Toray Engineering develops eco-friendly coater for secondary lithium ion battery (LiB) electrodes.

This new device from Toray coats electrode materials over base materials in the LiB electrode manufacturing process. 

The company also announced a new ‘highly efficient’ drying system that according to Toray can reduce energy consumption by about 25% compared to conventional machines.

LiB electrodes are produced by applying coating fluid made by blending electrode materials and organic solvent to metal base materials in advance and drying it. Although hot-air drying, where LiB electrodes are dried with heated air, is commonly employed, the inside of the furnace must be constantly heated to a high temperature to control the concentration of organic solvent in the furnace below the explosion-proof standards ^while taking in outside air for ventilation. Therefore, energy consumption in the electrode production process is said to account for about 45% of that in the whole LiB manufacturing process.

Toray Engineering has developed a proprietary drying system that circulates and reuses hot air in the dry furnace to reduce energy consumption in the LiB electrode manufacturing. This technology integrates the dry furnace and the organic solvent collection unit into a single system to collect the solvent and circulate and reuse heat even though hot air used in the dry furnace went through exhaust treatment in solvent collection equipment outside the factory in the past. 

This circulation cycle aims to make it possible to minimise energy loss during solvent collection, eliminating the effects of phenomena such as liquefaction of organic solvent in the duct due to outside air, which were issues in conventional systems.

In addition, because this device circulates and reuses hot air, it is possible to simplify the air supply ducts for taking in outside air, exhaust air ducts for discharging used air to the atmosphere, and exhaust gas treatment equipment to reduce initial costs.