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Processed powder: nickel sulfate
Nickel hydroxide production process
Tailor-made solution to increase nickel hydroxide production in response to growing demand for batteries for electric vehicles.
Our customer, a major player in the chemical industry, plays a crucial role in the supply chain for electric vehicle batteries. It prepares essential compounds such as lithium hydroxide, nickel, manganese and cobalt for gigafactories, which then transform them into cathode active material (CAM) for the production of battery electrodes. These compounds are manufactured from extracted or recycled raw materials, requiring various chemical reactions to obtain the final product.
Faced with growing demand for electric vehicle batteries, our customer wanted to significantly increase its production of nickel hydroxide. To achieve this, it was imperative to increase the production rate, enabling 20 big bags of nickel sulfate per hour to be rapidly and safely unloaded into large reactors.
CUSTOMER'S MAIN OBJECTIVES
- Significantly increase production output to meet growing demand
- Ensure a fast and safe big bag unloading process, up to 20 big bags per hour
- Maintain a high level of safety for operators, while guaranteeing production efficiency
- Efficient waste management, especially of used big bags
THE Palamatic Process SOLUTION
The answer to these challenges was a close collaboration with our customer to design a conveyor system and an automated, confined unloading process. This FlowMatic® EF500 big bag deconditioning station uses an innovative hydraulic gripper to pick up the big bags from the conveyor and automatically positions and pierces them above a reactor, effectively and safely emptying the nickel sulfate.
The hydraulic gripper replaces the traditional hoist system, offering more precise and safer handling of the big bags. Once emptied, the big bags are transferred to a shredder, where they are broken down before being evacuated to a confined container, effectively treating the waste generated by the process.
RESULTS AND TRANSITION TO AUTOMATED PRODUCTION
This tailor-made solution enabled our customer to cope with increased demand, while ensuring operator safety and production efficiency.
The conveyor system ensures a constant supply of big bags to the reactors, enabling uninterrupted production and a significant increase in throughput.
The implementation of this customized, automated solution underlines our expertise in the automation of industrial processes, and our ability to meet the specific needs of our customers.
This project illustrates our commitment to providing innovative and efficient solutions, enabling our customer to position itself advantageously in the fast-growing sector of batteries for electric vehicles.
