“At present, our production lines are at full capacity, and orders have increased compared to last year.” Cell manufacturing assembly workshop head Guo Jie (pseudonym) told China Securities Journal reporter. The Jiangsu Times factory in Liyang where Guo Jie is located is the new “lighthouse factory” in Ningde Times last year. At present, the only three “lighthouse factories” in the global lithium battery industry are from the Ningde era.

MMS3125/022-020 “The Lighthouse Factory focuses on breakthrough and innovation, applying advanced technology, improving product quality and production efficiency, and reducing energy consumption and costs.” Chen Ling, deputy general manager of Jiangsu Times, said in an interview with China Securities Journal that Jiangsu Times achieved a 320% increase in production capacity, a 33% reduction in manufacturing costs, a 47.4% reduction in carbon emissions and a 99% reduction in quality defects through intelligent transformation. Vivid figures reflect the results of Ningde era’s pursuit of “extreme manufacturing”.

Intelligent manufacturing leadership

The Lighthouse Factory is known as the most advanced factory in the world, representing the highest level of intelligent manufacturing and digitalization in the global manufacturing sector today.

Why can Jiangsu Times be selected? “Being a leader in innovation and being able to shine a light on a field.” Chen Ling told reporters that Jiangsu era is the third “lighthouse factory” in the Ningde era, which can be selected mainly due to breakthroughs in the application of intelligence and digitalization.

Entering the Jiangsu times cell manufacturing assembly workshop, rows of neatly listed winding cabinet machines came into view. The cell manufacturing and assembly process involves more than ten processes, and the degree of automation is extremely high. The reporter noted that in the large workshop, the sound of rumbling machine operation can be heard constantly, and few workers wear dustproof clothes to adjust the equipment parameters.

MMS3125/022-020

Guo Jie summarized the winding as the cell forming process. In order to ensure cleanliness and dryness, the cell winding needs to be completed in the cabinet. “The positive plate, the negative plate and the diaphragm plate must be precisely aligned when winding,” Guo Jie told reporters. The winding machine rotates at high speed to tightly wind these materials into cylindrical cells. Small cell, need to use more than 10 meters long pole piece. The whole process requires extremely high precision, and any deviation can affect the performance of the cell.

MMS3125/022-020 After the winding process is completed, the formed cell is automatically transported through the conveyor belt to the next process – “AI detection”.

Ge Qifu, senior manager of Jiangsu Times Industrial engineering, said, “Common defects include pole piece folding, tearing and mixing with foreign bodies. In order to accurately detect these defects, eight cameras are equipped in the detection process, deep integration of high-precision CCD camera technology and AR artificial intelligence detection technology, and real-time analysis of the images captured by the camera through the algorithm, quickly identify and mark the defective parts.” Make sure every battery meets strict safety standards. The reporter learned that nearly ten kinds of artificial intelligence detection technologies have been applied to each production line in Jiangsu Times.

Power batteries are directly related to the stable operation of new energy vehicles and user safety. “We can reduce the failure rate of a single cell to one part per billion, which means that one in a billion cells may have a safety problem,” Chen said.