What Are the Lithium Battery Production Equipment and Lithium Battery Materials?

1. Lithium Battery Production Equipment

The equipment utilized in the production of lithium-ion batteries is categorized into three main segments based on the production process: front-end equipment, mid-end equipment, and back-end equipment.

a. Front-end Equipment for Lithium Batteries:

This equipment primarily focuses on the electrode production process, encompassing vacuum mixers, coating machines, roller presses, and slitting machines. The coating process demands that the stirred slurry be uniformly applied to the metal with an accuracy of less than 3 μm in thickness. Ensuring a surface free of burrs on the slice is crucial, as any imperfections can significantly impact subsequent processes. Hence, front-end equipment stands as the pivotal machinery in battery manufacturing, directly influencing the overall production line's quality.

b. Mid-end Equipment for Lithium Batteries:

This category mainly involves the cell assembly process, which includes winding machines or lamination machines, cell shell machines, liquid injection machines, and sealing and welding equipment.

c. Back-end Equipment:

Back-end equipment covers the cell activation, formation, capacity detection, and assembly into battery packs. In comparison, the mid to back-end equipment, like shell entry, sealing, inspection machines, and others, are relatively simpler and have lower technical requirements.

Lithium battery equipment faces limitations in design, production technology, and management levels. It has yet to reach a certain enterprise scale, thereby impacting its ability to ensure a stable supply and meet demand.

2. What are the raw materials of lithium batteries?

The raw materials of lithium batteries are mainly composed of positive electrode materials, negative electrode materials, separators, and electrolytes.

a. Positive electrode material:

Among the positive electrode materials, the most commonly used materials are lithium cobalt oxide, lithium manganate, lithium iron phosphate and ternary materials. The cathode material occupies a large proportion, because the performance of the cathode material directly affects the performance of the lithium ion battery, and its cost also directly determines the cost of the lithium battery.

b. Negative electrode materials:

Among the negative electrode materials, the current negative electrode materials are mainly natural graphite and artificial graphite. As one of the four major components of lithium battery, the negative electrode material plays an important role in improving the capacity and cycle performance of the battery, and is the core link in the midstream of the lithium battery industry.

c. Diaphragm:

The market-oriented diaphragm materials are mainly polyethylene and polypropylene diaphragms. In the structure of lithium batteries, the separator is one of the key inner layer components. The performance of the separator determines the interface structure and internal resistance of the battery, which directly affects the capacity, cycle and safety performance of the battery. The separator with excellent performance plays an important role in improving the overall performance of the battery.

d. Electrolyte:

Electrolyte is generally prepared from high-purity organic solvent, electrolyte lithium salt, necessary additives and other raw materials under certain conditions and in a certain proportion. The electrolyte plays the role of conducting ions between the positive and negative electrodes of the lithium battery, which is the guarantee for the lithium ion battery to obtain the advantages of high voltage and high specific energy.

With the widespread usage of lithium batteries, enterprises are consistently expanding their production capacities to meet growing demands. Simultaneously, companies specializing in lithium battery equipment are ramping up their output. Presently, China is actively shaping new energy policies, resulting in a surge of emerging enterprises focused on producing lithium battery equipment. Consequently, the market competition for lithium battery equipment is intensifying significantly.

China's production processes and management standards for lithium-ion battery materials urgently require transformation and upgrade. Leveraging information technology becomes crucial to enhance, refine, and restructure production elements, revamp enterprise organization and management, innovate production methodologies, improve asset quality and service capabilities, all in response to the rapidly evolving market landscape.