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Driven by the market trend of intelligence and electrification as the core and policy support, China’s new energy vehicle market is developing at an astonishing speed and entering a new stage of explosive growth.1%, 5%, 13.4%, 28.5%—These four data are respectively for the market penetration rate of China’s new energy vehicles in 2015, 2020, 2021 and 2022. From 2005 to 2015, it took ten years for the penetration rate to break through 1%, it took nearly 5 years to go from 1% to 5%, it took only one year to break from 5% to 10%, and it soared from 10% to nearly 30%. It only took a few months.

Here I have to mention the pride of the Chinese auto brand – BYD. On November 16, BYD ushered in the roll-off of 3 million new energy vehicles. It has provided a strong proof of becoming an “automotive power”, helping to achieve the “double carbon” goal, and empowering the promotion of global green travel. China will become a global leader through technological breakthroughs and product innovations in the field of new energy vehicles.

– BYD –

(Photo source: BYD official website)

The upstream and downstream Industrial chains of new energy vehicles mainly include batteries, electronic controls, motors, electric drive parts and new energy charging equipment. Batteries are the core components of new energy vehicles. With the rapid development of the industry, the industrial transformation is the most obvious. Major car manufacturers have further increased their investment in research and development and production of energy storage technologies such as lithium batteries.

Lithium battery industry

In 2018, the global lithium battery market entered a period of rapid development. China, which accounts for about 70% of the world’s power battery production capacity, is at the center of a new round of energy revolution. With the increasing demand for lithium batteries, the upstream and downstream production capacity of lithium batteries are all in Explosive growth.According to relevant statistics, China’s lithium battery shipments in 2021 will be 327GWh, a year-on-year increase of 130%. It is estimated that China’s lithium battery market shipments will exceed 1450GWh in 2025, and the compound growth rate will exceed 45% in the next four years.

The production process of lithium batteries is relatively complicated, and a lot of special equipment is involved in each production link.Industrial robot,moverobot,machine visionAnd the application of other automation equipment has further improved the automation and intelligence of lithium battery production, ensuring the safety, reliability, good consistency and direct yield of lithium batteries produced.

Today we will talk about the important role that AGV/AMR gradually plays in the production of lithium batteries.

First of all, we need to understand the logistics link of the specific process flow involved in lithium battery production. The lithium battery production process mainly includes the front-end process, middle-end process and back-end process.

Front-end process

The front-end process mainly refers to the production of grade sheets, which mainly includes four links: stirring, coating, rolling and slitting.In the production of lithium batteries, the front-end process is very important, accounting for more than 40% of the entire battery production process. AGV/AMR can be used to replace traditional labor for unpacking, handling, roll changing and line-side transfer of incoming materials.

First of all, in the lithium battery raw material warehouse, lithium battery raw materials are mainly stored in the form of tons of bags. Even if semi-automatic equipment is used in its heavy-duty application scenario, human labor intensity is still high, and there is a certain risk of mechanical injury in some scenarios.At this time, the application of AGV/AMR can effectively solve the above problems, reduce the labor intensity of personnel, and improve the handling efficiency.

Secondly, the automatic loading and unloading of the coating, rolling, and slitting machines in the previous process can use the AMR with high docking accuracy to complete the unmanned precise docking, but it is necessary to customize the model according to the specific scene of the customer; at the same time, raw materials, The high frequency of handling of pole rolls has high requirements on the scheduling, tempo, and accuracy of AMRs; AMRs need to deal with challenges of varying degrees such as large environmental change rates, complex man-machine mixing, and high-cleanliness environments. This also puts forward high requirements on the technology and product reliability of AMR manufacturers.

Middle process

middle process,It mainly includes the winding/stacking of batteries and the injection of batteries. In the core-making process, the traditional mode is manual loading and unloading and docking with the winding lamination machine. Not only the efficiency cannot be guaranteed, but also there are safety risks, and more importantly, the flexibility is insufficient.

The above problems can be solved by using AGV/AMR automatic handling and docking. It can not only meet the requirements of precise docking, but also adapt to a high-clean environment, and it is easy to cross regions and floors.With the characteristics of high precision, high environmental awareness, high flexibility and high efficiency of AMR, it helps unmanned loading and unloading, handling automation, packaging automation and intelligent warehousing and logistics.

Back-end process

The back-end process mainly includes packaging, chemical composition, test sorting, module assembly, PACK assembly, and finished product storage. At this stage, there are many processes involved. AGV/AMR can transfer and connect different processes, so that each process can flow in a more orderly and efficient manner.Especially reflected in the back-end Pack line and finished product warehousing link, the standard load AMR, heavy load AMR and forklift AMR play an important role in this link, greatly reducing the labor pressure.

In the past two years, the iteration of lithium battery technology has been accelerating, and the process is complicated. CTP technology 3.0, blade battery, short knife battery, 4680 large cylindrical battery, and different module design structures have prompted the lithium battery industry’s automated production line to be differentiated and flexible. development trend.

Depending on the type of demand, orders often end inMulti-batch, small batchAt this time, the highly flexible mobile robot AMR + software system platform can just adapt to this change, respond to changing market demands, more flexible and changeable production line layout, more efficient and fast pace, lithium battery manufacturing will continue to Development in the direction of automation, intelligence and flexibility.

In the lithium battery raw material warehouse, lithium battery raw materials have many chemical components and high density, and their particularity requires the mobile robot AMR to handle zinc, copper, and nickel anti-magnetic foreign objects. At the same time, AMR is also required to have higher safety, reliability and stability. .

Ningde era lithium battery pole piece production workshop

(picture source network)

In the production workshop, the AMR in the workshop with large workpiece flow and limited physical space has to face the challenges of high flow, multi-task, and multi-scenario collaborative operation. This not only puts high demands on the hardware stability and individual intelligence of AMR, but also requires a powerful software scheduling system to deal with cluster cooperation issues.This further requires AMR manufacturers to provide stable and reliable hardware products, as well as a group intelligent dispatching system with powerful AI algorithms.

AMR uses laser SLAM as a navigation method, without site modification, can dynamically and quickly build maps, complete the latest path planning, and can run across regions and floors, complete equipment precise docking, material connection and transfer, adapt to complex dynamic environments, and cope with high cleanliness, Tested in a high temperature environment, you can also work 7*24 hours a day, such a capable and powerful employee, you deserve it!In the future, AMR will become an indispensable “new force for intelligent manufacturing” in lithium battery manufacturing plants.

With the expansion of the lithium battery industry and the advancement of lithium battery technology, lithium battery companies have put forward higher requirements for the efficiency, precision, stability, automation, and intelligence of production line equipment. Advanced automation equipment such as mobile Robots AMR, industrial robots, and machine vision More in-depth participation in lithium battery manufacturing.

In the future, with the industry’s requirements for high flexibility and high iterativeness, AMR will also develop in the direction of smarter, more precise, more flexible, and more modularized. KUKA AMR will always maintain its original intention, and through technology and product innovation, help lithium battery manufacturers reduce labor intensity, improve production efficiency, improve storage and manufacturing intelligence, and empower the intelligent upgrade of the new energy lithium battery industry.

Wait, do you still want to ask about the “dual heroes” of the photovoltaic industry? Don’t worry, pay attention, we will show you in the next issue that China’s photovoltaic industry has reached the international leading level in just over ten years!

Let us create a new era of smart logistics together!

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