In 2022, the rapid expansion of the battery manufacturing industry has led to an increase in the demand for production line automation and the introduction of industrial robots, and the sales and penetration of robots in the battery manufacturing industry have increased rapidly.

Autonomous mobile car/AMR Applications:

HE700GEN200 Battery manufacturing is mostly discrete. There are many human workers who transport materials between each production site. This high-cost, inefficient mode of transportation cannot meet the rapid growth of the battery manufacturing industry. In order to meet the needs of frequent line switching and the pursuit of higher efficiency and consistency in battery manufacturing, a large number of AGVs and AMRs have been introduced. Over the past three years, most AGV/AMR companies have invested heavily in products or solutions for battery manufacturing applications.

SCARA Applications

At present, SCARA robots are mainly used in the middle and post-production processes of lithium battery production. In the intermediate process, the use of SCARA robots is mainly focused on welding applications and assembly line loading and unloading. In the latter process, the SCARA robot works with specialized equipment used in liquid injection applications to fill the gap between the battery cell and the housing with electrolyte. The bar for producing efficient, heavy-duty SCARA robots is high, placing higher demands on robot and core automation component manufacturers.

HE700GEN200 Feedback from battery manufacturers shows that Chinese-branded SCARA robots lose speed when carrying heavy loads. Therefore, for consistent speed performance, the manufacturer switched to Japanese heavy duty SCARA robots. With the growth of battery manufacturing, there is also a trend of development of heavy-duty SCARA robots.

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The application of articulated robots

The six-axis articulated robot is the first robot to enter the battery manufacturing industry. However, the cost of a six-axis articulated robot is much higher than that of a SCARA robot with the same payload. More importantly, the movement speed and space requirements of SCARA robots are more prominent than those of six-axis joint robots. Therefore, SCARA robots can easily replace <20kg 6-axis articulated robots. However, in heavy duty applications, 6-axis articulated HE700GEN200 robots of >20kg are still growing at a high rate. >20kg six-axis articulated robots are widely used for handling and packaging heavy-duty large-size power batteries.

The application of collaborative robots

In view of the current problems of automated machine isolation, long delivery cycle, and low intelligence of production lines in the lithium battery manufacturing industry, collaborative robots can be rapidly deployed to achieve flexible production and shorten the return on investment. As carrying capacity and speed increase, cobots will become more involved in power battery manufacturing. In addition, with the development of the Industrial Internet of Things, there are more collaborative robots with artificial intelligence capabilities to increase intelligent manufacturing. Omdia forecasts that cobots for battery manufacturing will reach $425 million by 2027, with a compound annual growth rate of 52.8 percent.