always been totally committed to organising global high level representative events that aim at gathering business leaders from across the world to jointly explore technology, strategy and policy issues that are of common concern and interest