Battery lamination machines manufacturers received batch orders

It can be seen that at present, the global mainstream head battery companies are planning to gradually switch to the laminated battery in the future products. For example, one of the top 10 lithium ion battery manufacturers BYD, SVOLT, CALB, Farasis, Envision, Sunwoda, and Gotion Hi-Tech have accelerated the introduction and upgrade of the lamination process, and launched new products for the TWh era.

Benefiting from this, since last year, a number of lithium battery equipment manufacturers have successively obtained large orders, and laminated machines account for a large proportion. At the same time, equipment manufacturers in various fields speed up the deployment of battery lamination machines, promote the update and iteration of technical processes, and the replacement of Chinese production has accelerated significantly.

Leading power battery manufacturers adopts lamination process

Compared with winding, the performance advantages of laminations are significant: higher energy density, more stable internal structure, higher safety, better rate capability, longer cycle life. At present, most of the global top 10 power battery companies have adopted the lamination process. In China, BYD, CALB, SVOLT, EVE, Gotion-High tech, etc. have successively introduced laminated batteries in power or energy storage cells.

On November 2, SVOLT officially announced that the third-generation high-speed lamination technology independently developed by SVOLT was successfully mass-produced, achieving a subversive breakthrough in lamination efficiency, reaching 0.125 seconds per piece, compared with the second generation, the efficiency is improved by more than 200%.

As the first battery company to introduce high-speed lamination technology into prismatic battery production, the mass production of SVOLT’s third-generation high-speed lamination technology will lead the power battery industry to accelerate into the lamination era. It is understood that SVOLT’s next-generation 0.06S/chip ultra-high-speed battery lamination machines with laser cutting technology have also begun project development.

In terms of CALB, in 2019, the world’s first all-tab lamination technology and products were launched; In Q2 of 2022, a new generation of “all-pole-lug thermal composite cutting and lamination integrated system” that combines technologies such as all-pole tabs, thermal lamination, and ultra-high-speed lamination has once again made a huge breakthrough in the efficiency and accuracy of the prismatic battery production line of CALB. The whole machine system is as high as 500pcs/min, and the lamination accuracy is improved to 0.25mm, which is far ahead of the similar technical level in the industry.

On September 3, Sunwoda released the SFC480 super fast charging power battery product. In terms of structural innovation, the lamination & non-connector link technology is adopted, and CT detection technology is used for 100% of the cells, so that the lamination accuracy can reach ±0.1mm, and CCD online detection is used to prevent the outflow of defective rates and further ensure the lamination accuracy.

In the same month, Farasis Technology, a leading pouch battery company, also launched a new power battery solution – SPS (Super Pouch Solution). Using its newly developed large Pouch battery cells, the use of all-pole tabs and lamination process makes the cells have lower internal resistance and better low-temperature discharge performance.

On November 1, the Farasis new energy battery project with an annual output of 30GWh started in Ganzhou, Jiangxi. It is reported that the project will plan to produce SPS large pouch battery. At the same time, EVE has also stated many times this year that large cylindrical batteries and laminated iron-lithium batteries will be the company’s key product directions for layout and development.

lamination route in the field of energy storage battery

The energy storage field will also become a new growth pole for laminated battery shipments. At present, in order to reduce unit cost, energy storage cells are developing towards large-capacity cells, which are more suitable for lamination routes. A number of energy storage manufacturers are rapidly introducing energy storage cells with capacities of 280Ah, 300Ah and above, which are widely used in household storage, industrial and commercial storage in China, and energy storage projects at the source and grid side.

For example, on October 20, One of the top 10 energy storage battery companies EVE released a new generation of energy storage battery LF560K, which adopts ultra-large battery CTT technology and “lamination technology”, which has cost and efficiency advantages. It is reported that in response to the key technical problems faced by ultra-large batteries, EVE adopts “lamination technology” to solve the technical problems of LF560K battery in the design of electronic conductance current collection and producibility.

On the one hand, the number of laminated core-package tabs is doubled, which solves the problem of current collection of electronic conductance and reduces the DCIR of the product by 8%; On the other hand, the lamination replaces the winding, the length of the monopole is shortened by 100 times, and the total yield of the cell production can be increased by 3%.

It is said that the EVE3.0 lamination technology can achieve the ultimate lamination rate of 0.2s/piece, which matches the CTT ultra-large battery technology. Due to the large pole piece area, the production capacity of a single battery lamination machine can reach 1.3GWh. At present, the company’s 560k super factory has been built in Yunnan, Qinghai and other places, and global delivery is expected to start in the second quarter of 2024. It is foreseeable that as the penetration rate of the lamination process in energy storage cells increases, the market space is expected to be further opened.

lamination machine equipment manufacturers have received a large number of orders

The introduction of the lamination process has been accelerated, and many equipment manufacturers have received batch orders. Since last year, with the active expansion of production by leading power battery manufacturers, a large number of Chinese equipment manufacturers’ lamination machines have won bids in large quantities, and the future trend of China-made lamination machines is becoming more and more clear.

Among them, Lead Intelligent, Lyric Robot, Hymson, Colibri, Yhwins, Greensun, Fnorient, Geesun, Yixinfeng, ZTH, etc. are actively deploying the battery lamination machines market. At present, the battery lamination machine is mainly divided into 4 categories for the technical route: Z-shaped lamination machine, cutting and stacking machine, thermal lamination machine and rolling machine.

Chinese manufacturers mostly use Z-shaped stacking machines and all-in-one cutting and stacking machines, including Lead intelligence, Lyric Robot, Greensun, Colibri, Yhwins, Supercom, etc.; The thermal lamination machine is relatively more technically difficult, and is used in China such as Lead intelligence and Geesun. Other countries take LG New Energy as an example, which uses a roll-to-stack machine, which has high efficiency but is protected by LG’s patent.

In terms of orders, at present, Lead Intelligent laminators have received large-scale orders, and in March this year, they won the bid for 200+ sets of laminators (cutting and stacking machines and thermal lamination machines). It is reported that in 2021, the shipment of Lead Intelligentbattery lamination machines will reach more than 400 units, and it is expected to reach a new high in 2022. The contract volume of Lyric Robot’s cutting and stacking machine in the previous quarter has increased significantly compared with the past, and it is expected that it will continue to maintain a strong sales trend in 2022.

Colibri won the bid for the SVOLT cutting and stacking machine project in August 2021, corresponding to the winning bid price of 176 million RMB, and will deliver the order in the second half of this year. As far as the market space is concerned, the starting point lithium battery expects that as the lamination process continues to enter.

By 2025, the total demand for pouch batteries and long and thin prismatic batteries will exceed 1,300GWh, and the corresponding stacker equipment space will exceed 30 billion RMB. At the same time, various equipment manufacturers continue to make efforts to effectively improve the lamination defects. At present, equipment manufacturers are actively seeking battery lamination machines and process breakthroughs, and strive to promote the lamination process to the direction of high efficiency, high precision and high yield.

Lead Intelligent currently has a single-machine thermal lamination efficiency of 0.125s/pcs, and a dual-station lamination machine with a lamination efficiency of 0.35s/pcs/station, which has reached or exceeded the level of equipment in Japan and South Korea, leading the world.

The Lyric Robot power cutting and stacking machine adopts a high-speed lamination process. At present, the lamination speed can reach 0.15s/pcs. At the same time, an ultra-high-speed lamination process of 0.125s/pcs is being developed for the whole machine. It has been widely recognized by leading companies in the industry and has achieved mass production.

At the same time, in addition to equipment vendors such as Lead Intelligent and Lyric Robot, which have been deeply involved in the lithium battery industry for many years, many new entrants have also poured into the lamination machine sector. In addition, PV and 3C industry equipment manufacturers such as Autowell and Bozhon are also pouring into the lamination machine segment, which will continue to promote the reform of lamination route and continue to improve lamination efficiency.

For example, on July 24 this year, Bozhon announced that the company received the “Bid Winning Notice” on July 21, and the company won the bid for SVOLT’s lithium battery production equipment project in the Yancheng Phase II base. The winning bid amount is about 202 million RMB, and the content of the winning bid is a high-speed cutting and stacking machine.

In addition, the lamination process has higher requirements for pole piece cutting equipment, and metal molds are expected to benefit as the current mainstream cutting equipment, such as Delixi (Zhihong Precision). At the same time, with the technological breakthrough of laser cutting equipment in the future, it is also expected to bring new increments, such as Hymson, Yhwins, etc.