Recently, workers were busy with production in dust-proof caps and boots as well as specially made work clothes, and robot table trolleys carried rolls of lithium battery separators on the yellow tracks and delivered them to the fully automated three-dimensional warehouse at the workshop of Sinoma Lithium Battery Separator (Ningxiang) Co., Ltd. in Ningxiang High-tech Zone.

"At present, the company has 8 wet and 10 coated separator production lines, achieving a 'double increase' in operating revenue and total profit in 2022. It will add 8 new coated separator production lines in 2023, with the annual production capacity rising to over 192 million square meters," said Hu Xuewen, deputy general manager of Sinoma Lithium Battery Separator. The company has made an auspicious start in production in the first quarter this year.

R&D and technical personnel account for over 20%

A thin separator, as thin as a cicada's wing, can prevent short circuits between positive and negative electrodes, and suspend the operation of batteries in case of overheating. It is one of the four key materials of lithium ion batteries.

Sinoma Lithium Battery Separator specializes in the R&D, production and sales of wet and coated separators for lithium ion batteries. In 2021, it was listed among the third batch of "Little Giant" enterprises by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

With a total investment of 1.46 billion yuan, the company has continued to increase its production capacity since its establishment in 2017. In 2022, it achieved an output value of over 500 million yuan and managed to become a supplier of Tesla. It is expected to occupy more than 25% of the domestic lithium battery separator market by 2025.

Sinoma Lithium Battery Separator established Changsha Separator Engineering Research Center, and has worked closely with several institutions and colleges such as Institute of Physics of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Shanghai Research Institute of Chemical Industry. With an industrial innovation incubation platform, it has obtained 53 technical patents. R&D and professional technical personnel account for over 20% of the company's more than 500 employees.

The separator is one of the key inner components in lithium batteries. The thinner the separator, the longer the battery life.

As high-end consumer battery separators have long been monopolized by Japanese and Korean enterprises, the company has increased its investment in the establishment of its technological innovation platforms and team building, and driven the company's high-quality development through innovations in intelligent manufacturing .

In order to solve the problem of high rate of short circuits of ultra-thin separators, Yang Tianle, deputy technical director of the company, led the team to develop the first 5-micron ultra-thin separator with high-temperature closing function in China, meeting the highest international standards and filling the domestic technical gap. The product has been purchased and mass-produced by consumer battery companies such as ATL and COSMX.

Party members take the lead in tackling technical difficulties

Wang Lianjie, 30, comes from Anhui Province. He is now the deputy manager of the Technical Department of Sinoma Lithium Battery Separator and has been honored with a Party member demonstration post.

In March 2022, Wang Lianjie found that there was waste in the coating process due to wastage of leftover materials and length. He immediately reported this situation that affected production capacity and efficiency to the company, and organized 8 technical team members to tackle this problem.

The technicians devoted themselves to the research and adjustment of process parameters, and made the technical breakthrough within a month without spending a large amount of funds on technical innovation.

Thanks to this technology, the utilization rates of separators and coating production capacity have risen by 8.5% and 9%, with the annual efficiency increase of each separator and coating production line reaching over 600,000 yuan and 2 million yuan respectively. On the basis of existing production capacity, it can increase the company’s efficiency by nearly 10 million yuan per year.

"We will further maintain good relationship with our key customers at home and abroad, seek for more orders and seize larger market share." Hu Xuewen added that this year, the company will continue to implement personnel optimization and develop new products, in an effort to develop itself into a leading enterprise in the global separator industry.