Polar ear and aluminum plastic film are accelerating the pace of domestic substitution for imports.

As the key materials in soft pack batteries, polar ear and aluminum-plastic film are still the key links in China's lithium battery industry chain that have not yet fully realized the replacement of domestic imports.

Like the development status and trend of aluminum-plastic film in China, in recent years, pole ears for digital batteries and high-power batteries have achieved domestic substitution, but high-end digital pole ears and power pole ears still rely on Japanese and Korean enterprises, and the process of localization substitution is slow.

Industry insiders believe that domestic enterprises with leading technology and international competitiveness have not yet appeared in the three types of polar ear in China. In the final analysis, Chinese enterprises have not mastered the key technologies and processes for manufacturing high-end polar ear, and the R & D and application capabilities of key materials are relatively weak, so they have been unable to break the monopoly of Japanese and Korean enterprises on the Chinese polar ear market.

As a pioneer in the field of domestic polar ear, Shenzhen Wenyi advanced materials research and Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Wenyi advanced) is a leading domestic polar ear solution supplier integrating design, R & D, production and sales. Its main products are power polar ear, rate polar ear, digital polar ear, etc.

Based on the technical concept of 5S (super safety, super long life, super reliable batch, super new product development ability, super tolerance design), Wenyi has broken through and mastered key technologies and processes, key materials after years of continuous R & D investment, coupled with the key parameter tolerance design idea of robust design, and solved the pain points of excessive glue overflow on the surface of metal belt and low performance of nickel / copper nickel plated lugs, It has achieved the combination of super safety and small glue overflow, and helped domestic polar ear break the monopoly of Japan and South Korea on China's high-end market.

The war of home-made extreme ears

The pole lug is a metal conductor that leads the positive and negative poles out of the soft packed cell. The positive pole of the lithium battery uses aluminum material, and the negative pole uses nickel material and copper nickel material. Both of them are made of modified PP glue and metal belt.

From the perspective of application scenarios of soft pack batteries, they are mainly divided into digital polar ear, multiplying polar ear and power polar ear. Although the BOM of polar ear in soft pack battery is only about 5%-7%, its performance directly affects the performance and safety of soft pack battery, which is equivalent to the importance of aluminum plastic film.

However, like the slow replacement process of domestic aluminum-plastic film in the domestic power market, the domestic replacement process of high-end digital polar ear, rate polar ear and power polar ear is more difficult, and the overall market competitiveness is weaker, so it is difficult to compete from domestic to international globalization.

After years of development, although many domestic enterprises have set foot in polar ear, there is still a large gap between the overall product performance and Japan and South Korea.

At present, the power polar ear of Japanese and Korean enterprises has a market share of more than 95% in China, which is higher than that of Japanese and Korean power aluminum plastic film in the domestic market.

Domestic high-end digital polar ear and power polar ear are mainly purchased from Sumitomo in Japan and ELCOM and pole in South Korea. Domestic polar ear only has some alternative applications in the low-end digital and multiplier battery market, but it is still missing in the power market.

"At present, there is no leading enterprise with international leading technology and international competitiveness in the fields of digital, magnification and power polar ear in China, and high-end polar ear is heavily dependent on Japanese and Korean enterprises." Huang Guanghui, general manager of Wenyi pioneer, told Gaogong lithium battery that there is still a large gap between the performance of domestic polar ear products and that imported from Japan and South Korea, mainly because they have not mastered key manufacturing technologies and processes.

On the one hand, the domestic polar ear still adopts traditional technology, process and process control in the composite molding process of metal belt and modified PP glue. There has been no major breakthrough in recent years, and there are still many pain points.

On the other hand, with the increasingly diversified application scenarios of soft pack batteries and the continuous improvement of safety performance requirements, battery enterprises have put forward more and higher rigid requirements for them, whether digital polar ear, multiplying polar ear or power polar ear.

Huang Guanghui pointed out that there are still many problems in the quality and performance of domestic polar ear, such as:

The nickel / copper nickel plated lug has poor electrolyte corrosion resistance, and the stripping force of the positive and negative lug varies greatly. The nickel / copper nickel plated lug is prone to delamination and leakage. The traditional high frequency makes the glue overflow on the surface of the metal belt too large, while the hot pressing of the copper block will cause the outer modified PP glue to be melted twice, resulting in aging and glue overflow. Both of them will lead to the low compression ratio after compounding, which will bring potential safety hazards to battery enterprises in the process of pack process and top sealing process.

At the same time, the service life of domestic nickel / copper nickel plated polar lugs is short, which can not meet the warranty period of longer service life of high-end digital soft pack batteries and multiple soft pack batteries, nor can it meet the echelon use of power soft pack batteries and the warranty requirements of 8 years or higher.

In addition, traditional technologies and processes cannot analyze and effectively control more noise factors, resulting in poor batch stability of domestic polar ear.

The new product development and design ability of domestic polar ear manufacturers is low, and they cannot respond quickly and meet the development needs of cell factories, which is also an important reason why domestic polar ear cannot be introduced and applied on a large scale.

Since the second half of 2018, a number of soft pack battery factories have been acquired or increased capital and production. Recently, European and American car companies have signed soft pack battery intention contracts with many home appliance core enterprises. At the same time, a number of investment institutions have investigated the aluminum plastic film industry and signed equity investments, indicating that the capital market has increasingly recognized the soft pack battery as a race track.

Whether it is the digital market, the multiplier market or the power market, coupled with the commercialization progress of solid-state batteries, the development prospect of soft pack batteries is very broad, the market demand continues to grow, and the market capacity of aluminum-plastic film and soft pack polar ear is very close.

At present, China has formed a strong competitive advantage in the whole lithium battery industry chain, but polar ear and aluminum plastic film are still the weaknesses of China's lithium battery industry chain. Therefore, it is imperative to realize domestic substitution for import.

Solve the core pain points of domestic polar ear

In fact, domestic R & D in the field of polar ear continues to invest, and new enterprises continue to enter the market. However, like aluminum-plastic film, the commercialization of domestic polar ear is full of ups and downs, and the domestic replacement process is very slow.

Industry insiders pointed out that since the key technologies and processes of domestic polar ear are in the hands of Japanese and Korean enterprises, Japanese and Korean enterprises have a very tight technical blockade on China, resulting in local polar ear enterprises being very passive and product performance being unable to break through.

Huang Guanghui believes that the most critical thing for domestic Geer to achieve from replacing imports to leading development is to break through and master core technologies and processes, and realize the localization of key materials at the same time.

However, a cutting-edge technology that "changes the rules of the game" has two commonalities: one is based on solid scientific principles, which is not imitation or conjecture, but an innovative application of scientific principles; Second, interdisciplinary and interdisciplinary integrated innovation is not "linear innovation" in the fields of development, design, materials and technology.

In response to the above problems, Wenyi pioneered the development of a digital and intelligent dia system through self-developed hardware platform and innovative intelligent algorithms, and broke through and mastered the key technologies and processes, which are the basis and core that affect the performance and batch stability of polar electrolyte. The dia system accurately achieves all the detailed parameters required for physical and chemical reactions to the conditions required for molecular bond bonding, making the van der Waals force in the optimal state. In terms of macro physical indicators, the CP value and CPK value of the whole support are at a high level.

It is reported that the new generation of "small glue overflow and long life" polar ear at the forefront of Wenyi has: unilateral glue overflow ≤ 0.3mm; Nickel / copper nickel plated lugs cannot be peeled off after soaking in electrolyte; Batch stability is more controllable; Compression ratio ≥ 95.7%; Traceability can achieve the digitization and visualization of production process parameters.

"At present, battery customers' demand for a longer life of small glue overflow is very urgent. Our polar ear glue overflow can be ≤ 0.3mm, and the compression ratio of finished products ≥ 95.7%, which has outstanding advantages in safety. "Huang Guanghui said that the company has strong competitiveness in new product development. Relying on the intelligent algorithm of the dia system, as long as the physical properties of the modified PP glue and metal belt are input, the theoretical process parameters can be calculated, and then the DOE cross obtains the executive process parameters through the Taguchi experiment. The quality monitoring and process curve of the production process can be digitized, and the digital collection, mining, analysis, diagnosis, operation and maintenance can be achieved to realize the process in the molding compound process The traceability of parameters ensures the stability of the batch from the root.

It is reported that Wenyi Xianduan has been the designated supplier of many first-line power soft pack battery plants, and is financing to expand production capacity to meet the hard requirements of customers in terms of production capacity. A new generation of "small glue overflow and long life" polar ear new product launch will also be held in the near future.

In general, further efforts are needed to replace imports with domestic polar ear. However, with the continuous growth of market demand and the breakthrough of core technology, it will be the general trend for domestic polar ear to comprehensively replace imports, and wenyixianduan is one of the innovative representatives of domestic polar ear from import substitution to leading development.

Article source:High tech lithium power grid