In the production of lithium battery materials, the feeding stage of powder raw materials such as carbon black has long faced challenges such as dust pollution, inaccurate measurement, and low efficiency. A lithium battery materials company in Qujing, Yunnan, introduced a complete negative pressure conveying system for its carbon black automatic feeding process, achieving a sealed and automated upgrade from raw material supply to production line. This project addresses the environmental and efficiency issues caused by traditional manual feeding, providing a reliable model for refined control of lithium battery material production.

Customer pain point analysis

Carbon black dust has fine particle size and light specific gravity, making it highly likely to spread in production environments. The original manual method of unpacking and feeding led to high dust concentrations in the workshop, which not only endangered operator health but also increased the load on dust removal equipment and maintenance costs. In addition, manual metering is greatly affected by human factors, with significant fluctuations in feeding accuracy, making it difficult to meet the stringent requirements for mix stability in lithium battery materials. At the same time, intermittent manual feeding is inefficient and cannot match the rhythm of continuous production lines, limiting the release of overall capacity.

Solutions and main features

To address these pain points, the company uses a negative pressure pneumatic conveying system to automatically feed carbon black. The system consists of a suction silo, vacuum pump, pipelines, automatic metering device, and control unit, achieving fully sealed conveying from the raw material silo to the production equipment. No dust leakage during feeding, significantly improving the working environment. The automatic metering module can provide real-time feedback on the feed amount, with deviations controlled within a minimal range, supporting formula accuracy. The control system uses PLC and upper-level computer linkage, supporting remote parameter setting and process monitoring, reducing manual intervention and significantly improving feeding efficiency.

This complete system also has the following outstanding features:

• Enclosed negative pressure conveying: The negative pressure environment effectively prevents dust leakage, meeting environmental protection requirements.
• Relatively accurate measurement: Weightless or reduction measurement methods combined with dynamic compensation algorithms ensure stable feeding accuracy.
• Flexible expansion: The system can adapt to various specifications of ton bag and small bag feeding stations to meet different batch requirements.
• Low energy consumption operation: Uses energy-saving vacuum sources and optimized piping designs, with unit energy consumption at the lowest industry level.

Currently, this set of equipment is operating normally at the Qujing project site in Yunnan. Customers report that dust concentration during feeding has decreased by over 90%, measurement errors are controlled within 0.5%, single-line feeding capacity meets design capacity requirements, and comprehensive operation and maintenance costs have dropped by about 30% compared to before the renovation. The successful implementation of this project provides a replicable and efficient solution for automatic powder feeding in the lithium battery materials industry.