Yunsung F&C will be supplying its mixing equipment to Ultium Cells, the joint venture between LG Energy Solution and General Motors, TheElec has learned.
Ultium Cells has chosen the South Korean battery equipment maker as its supplier of mixing equipment for the first factory at Lordstown, Ohio.
The deal is likely worth tens of billions of wons as the factory’s capacity is over 30GWh. Supplying the main slurry mixer for the factory will be a large order for Yunsung F&C.
LG Energy Solution is applying its production experience it learned from its factory at Wroclaw, Poland to Ultium Cells. The factory at Lordstown will be use 2,300 liter capacity mixers.
Mixing equipment are placed at the front of electrode equipment and is the first steps in the production of batteries. Active, conductive and binding materials as well as solvents are mixed into slurry. This process takes about 12 hours. The larger the mixer’s capacity, higher the productivity becomes.
Large capacity mixing equipment must not hurt the characteristics of the materials while mixing and dispersing them. LG is using five main slurry mixers each for its cathodes and anodes.
Ultium Cells have been preparing to place orders since late last year. After it chooses the suppliers for mixing and electrode equipment, it will choose those for assembly and back-end processes.
LG Energy Solution is using lamination process in its battery production process __ Nain Tech is the exclusive supplier of the equipment needed.
A-Pro is supplying formation and degassing equipment to the South Korean battery maker.
Yunsung F&C was founded in 1986 and supplies its equipment to LG Energy Solution, SK Innovation and Samsung SDI. In 2019, it recorded 119.3 billion won in sales and 10.4 billion won in operating income. The company is preparing to list on KOSDAQ this year.
