VCbattery, a dedicated business unit of VisiConsult X-ray Systems & Solutions GmbH, has built its entire proposition around a single, pressing problem for the electric vehicle industry: how do you reliably inspect every battery cell at the speed a gigafactory demands? The answer the company offers is high-speed, non-destructive 3D computed tomography (CT) inspection—systems capable of completing a full internal scan of a cylindrical battery cell in under two seconds, without stopping production.
Launched formally in September 2023 from VisiConsult’s base in Stockelsdorf, northern Germany, VCbattery combines the parent group’s 25-plus years of industrial X-ray expertise with targeted engineering for the battery sector. It does not produce batteries. Instead, it provides the inspection infrastructure that battery manufacturers increasingly need to control quality, reduce yield losses, and satisfy a growing body of regulatory requirements—including the EU Battery Regulation (2023/1542). As EV battery demand accelerates, the tools used to validate cell integrity are becoming as strategically important as the cells themselves.
Key Facts & Figures
- Parent company: VisiConsult X-ray Systems & Solutions GmbH
- Business unit launched: September 2023
- Headquarters: Stockelsdorf, Germany
- Regional offices: Atlanta, USA; Pune, India
- Group employees: ~300 (across all VisiConsult divisions)
- Market context: Battery CT inspection market ~$512M (2024), ~25% CAGR through 2030
- Inspection throughput: Under 2 seconds per cylindrical cell; up to 30 PPM (single-stack pouch)
- Key grant: €1.1M ERDF grant (awarded May 2024, BIP Inline project)
- Key product: VCB2—world’s highest-throughput CT scanner for cylindrical cells
- Industry sector: Non-destructive testing (NDT) / EV battery quality control
Company Background
VisiConsult was founded in 1996 by Hajo Schulenburg as a software company in Stockelsdorf, Germany. Over nearly three decades it expanded into customized industrial X-ray systems, and on January 1, 2025, leadership passed to the next generation: Lennart Schulenburg (managing director) and Finn Schulenburg (co-managing director and CTO). The group today employs approximately 300 staff across multiple divisions, including VCxray, VCbattery, VCcount, VC Inspection Services, and group member diondo X-ray Systems and Services. More than 50 channel partners extend its reach globally.
VCbattery was created as a focused response to the rapid growth of EV battery manufacturing. Bernhard Mürkens, Head of Business Unit VCbattery, brings more than 20 years of X-ray industry experience to the role. Christian Gück joined as Head of Sales in September 2023. The company positions VCbattery as operating in a sector with a long-term 30% CAGR environment, and the broader battery CT inspection market data supports this directionally: the segment was estimated at approximately $512 million in 2024 and is projected to grow at roughly 25% annually through 2030, driven almost entirely by EV production scale-up.
Interview Bernhard Mürkens, VC Consult’s Battery Business Unit Leader
In the recent BetterE Expedition episode hosted by Simon Voß, he visits VC Battery and VC Consult in Lübeck, Germany, to talk with Bernhard Mürkens, who leads VC Consult’s battery business unit after more than 26 years in industrial X-ray. Their conversation centers on a practical bottleneck in cell manufacturing: how to get 3D inspection data fast enough to matter on a production line.
Mürkens describes how he moved into batteries six years ago, drawn by the growth outlook and the need for better manufacturing controls. He found a match in VC Consult, a family-owned company that started in automated analysis of 2D X-ray images and expanded into engineering and factory automation. Today those three pillars—software, customization, and automation—support systems ranging from compact lab setups to large aerospace inspection cells requiring concrete bunkers.
The battery-specific challenge is speed. Cell makers already rely on 3D CT metrology, but mostly through offline lab equipment that is too slow for real-time process control. As Mürkens puts it, “Let’s talk about speed — because that’s really what’s needed in the battery production world.” Typical scan times can run 10–20 minutes for a cylindrical cell, and far longer for larger formats, delaying feedback and allowing scrap to accumulate before a drift is detected.
VC Consult’s answer is an inline CT concept built around an X-ray source technology borrowed from semiconductor production. The company says this source delivers 30× higher photon output than conventional tubes, enabling a 1–4 second scan of a 4680 cylindrical cell. With a high-frame-rate detector and custom reconstruction, they reduced 3D reconstruction from 20–50 minutes to under 8 seconds, aiming for up to 16 cells per minute with optimized material handling. The payoff is not only faster yield learning, but also faster process development, where Mürkens estimates each process change can cost €500,000.
Mürkens also ties inspection data to lifecycle traceability. One CT scan at 25-micron resolution can generate about 25 GB of data, pushing questions about storage and compression. Still, he argues the economics can work when compared with recall exposure—he cites €8,000–15,000 per vehicle—if traceability can narrow the affected population.
On competitiveness, Mürkens is blunt: Chinese cell makers are “10–15 years ahead in production know-how.” His view is that Europe and the U.S. can close that gap by putting more measurement on the production floor, including 3D metrology—an approach he says former Tesla engineers estimate should represent about 50% of relevant production data. The message to battery stakeholders is simple and direct: “Stay on course.” If faster 3D feedback can compress learning cycles, it can also shift the cost and quality equation that determines who wins supply contracts.
Infrastructure
VCbattery designs and deploys inspection systems that integrate into battery production lines. Its operational footprint centers on Stockelsdorf, Germany, where all development and production takes place, with regional sales and support presences in Atlanta, USA and Pune, India.
The throughput figures VCbattery publishes for its inspection systems are significant for production-line integration. The VCB2 scanner, co-developed with Glimpse and launched in October 2024, achieves full-cell CT scans at 20µm resolution in under two seconds for cylindrical cells and supports all cylindrical form factors. Broader system configurations reference cycle times ranging from under 2 seconds to 4–10 seconds depending on cell type and scan mode, with line throughput reaching up to 30 parts per minute (PPM) for single-stack pouch cells and 15 PPM for dual-stack prismatic cells.
VCbattery also offers retrofit upgrades—replacing X-ray components or adding full automation—allowing existing production infrastructure to be brought up to current inspection standards without full system replacement. Services include 24/7 on-call support, remote diagnostics, preventive maintenance, and extended warranty options.
In May 2024, VisiConsult’s VCbattery arm was awarded a €1.1 million grant from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), specifically for the BIP Inline (Battery Inspection Portfolio Inline) project, targeting further development of CT systems for inline non-destructive inspection of battery cells, modules, and systems across R&D, production, reuse, and recycling stages.
Technology & Product Portfolio
VCbattery’s product line spans the full battery inspection lifecycle, structured around three operational modes: R&D/lab inspection (maximum resolution), inline and at-line production inspection (maximum speed), and second-use and recycling inspection (high power for dense or degraded components).
Core products include:
- VCB1 / VCB1+: Entry-level and enhanced cell inspection systems for laboratory and at-line use.
- VCB2 / VCB2+: The company’s flagship systems. The VCB2 is marketed as the world’s highest-throughput CT scanner for cylindrical battery cells, using Excillum’s MetalJet liquid-metal X-ray source for full-cell scans at 20µm resolution in seconds. Integrated with Glimpse’s quality management software, it is designed for gigafactory-scale deployment.
- d1C, d2C, d2C Speedfeed (light/ultra): Systems incorporating the diondo d2C CT platform, covering a range of throughput and resolution configurations.
Defects the systems can detect and quantify include porosity, inclusions, foreign particles, cathode and anode overhang, deflection, delamination, electrode defects, and weld porosity. Systems measure hundreds of internal dimensional and structural parameters per cell.
On the software side, VCbattery offers AI-based software modules (AI-SM) and Digital Twin add-ons, enabling predictive quality analysis and process feedback. Measurement uncertainty for certified systems is stated at ≤ (5µ + L/100), in compliance with VDI/VDE 2630 metrology standards.
A next-generation demonstrator developed with Excillum and Fraunhofer institutions targets one-second full rotational CT scans—a capability that, if commercialized, would more than double the throughput of current systems. The Battery-Attest project, co-funded under Germany’s Battery 2020 federal initiative, is developing high-speed CT for sustainable cell production and recycling quality assurance in collaboration with Fraunhofer FFB and Fraunhofer IMTE.
VCbattery also offers X-ray as a Service, a flexible deployment model that removes the need for upfront capital equipment investment—relevant for manufacturers in early production ramp stages.
Market Context
The public interest questions that most frequently surface around VCbattery in Europe and North America center on the EU Battery Regulation (2023/1542), which entered into force on August 17, 2023, and is replacing the prior Batteries Directive (2006/66/EC). This regulation introduces carbon footprint reporting requirements (mandatory from February 2025 for EV and industrial batteries above 2 kWh), digital battery passports, recycled content targets, and CE marking obligations—all of which create new documentation, traceability, and verification burdens for battery producers.
For VCbattery, this regulatory environment is a market driver rather than a compliance burden. The inspection data its CT systems generate—covering cell integrity, dimensional accuracy, and internal structural parameters—feeds directly into the documentation and quality evidence that producers need to demonstrate conformity. As regulators demand traceable, standardized quality records for batteries placed on the EU market, inline CT inspection data becomes part of the compliance record, not just a production quality tool.
The company’s emphasis on second-use and recycling inspection also aligns with the regulation’s lifecycle approach, which imposes quality and transparency requirements through end-of-life stages. VCbattery’s scope across R&D, production, reuse, and recycling positions it as a quality assurance partner across the entire battery lifecycle that the EU regulation now formally governs.
On the commercial side, VCbattery is actively expanding its North American presence, with an open hiring role for a Senior Sales Manager US/Canada and planned exhibition at the Battery Show North America (October 2025, Booth 4726) and Battery Show India (October–November 2025, Booth B208).
Future Outlook
VCbattery enters the second half of this decade with clear structural tailwinds. The global EV battery market is scaling toward mass production volumes that make 100% cell inspection practically and economically necessary—a shift that directly expands the addressable market for inline CT inspection. The company’s demonstrator work toward one-second scan cycles, combined with the ERDF-funded BIP Inline project, points toward systems that could integrate into even the most aggressive production line throughput targets.
The EU Battery Regulation adds another long-term growth driver: as traceability and conformity documentation requirements tighten through 2027 and beyond, the quality data produced by systems like the VCB2 transitions from a manufacturing efficiency tool to a regulatory compliance asset. Battery producers exporting to the EU—whether from North America, Asia, or within Europe—will increasingly need to demonstrate exactly the kind of internal quality evidence that CT inspection generates.
For a company of its size, VCbattery has assembled a technically credible portfolio and a well-structured partnership network. The central question going forward is execution at scale: whether VCbattery can translate its technology leadership into broad commercial adoption as gigafactories move from ramp-up to full-rate production. The signs from 2024—the VCB2 launch, the ERDF grant, and the Glimpse partnership—suggest the division is building toward that moment with deliberate intent.
