Thinner and thinner is the overall application trend of power lithium copper foil.
In recent years, due to the need to improve battery performance and reduce costs, power battery companies' demand for lithium battery copper foil has grown from 12μm to 8μm and then to 6μm. Chinese leading companies have even begun to try to introduce ultra-thin products of 4-5μm.
From the perspective of market trends, in 2016, the application of lithium battery copper foil in power lithium ion batteries was mainly 9-12μm products; in 2017, 8μm lithium battery copper foil became mainstream products; starting from the second half of 2017, 6μm products entered the market ; In 2020, 4.5um copper foil will enter mass production.
The market penetration rate of 6μm copper foil continues to increase, and it has become the mainstream product in China's power lithium battery copper foil market. The penetration rate in 2019 will account for 30%, and the penetration rates are expected to be 60%, 80%, and 90% in 2020-2022.
Overseas battery companies still focus on 8um copper foil, and the penetration rate of 6um copper foil is expected to be 5%, 20%, and 40% from 2020 to 2022.
It is worth noting that reducing the cost of power batteries and increasing the energy density require lithium copper foil to further improve product performance, and the introduction of thinner copper foil has become an inevitable trend. 4.5um copper foil came into being.
The development of 4.5um copper foil is more difficult, and the consistency and accuracy of the foil machine and cathode roll are required to be higher.
NDTB Copper Foil Technology Group has developed the anode twelve-zone power supply technology to make the current density more uniform; it has developed the electric field edge effect elimination technology to solve the technical obstacle of excessive current density caused by the tip discharge of the anode roller.
At the same time, the use of new additives overcomes the technical difficulties of copper foil that have many defects, many pinholes, low tensile strength, low elongation, high warpage, and tearing edges that affect extremely thin copper foils.
At present, 6μm copper foil has become the core product of NDTB, and 4.5um copper foil has been mass produced and supplied to customers.
In early 2021, NDTB's three major production bases will start capacity expansion, further enhancing NDTB's competitive strength in the field of lithium battery copper foil.