Engineers in the production workshop of Greensun Inc. perform product assembly.

Commissioning engineers in the production workshop of Greensun Inc. conduct commissioning of the products.

"Equipment manufacturing industry is inherently a rather 'conventional' industry because non-standard equipment, from the past to the next five to ten years, can only be assembled by manual labor," said Lu Shuli, the chairman of Greensun Inc. "However, facing the industry upsurge brought about by the explosive growth of the lithium battery industry, a shortage of a large number of industry workers is expected in the future. Therefore, we also hope to use our previous accumulation and precipitation to give the 'digital' wings to intelligent equipment manufacturing." Greensun Inc. was founded in 2009 and is a national high-tech enterprise specializing in the R&D, production, and sales of lithium battery automated manufacturing equipment and automatic logistics lines. Since its establishment, Greensun Inc. has continuously driven the rapid development of automation equipment in the lithium battery industry through its own efforts and has become the "absolute leading" enterprise in the domestic lithium battery equipment stacker field that can create a complete industrial matrix. From imitation to R&D, becoming a "leading" enterprise after more than ten years of deep cultivation in the industry Lu Shuli admitted that Greensun Inc. started by imitating foreign equipment but quickly turned to independent R&D and developed its own flagship product - the stacker. The stacker is crucial in the lithium battery industry. When Greensun Inc. was just established, the industry speed of this machine was approximately one piece per 2 seconds. Through continuous technological innovation, Greensun Inc. increased the speed to one piece per 1.2 seconds. In 2017, it broke through to one piece per second. Now, Greensun Inc. has developed a high-speed equipment that can produce one piece per 0.45 seconds, which is at the world's leading level. It is reported that in the fields of four-station stackers and cutting-stack integrated machines, Greensun Inc. leads domestic competitors by 1 to 2 years. Its market share in the stacker field is as high as 30%, firmly ranking first in the industry and continuing to maintain its leading and expanding advantage. In addition, Greensun Inc. is the only domestic equipment enterprise that can achieve a breakthrough of 0.6 seconds for a single 590 long battery cell. With multiple original technologies, it has successfully filled the market gap. Lu Shuli attributes the rapid and steady growth of Greensun Inc. to the company's R&D team. It is introduced that Greensun Inc.'s R&D center has 101 R&D personnel, among whom the proportion of those with bachelor's degrees or above is 46.5%. There is also a doctoral design and R&D team centered on Tsinghua University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and Tianjin University, mainly conducting research in two directions: cutting and stacking, MES and Internet of Things systems, stackers and automated production lines. Lu Shuli himself is also constantly improving himself and is currently studying as a doctoral student in the Innovation Leading Engineering Doctorate Program of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area at Tsinghua University. Due to the company's high emphasis on R&D, as of May 2020, the company has obtained 190 intellectual property authorizations such as utility model patents, software copyrights, invention patents, and international PCT registrations, and possesses many core leading technologies with independent intellectual property rights. Currently, Greensun Inc. has four equipment companies, namely Greensun Technology, Leader Technology, Wonder Automation, Qunxin Intelligence, and Greensun Automation, and one software company. It possesses four core technologies related to lithium battery manufacturing: stackers, winding machines, injection machines, and logistics boxes, achieving full coverage of square, cylindrical, and soft-pack batteries. It can provide a complete industrial solution for lithium battery individual equipment, as well as provide mid-stage fully automated equipment solutions and entire line design solutions, which can meet the diversified needs of downstream customers. As a result, it has become the first or even the only supplier for many leading battery enterprises such as CATL, CALB, SVOLT Energy, Zhuhai CosMX, and Farasis Energy, the only external supplier for BYD's Blade Battery and the prototype supplier for stackers, and has received high recognition from famous Japanese enterprises such as Panasonic and AESC. Relying on "digitization" to achieve future development Last year, the COVID-19 pandemic affected the global economy. Greensun Inc. achieved counter-trend growth in the case of the entire industry's downturn, with an output value of 500 million yuan. According to Lu Shuli, as of now this year, the company has about 1.8 billion yuan in orders in hand, with an output value of about 600 million yuan. It is expected that the total order volume for this year will exceed 2 billion yuan, and the output value will exceed 900 million yuan. The output value is expected to reach 1.2 billion yuan next year. Lu Shuli said that Greensun Inc. happened to encounter the rapid development upsurge of the lithium battery industry, and the continuous emergence of opportunities also makes it possible for the company to make more attempts. Starting in 2012, as an Anhui native who started a business in Longhua, Lu Shuli established a software company in Hefei, mainly carrying out projects such as lithium battery-related data collection and in-depth data mining, PM2.5 detection, and smart water affairs platforms. In 2015, it signed a manufacturing execution management system cooperation agreement with a well-known enterprise in the industry to conduct the entire process data collection and analysis of the battery from the battery cell to the module, thus laying a certain degree of "digitization" foundation. "Previously, we always provided digital enhancements for customers, but from now on, we are also trying to carry out digital enhancements for ourselves," said Lu Shuli. It is introduced that due to the fact that non-standard industrial equipment can only be assembled manually, a high level of proficiency is required for workers. Greensun Inc. is currently studying, by implementing digital unit management of equipment and creating a "navigation"-like system, allowing novice workers with no experience to understand and master it at a glance, perform "foolproof" assembly and installation of the equipment, and achieve the same level as experienced workers. According to Lu Shuli, currently, Greensun Inc. has about 1,000 workers. When the system is perfected and matured, the assembly efficiency of workers will be greatly enhanced, and the same number of workers can complete double the amount of work. Greensun Inc., which started to take root in Longhua District in 2013, once valued Longhua's strong industrial foundation highly. Now that it has grown stronger and larger, it also hopes to use its digital accumulation to contribute to "Digital Longhua" and serve more local enterprises and parks in Longhua. Lu Shuli believes that the digital empowerment of the automation equipment industry can better cope with the blowout development of the new energy industry at the upsurge, effectively reduce costs and increase efficiency, partially solve the shortage of industrialized workers, and form effective interconnections among customers, employees, and the supply chain. While empowering the development of the new energy industry, it actively supports the construction of Digital Longhua.

Reporter Jin Lu / Text Cai Weize / Picture