China's robot leader Estun is aggressively pursuing extreme lithium battery manufacturing-EEWORLD

Collect

In October 2021 , the State Council issued the " Action Plan for Peak Carbon Reaching by 2030 ", and the production capacity of lithium battery companies was accelerated, and the industry's growth trend was clear; in May 2022 , the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for Promoting High-quality Development of New Energy in the New Era", and in June , the "14th Five-Year Plan for Renewable Energy Development" was released. Multiple policies have helped new energy to usher in a peak of development, with higher application efficiency, promoting large-scale production and application, bringing about a surge in demand for equipment, thereby driving the application of industrial automation products and industrial robots.

Among them, new energy vehicles have entered a period of rapid growth, with strong market demand, driving the rapid growth of the power lithium battery industry. High-standard automotive-grade power batteries have higher requirements for production efficiency, product consistency, and product quality. At the same time, there are many types of new energy vehicles, corresponding to a variety of lithium battery specifications and sizes. Lithium battery manufacturers are in urgent need of highly flexible, efficient, and high-quality digital production lines to ensure sufficient production capacity to meet market demand.

In the future, as subsidies gradually decline, lithium battery companies will gradually increase their requirements for production efficiency and product stability, and the use of robots will gradually increase. The lithium battery industry's share in the many robot application industries will continue to expand, and to a large extent it will serve as the "engine" for the growth of robot demand in the next few years.

At present, China is the world's largest lithium battery market. Domestic lithium battery manufacturers have aggregated the advantages of China's industrial chain to promote the lithium battery industry into the era of extreme manufacturing. The survey shows that the penetration rate of robots in various process stages of power batteries has reached 82% , focusing on the entire process of lithium battery core making, module making, and PACK process stages . With robots and digital technology, highly flexible and intelligent production lines are realized, and the utilization rate, yield rate, and production efficiency of lithium battery production lines are continuously improved.

In order to meet the high-efficiency, high-precision and high-stability production needs of lithium battery structural parts production, battery cell assembly, module and PACK processes, Estun relies on TRIO motion controllers, AC servos, SCARA robots, 6-600kg multi-joint robots and digital software platforms to create a modular, short-cycle, high-efficiency and high-standard complete solution for lithium battery intelligent manufacturing, providing high-quality services to many TOP brands in the lithium battery industry.

The full range of models covers the entire lithium battery industry chain process

Focusing on the intelligent development of the lithium battery industry, Estun has created a full range of 64 models ( as of March 2023 ) covering 3-600kg load robot products.

Estun's full range of 64 robots (as of March 2023)

In terms of the application of SCARA robots, Estun ER3/ER6/ER10/ER20 series SCARA robots are widely used in lithium battery production and core making projects for cell pairing, liquid injection, shell insertion, X-Ray , glue removal, tab welding, and top cover welding.

In the module & PACK line process, Estun customized and developed the ER20-1000-SR/Li series robots for the lithium battery industry. They have 20KG load and ultra-large output inertia characteristics. This model is widely used in the module assembly production lines of many leading lithium battery companies, and can operate continuously, efficiently and stably in processes such as cell handling ( 2-6kg for a single cell ), encapsulation, and ultrasonic welding.

In order to meet the requirements of extra-large battery cells and high-beat production in the lithium battery industry, Estun customized and developed the heavy-load SCARA robot ER50-1200-SR , which has extremely high production efficiency in processes such as large-package loading and module pre-stacking in the module process section.

Estun full range of scara robots: 3-50KG load

50kg heavy load SCARA (ER50-1200-SR) - battery polarity detection (Source: Public media )

In terms of the application of medium and large load multi-joint robots, Estun has customized and developed a 35-220kg load series of lithium battery-specific robots for the lithium battery industry. With more optimized load, precision, structural design, and software algorithms, it is suitable for processes such as stacking, gluing, lamination, and battery cell testing.

In terms of the application of heavy-load multi-joint robots, Estun already has a full range of robots from 220kg to 600kg . The large-load ER220 series (load 220KG ), ER500 series (load 500KG ), and ER600 series (load 600KG ) robots show excellent performance such as high speed, high precision, and super anti-interference ability in processes such as lithium battery baking, heating and static, module offline, boxing, and PACK line packaging. They can also be equipped with 45M ultra- long cables.

Among them, ER600-2800 has a payload of 600kg and a wingspan of 2800mm . It is based on Estun's independent core components and control system, and the core is the control algorithm of the dynamic model. The speed and precision performance are comprehensively improved, the repeated positioning accuracy reaches ± 0.1mm , and the protection level of the whole machine reaches IP54 , which can adapt to a variety of complex working conditions.

Taking the application case of Estun Robot in a leading lithium battery enterprise as an example, Estun Robot has been widely used in lithium battery production links such as component processing, battery cell production process, and module assembly. For example:

In the battery pallet welding process, since the pallet has multiple welding tracks, it needs to cooperate with the positioner for flip welding, which places high requirements on the robot controller; the customer requires the welding speed to be at least 10mm/s and the welding accuracy to be higher than ± 0.08mm , which requires the robot to run faster and have a dynamic algorithm to achieve trajectory optimization.

The customer finally used two Estun ER8-1450-HW arc welding robots, in conjunction with a three-axis positioner, to improve welding efficiency. The entire workpiece was welded within 3 minutes , and the dual-station switching improved production line utilization.

In the battery cell baking process, the customer's on-site battery + material grabbing weight exceeds 500kg . It is hoped that the robot can grab multiple battery cells and transport the loaded robot to the baking oven by the ground rail. The single process cycle is completed within 30s . The material size is large and the eccentric distance exceeds 600mm . Therefore, the robot needs to meet the eccentric load of more than 400kg . One robot plus the ground rail is needed to load more than 5 ovens at the same time. At the same time, the robot controller is also required to directly control the ground rail servo motor to achieve linkage and improve production efficiency.

The customer adopted the Estun ER600-2800 heavy-duty robot, which was equipped with Estun's high-torque and high-speed servo motors. The Estun robot controller directly controlled the ground rail servo to achieve high-precision control. The full range of robots with a 600kg load capacity and long arm reach are Estun's own brand, which has achieved the independence of core components, thereby effectively ensuring the robot's delivery cycle. At the same time, through mature applications in multiple industries, the project was quickly implemented within 30 days.

In the cell pre-stacking process, the weight of a single cell is 2-6kg . The customer hopes that when the robot grabs the cell, it will flip it over and place it vertically and closely together, thereby completing the pre-stacking / grouping process of multiple cells. At the same time, the customer requires a compact production line design to save space and increase production line efficiency by adding workstations; the frequency of single cell stacking is required to be less than 10s . Therefore, the robot has to carry multiple cells at a time, with a heavy load, a wide speed band, and a large size of tooling and fixtures. The total weight of the tooling and fixtures + cells exceeds 25kg ; at high speeds, a robot with super-large inertia is required.

The solution finally adopted by the customer is: after visual positioning, the ER50-1200-SR heavy-load SCARA robot ( 50kg load, 1200mm arm span, repeatability accuracy ± 0.025mm ) is used to follow the speed belt movement, grab two battery cells at a time, flip them, and place them vertically and closely; the use of two heavy-load SCARA robots achieves a smaller size than six-axis robots, which is a more cost-effective modular production line solution.

In addition, in the application cases of this leading lithium battery enterprise, there are ER280-3200 large-load long-arm span six-axis robot used for heating and stopping of battery cell segments, ER20-800-SR used in square shell battery cell gluing process, ER70B-2100-LI medium-load six-axis robot used in battery cell small unit grouping process, ER220-3200 large-load long-arm span six-axis robot used in large packaging loading / module offline process , etc.