At the 2025 Battery Show in Detroit, Munro & Associates highlighted Marian — a global leader in precision die-cut components for EV batteries. As the electric vehicle industry races to optimize cost, safety, and reliability, Marian stands out for its deep materials expertise and close integration with customer design teams. In this context, Marian’s battery component manufacturing has become a model for lean collaboration across the EV supply chain.
A Global Footprint with Local Expertise
For more than 50 years, Marian has earned its reputation as a family-owned expert in converting thin, flexible materials. Today, its facilities span Asia, Europe, and the United States — with a new plant in India expanding that reach. Each site connects through one communication network, ensuring fast, consistent collaboration. What’s more, Marian’s engineers work seamlessly from concept to production, keeping projects efficient and aligned across regions.
Jim Taylor, Marian’s Global Business Development lead for Energy Storage, explained that EV and ESS components now represent the company’s fastest-growing segment. While Marian continues to serve medical, consumer electronics, and industrial customers, battery manufacturing has emerged as its strategic growth driver.
This global network delivers consistent product performance and stable supply. These strengths are essential as automakers scale new EV platforms under tight cost and timing goals. Moreover, Marian’s worldwide coordination reduces risk, shortens lead times, and keeps production aligned — key advantages in today’s competitive electric vehicle market.
Lean Integration from Design to Delivery
Unlike typical materials suppliers, Marian embeds itself early in the customer’s design process. Its field sales and engineering teams collaborate with OEMs at the conceptual stage to anticipate challenges in assembly, tolerance management, and packaging. This early partnership prevents downstream rework and supports design for manufacturing principles central to Munro’s lean engineering philosophy.
Every die-cut component — from insulating films to gap fillers — is designed to fit “hand in glove” with the customer’s assembly process. Marian’s engineers consider factors such as part compression, material stretch, adhesive behavior, and robot pick-and-place alignment. By minimizing waste and optimizing geometry, they ensure that even soft, “squishy” foams or intricate laminations are easy to process in high-volume production.
Such precision supports one of lean manufacturing’s core goals: remove variation before it reaches the line.
Engineering Materials for Battery Safety
Thermal safety remains one of the most pressing design concerns for EV battery engineers. Marian’s materials portfolio directly addresses this challenge with insulating layers, thermal interface materials (TIMs), and flame barriers designed to mitigate propagation risk.
The company’s solutions are classified as passive safety components — sitting dormant during operation but activating as the first line of defense during a thermal event. These materials combine heat resistance with mechanical compliance, serving dual roles as both cushion and barrier.
For example, Marian’s polyurethane and silicone foams absorb cell swelling while maintaining compression force deflection (CFD) targets to preserve pack integrity. Meanwhile, inorganic papers and elastomer composites add flame resistance without increasing part count or cost. Each layer contributes to a safer, lighter, and more compact battery pack — an essential outcome for next-generation EV architectures.
Precision Manufacturing: Die-Cut and Beyond
Marian’s process flexibility sets it apart. Depending on the material and tolerance requirements, components can be produced using rotary dies, steel wheel dies, or water-jet cutting. Low-volume or thicker foams are often water-jet cut, while high-speed production relies on rotary systems optimized for robotic pick-and-place installation.
Accuracy drives quality at every stage. Even small misalignments in reel-fed parts can cause downstream defects. To prevent this, Marian maintains tight registration control across all operations. As a result, its components feed directly into automated systems with precision. This consistency safeguards yield, reduces rework, and supports reliable production across global facilities.
This attention to process detail aligns with Munro & Associates’ lean design methodology — reduce part variation, maximize repeatability, and achieve high-volume scalability through evidence-based engineering.
Sustainability Through Waste Reduction
In one demonstration, Marian showcased how optimized nesting minimizes waste between cut parts. Instead of discarding expensive material between component outlines, the company’s engineers worked with process specialists to interlock shapes tightly within each sheet. This technique reduces scrap rates and lowers cost per part without compromising structural integrity.
Such sustainable efficiency reflects the lean principle of “build more with less.” It also helps EV manufacturers meet increasingly strict environmental and economic targets.
A Family-Owned Company Built for the Future
Marian’s longevity comes from its ownership structure as much as its technical expertise. Still family-owned after five decades — and explicitly “not for sale” — the company invests for long-term relationships, not short-term gain. This stability appeals to automakers seeking dependable partners for multi-year platform programs.
Taylor emphasized that Marian’s culture centers on communication, continuity, and craftsmanship. Furthermore, every plant functions as part of one global family, upholding the same high standards for quality and responsiveness. Consequently, operations stay coordinated and dependable across regions. In an era of rapid electrification, this shared discipline builds lasting trust throughout the EV ecosystem.
Lessons from the Battery Show
Munro’s coverage of Marian highlights a crucial point: materials innovation underpins system-level performance. As EV pack designs evolve toward higher energy densities and thinner enclosures, the mechanical and thermal demands on die-cut components intensify.
Companies like Marian demonstrate how specialized material conversion — when paired with lean design thinking — can unlock measurable gains in safety, manufacturability, and cost. Their integration of insulation, cushioning, and thermal management into compact, multi-functional layers exemplifies engineering simplicity.
Key Takeaways for Engineers
- Collaborate Early: Engage suppliers like Marian during conceptual design to align material performance with assembly strategy.
- Design for Manufacturability: Use die-cut and adhesive-backed components that support automation and tolerance management.
- Prioritize Passive Safety: Select materials that combine cushioning, insulation, and flame resistance without excess mass.
- Reduce Waste: Apply nested cutting and lean processing to minimize scrap and improve cost competitiveness.
- Seek Long-Term Partners: Favor family-owned, quality-driven suppliers with proven global communication networks.
Explore More with Munro
For engineers and investors tracking the evolution of EV battery design, Marian’s precision manufacturing offers a blueprint for scalable, safe, and lean production. Watch Munro Live or check out Munro & Associates for teardown insights, engineering breakdowns, and supplier spotlights to see how partners like Marian are shaping the next generation of energy systems.