PR98236

NINGDE, China, Oct. 12, 2022 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

Sichuan Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited (CATL-SC), a wholly-owned

subsidiary of CATL, has been added to the Global Lighthouse Network (GLN) by

the World Economic Forum, making it CATL's second Lighthouse plant following

its Ningde facility, which was included in GLN in 2021. So far there are only

two Lighthouse factories in the battery industry globally, both of which are

CATL's production facilities.

The World Economic Forum made the following remarks about CATL: "To catch up

with significant business growth, and higher quality and sustainability

expectation, CATL builds up a large greenfield in Yibin city. The plant further

deployed in depth AI, IoT and flexible automation on top of CATL Ningde

headquarters lighthouse digital initiatives, and has achieved 17% increased

line speed, 14% reduced yield loss, and zero carbon emission."

The Global Lighthouse Network is a community of manufacturing sites that show

leadership in the adoption and integration of the cutting-edge technologies of

the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Francisco Betti, Head of Advanced

Manufacturing and Value Chains at the World Economic Forum, said: "The new

factories of the Global Lighthouse Network show how manufacturers can meet

business goals while having a positive impact on economies, peoples'

livelihoods and the environment. The challenge for companies and policymakers

is how much they can scale-up these innovations across whole production

networks and value chains."

Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies drives productivity, sustainability

and resilience

In the context of comprehensive digital transformation of battery industry,

CATL is accelerating digital innovation in battery's full life cycle regarding

battery design, manufacturing, utilization, and recycling, so as to meet the

requirements for high precision process, fast production speed, and high

quality.

- Green Energy Management. CATL has developed an energy management system that

collects data from over 40,000 sensors deployed in the plant through Narrow

Band-IoT & 5G wireless solutions. Supported by an advanced algorithm, the

system has calculated each equipment's operating parameters with optimized

energy consumption of the system.

- Intelligent production management. By developing a closed-loop coating

process control algorithm, CATL-SC is able to model and deeply learn the

combined parameters of more than 1,000 powders and fluids, achieving precise

control of foil coating in micron and milligram levels, thus greatly improving

the consistency of products.

Also, based on virtual and simulation development, pack lines of CATL-SC have

achieved 80% automatic. Supported by automatic gluing process, the manpower of

the gluing process line is reduced by 70%, achieving 99.8% qualified rate.

- Extreme quality management. With the application of high-precision visual

inspection equipment and AI technology, CATL-SC has achieved recognition

accuracy to micron level, which stimulated breakthroughs of defect detection in

process of welding, winding and previous process under high-speed fluid

condition.

- Highly precise safety management. Safety management is crucial to CATL-SC,

which is currently one of the largest EV battery production bases in the world.

By combining video streaming and AI technology, it has reduced the risk of

missed inspection. Through video streaming, the system can automatically

identify operation mistakes such as mixed placement of signs and channel

occupation, and is able to label and save images automatically. Supported by

infrared thermal and AI technology, it has centralized temperature monitoring

of battery cells in warehouses and temperature monitoring of battery cells in

key high-temperature processes.

As a global leader to achieve the world's first Lighthouse factory in the

battery industry, CATL has reduced the defect rate of its products to PPB

level. It is now in an effort to replicate its Sichuan plant's experiences in

agile and flexible intelligent manufacturing in all its 13 production bases

worldwide, thus contributing to the high-quality development of the new energy

industry amid the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

SOURCE: Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited

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