Battery Manufacturing EquipmentHow to compare battery winding throughput without losing the conditions
Pieces per minute means something only next to the electrode length, the cell geometry and how the output was counted.
By BatteryEquip Editorial Team · 2026-11-04
Winding turns a cathode, an anode and two separator layers into a jelly roll: a round core for cylindrical cells or a flattened one for prismatic cells. Stacking, the main alternative, builds the cell from cut sheets instead. Both sit in the same part of the line, between electrode slitting and cell assembly. This page is about comparing winders, where the headline number is usually pieces per minute.
Why PPM alone misleads
A winder's cycle has a fixed part and a part that grows with the electrode. Splicing, cutting, taping, unloading and pin changes take roughly the same time per core. Winding travel depends on how many metres of electrode go into each core. A machine rated at eight pieces per minute on a short electrode can be slower than one rated at six on a long one.
So keep three things next to every rate: the electrode length per core, the finished core or cell dimensions, and what was counted. A quoted maximum web speed in metres per second is a separate figure. Converting it into finished cores per minute needs the full sequence of non-winding operations and their times.
Three listings at the same length
The LEAD prismatic EV cell winding machine states eight pieces per minute at a 16-metre electrode length. The Han's SLE prismatic winder states six pieces per minute at 16 metres, and the Hymson high-speed machine states at least 5.5 pieces per minute at 16 metres. The shared length makes the figures easier to read side by side. It does not make the conditions identical: cell size, material construction, included inspection and the way output was counted can still differ. Ask each supplier for those details before treating the gap as real.
Quality figures behind the speed
Speed is worth little if the core is badly aligned. In a lithium-ion cell the anode is normally made slightly wider and longer than the cathode, so the anode overhangs the cathode at every edge. If the cathode reaches past the anode, lithium can plate at the exposed edge during charging. Winders therefore control web tension and lateral position on every layer, and most production machines inspect the layer edges with cameras.
Ask what overhang the machine holds, how it is measured (camera, X-ray or a sectioned sample) and how results are linked to each core. Ask for the tension range and control method for each web rather than one tension tolerance for the whole machine. Separator tension matters as much as electrode tension, because a stretched separator can shrink or wrinkle later.
What the quotation must include
List the unwind arrangement, splicing, guiding, the winding-pin or mandrel system, the inspection stations and the downstream transfer. Describe the family of cell sizes you plan to make and ask for the changeover procedure and its verification. A steady-state rate leaves out roll changes and product changes, so ask for an availability or overall equipment effectiveness figure with its definition, or plan to measure it during acceptance.
If you are still choosing between winding and stacking, compare against the Yixinfeng integrated die-cutting and stacking system and the Kejing Z-fold stacker: stacked cells avoid the bent corners of a flat jelly roll but use different cutting and handling steps. The incoming electrode also matters, so the coating width page is worth reading alongside this one.
Define the acceptance run
Agree the run before signing. Use your own electrode and separator, state the run duration, the counted output, the allowed stoppages and how rejects are handled. Fix the overhang measurement and sampling plan, and record tension settings with the results. The acceptance testing page describes how to split this between the supplier's factory and your site.
The production brief guide helps describe the cell, and the guide to comparing supplier responses shows how to keep each condition beside each claim. The figures are the manufacturers' own published statements; ask each to confirm them for your cell.
Sources
- Kwade et al., Current status and challenges for automotive battery production technologies, Nature Energy 3 (2018) 290-300 · checked 2026-11-04
- LEAD prismatic winding machine, manufacturer product page · checked 2026-09-26
- Han's SLE prismatic winding machine, manufacturer product page · checked 2026-09-26
- Hymson prismatic high-speed winding machine, manufacturer product page · checked 2026-09-26