How Shanghai Huitian Built a Complete Pouch Cell Pilot Line from Scratch with Wangsheng

A turnkey pouch cell pilot line — 40+ equipment units across 24 process steps, from powder drying to capacity grading.

About the Client

Shanghai Huitian New Material Co., Ltd. is one of China’s leading specialty materials and adhesive solutions providers. With decades of expertise in advanced chemistry, the company has extended its innovation portfolio into next-generation battery materials — supporting the rapidly growing energy storage and EV markets.

To validate new material formulations at the cell level, Huitian’s R&D team needed an in-house pilot line that could mirror real production conditions while remaining flexible enough to test multiple cathode and anode chemistries on a single platform.

Project Requirements

The project called for a pilot line that could turn advanced material formulations into validated cells with production-grade consistency. Three requirements shaped the line design:

• Integrated, end-to-end process. The line had to deliver the full electrode-to-cell workflow — including formation — as one integrated system, from powder drying to capacity grading.
• Multi-chemistry flexibility. The pilot line had to support lithium manganese oxide, lithium cobalt oxide, LFP, NMC, and sodium-ion chemistries on a single platform — without compromising process stability.
• Utilities within turnkey scope. NMP recovery, dehumidification, nitrogen, vacuum, and cooling had to be engineered as part of the line — designed, integrated, and validated together with the main process.

The Wangsheng Solution

Wangsheng designed a fully integrated pouch cell pilot line, with every process step — from powder drying to capacity grading — connected and engineered as a single workflow.

Every process step is connected and engineered as a single workflow, organized in three stages:

Stage 1 — Electrode Preparation: powder drying, cathode and anode mixing, slot-die / gravure coating, auto feeding, calendering, and slitting produce precision electrodes with servo-controlled thickness.

Stage 2 — Cell Assembly: ultrasonic tab welding, pre-drying, winding, hot-press and short-circuit test, pouch forming, tab and pouch trimming, and top and side sealing — followed by vacuum baking, electrolyte injection (glovebox + vacuum standing), and vacuum pre-sealing.

Stage 3 — Formation & Grading: pressure formation accelerates cell activation, then capacity grading, final sealing, and gas-pouch trimming complete the line — from powder to finished cells.

Multi-chemistry by design. The line is engineered for rapid formulation changeover — cleaning and drying procedures between material switches, per-chemistry process parameters stored for one-click recall, and a dedicated electrolyte dosing station that keeps different electrolyte systems separate. The same platform runs lithium manganese oxide, lithium cobalt oxide, LFP, NMC, and sodium-ion chemistries without compromising process stability.

Utilities engineered as part of the line. Instead of managing NMP recovery, dehumidification, nitrogen, vacuum, and cooling water as separate projects, Wangsheng integrated them into the line design — NMP recovery for solvent reuse (recovery rate ≥ 95%), dehumidification matched to each process cell’s dew-point requirement, and centralized vacuum and nitrogen distribution. This approach removed a major engineering risk from the critical path.

Wangsheng pouch cell pilot line equipment — web handling & tension control unit

Key Equipment Specifications

In-House Slot Die & Mold Capability

A key differentiator: Wangsheng manufactures its ceramic slot dies (3× the lifespan of metal dies) and micrometer-adjustable slot dies — giving the Huitian line long-term tuning flexibility without depending on third-party consumables.

Delivery & Implementation

From Design Review to Customer Acceptance — Project Milestones:

• Solution Review — Process mapping, utility planning, layout confirmation
• Manufacturing — Equipment fabrication at Dongguan facility
• FAT (Factory Acceptance Test) — Each unit tested before shipment
• Shipping & On-site Installation — Delivered to Shanghai site
• Commissioning & Training — Process training for Huitian operators
• Acceptance & Handover — Full-line trial run

Delivery & implementation at the Huitian site

Results & Impact

• One platform, five chemistries. Huitian’s R&D team validates manganese-based, LCO, LFP, NMC, and sodium-ion formulations on a single line — without building a new line for each chemistry program.
• Utility engineering removed from the critical path. NMP recovery, dehumidification, nitrogen, vacuum, and cooling came as part of the turnkey scope, cutting engineering risk and compressing the timeline to first cells.
• Lower long-term operating cost. In-house slot-die technology (3× metal die lifespan) reduces consumable spend as the line runs more programs.

Client Testimonial

“As a materials company new to cell manufacturing, we needed a pilot line that worked from day one — not a collection of machines we had to integrate ourselves. Wangsheng delivered exactly that, and the line has been validating our new electrolyte and adhesive formulations at cell level since commissioning.” — Shanghai Huitian New Material

Wangsheng roll-to-roll equipment at the Huitian pilot line

Ready to Build Your Own Pilot Line?

Whether you’re a materials company entering cell manufacturing, or an established battery maker scaling up a new chemistry, Wangsheng’s turnkey pilot-line solution can be configured to your process and budget.