(1) Basic concepts

Lithium ion battery automation production equipment refers to various mechanical equipment required on the lithium ion battery production line, abbreviated as "lithium battery equipment". In addition to the materials used in the battery itself, manufacturing processes and production equipment are also important factors that determine the performance of the battery. The manufacturing of various lithium-ion batteries can be uniformly divided into four stages: electrode fabrication, cell assembly, cell activation detection, and battery packaging.

The electrode manufacturing process includes stirring, coating, rolling, cutting, slicing, and electrode ear forming, which is the foundation of lithium-ion battery manufacturing. It has high requirements for the performance, accuracy, stability, automation level, and production efficiency of electrode manufacturing equipment; The assembly process of battery cells mainly includes winding or laminating, pre packaging of battery cells, injection of electrolyte, and other processes, which require high precision, efficiency, and consistency; The cell activation detection process mainly includes cell formation, capacitance detection, etc; The battery packaging process includes testing, classification, series parallel combination of the individual batteries that make up the battery pack, as well as testing the performance and reliability of the assembled battery pack.

(2) Overview of Industry Chain and Industry Development Trends

① Overview of the Industrial Chain

The manufacturing of lithium-ion equipment is developing closely with the demand of the lithium-ion battery market. With the expansion of lithium-ion battery market applications and the improvement of performance requirements, lithium-ion equipment manufacturing will also face greater technological breakthroughs.

With the continuous improvement of capacity and performance requirements for lithium-ion batteries in consumer electronics products, as well as the increasing demand for lithium-ion battery power in energy storage and power batteries, the lithium-ion equipment manufacturing industry should continue to improve its research and development level, technical strength, equipment process level and automation level in response to the development of downstream industry demands, in order to meet the demands of downstream lithium-ion batteries for high capacity, high power, and high performance The continuous growth of demand for high stability.

Taking the energy storage and power batteries with the most obvious market growth trend as an example, their demand for lithium-ion batteries is mainly high-power and high-performance batteries. For example, lithium-ion batteries used in new energy vehicles often require thousands of battery cells to be connected in series to ensure energy supply. Therefore, the unity of each cell standard and the stability of performance play a crucial role in the performance and quality of the battery pack. In the field of power batteries, the technical level and automation level of production equipment will play an important role in the production process, quality control, standardization of battery cell standards, stability of performance, and improvement of efficiency after grouping.

To a certain extent, the technological improvement and quality control of lithium battery production equipment are important foundations for downstream lithium-ion battery process improvement and performance improvement, and also important guarantees for the future development of the lithium battery industry and the new energy industry represented by lithium battery applications.

② Development overview and trend of lithium-ion battery automation production equipment industry

1) Industry scale development

From the perspective of industry scale, in recent years, the global installed capacity of power batteries has shown a steady and upward trend. According to SNE Research data, the total installed capacity of power batteries worldwide in 2020 was 137GWh, a year-on-year increase of 17%. In the first quarter of 2021, it continued to maintain a high growth trend, with the global installed capacity of power batteries reaching 48GWh, benefiting from the low base impact of the epidemic in the same period last year, with a year-on-year increase of 128.6%.

According to statistics from the Lithium Battery Research Institute of High Industry and Research Institute (GGII), the shipment volume of lithium batteries in China in 2020 was 143GWh, a year-on-year increase of 22%. It is expected that the shipment volume of China's lithium battery market will reach 232GWh in 2021, 615GWh in 2025, and a compound annual growth rate of over 25% from 2021 to 2025. With the sustained high prosperity of China's new energy vehicle market and the extension of the implementation period of new energy vehicle subsidy policies, the production and sales of new energy vehicles have rebounded significantly, benefiting the upstream industry. In 2020, the production and sales of power lithium batteries in China reached 83.4 GWh and 65.9 GWh, respectively. Among them, the installed capacity of power lithium batteries reached a new high, reaching 63.6GWh, a year-on-year increase of 2.3%, and a global share of 46%.

From January to March 2021, the production and sales of power lithium batteries in China reached 32.8 GWh and 23.9 GWh, respectively. Among them, the installed capacity of power lithium batteries is 23.3GWh, with an increase of 308.7%. From the data, it can be seen that power lithium-ion batteries will occupy a significant market share in the future development of the lithium battery industry, which will usher in a new era of development for power lithium-ion battery production equipment. Due to the high safety requirements of power lithium-ion batteries, higher requirements have been placed on the stability and accuracy of power lithium-ion equipment. The industrialization process and production line design of power lithium-ion batteries will become difficult and key research and development points in the industry. Enterprises in the industry need to strengthen cooperation with downstream customers and keep up with customer needs.

2) Key equipment suppliers are gradually concentrating their market share

From the perspective of the production process of lithium batteries, the production process of lithium batteries is relatively complex. The main production process mainly includes the stirring coating stage (front section) of electrode production, the winding/lamination liquid injection stage (middle section) of cell synthesis, and the packaging inspection stage (rear section) of formation packaging.

In addition, different types of lithium battery processes may vary, and their production equipment may also have corresponding differences. The lithium battery equipment corresponding to the first stage of lithium battery production mainly includes vacuum mixer, coating machine, roller press, etc; The middle process mainly includes die-cutting machine, winding machine, laminating machine, liquid injection machine, etc; The latter stage of the process includes formation machines, volumetric testing equipment, process warehousing and logistics automation, etc. In addition, the production of battery packs also requires Pack automation equipment. Due to the significant impact of the front and middle end processes on battery performance, the equipment requirements are high, making it a key investment and construction part in lithium-ion equipment.

Battery manufacturers customize personalized equipment to equipment manufacturers based on their own process conditions, and equipment manufacturers determine the feasibility and direction of equipment research and development based on customer production process requirements. Considering various factors such as product quality consistency and process technology confidentiality, once customers develop usage habits, they will not easily change equipment suppliers, often forming strong alliances. At the same time, with the continuous increase in requirements for lithium battery products, market share is expected to continue to concentrate on top enterprises, presenting a stronger situation.