According to reports from South Korean media, 34 enterprises including CATL and BYD are advancing the construction or planning of sodium-ion battery production capacity at 45 production bases, with a total capacity exceeding 400GWh. Sodium-ion batteries have entered a race for large-scale mass production, which has significantly raised attention to the demand for battery slurry processing equipment such as lithium battery defoaming machines.

Relying on advantages in low-temperature performance and cost, sodium-ion batteries are accelerating their application in scenarios such as energy storage and two-wheeled vehicles. Leading enterprises have shifted from technical verification to large-scale capacity construction. Projects including CATL’s 40GWh project in Fuding and 160GWh project in Jining are under progress, and supporting demands from upstream and downstream industrial chains are expanding simultaneously. The accelerated pace of capacity construction means that slurry preparation equipment for battery production lines needs to complete model selection and verification in advance.

Battery slurry preparation is a front-end process that affects electrode sheet quality. Cathode and anode slurries feature high solid content and high viscosity. Active materials, conductive agents and binders require sufficient dispersion. If residual air bubbles in the slurry are carried into the coating process, defects such as pinholes and exposed foil will form on the electrode surface, directly affecting cell consistency and cycle performance. Similar to lithium battery slurries, sodium-ion battery cathode and anode slurries also face processing challenges of high solid content and high viscosity. SIENOX lithium battery defoaming machine combines planetary revolution and rotation motion with vacuum environment. Materials are subjected to revolutionary centrifugal force and rotational shear force inside the container at the same time. Vacuum negative pressure helps discharge air bubbles. It is suitable for mixing and defoaming treatment of high-viscosity materials such as battery slurry, covering multiple stages from laboratory R&D to pilot production, helping battery enterprises stably control slurry batch consistency.

In terms of capacity implementation schedule, it usually takes a period of time for sodium-ion battery production lines from construction to production ramp-up. The demand for slurry processing equipment will gradually expand as production capacity is released. For equipment manufacturers, completing equipment verification during the process finalization stage of battery enterprises often determines the opportunity for subsequent bulk supply.

The industrialization of sodium-ion batteries is accelerating. As a front-end process affecting cell quality, battery slurry defoaming will see continuous growth in equipment demand alongside capacity construction. Manufacturers of lithium battery defoaming machines with stable defoaming capability are expected to obtain more supporting opportunities during the large-scale capacity expansion cycle of sodium-ion batteries.