AGV lithium-ion battery technology path selection

Different from the rapid and explosive growth in previous years, the growth rate of China's AGV market has stabilized in 2019, and the competition among various manufacturers has become more straightforward and cruel. From the information surveyed by GGII, the competitive position between AGV companies has begun. From the incremental market in the past to the stock market, the price war is spreading. 1 To compete for the stock market, cost reduction and efficiency increase are the key. First of all, the cost of AGV is mainly composed of two parts: soft and hard. The software part is mainly the cost of the development and customization of the robot control system (RCS), the processing plan for docking with the MES and WMS systems, and the customization requirements. This part is subject to the soft technical strength of the enterprise, and each company has different solutions. Therefore, the space for AGV price compression lies in the hardware, in which the cost of the car body, car navigation system, control system, safety system, and battery system is relatively high. However, due to the technical reasons of high-end sensors, AGV manufacturers do not have high bargaining power in terms of control, navigation, and security systems. Only in terms of battery systems, AGV manufacturers have certain bargaining power. According to estimates, the cost of the battery system in AGV cars is about 10%, and the proportion of batteries in unmanned forklifts is about 17%. At present, lead-acid, lithium iron phosphate, and ternary batteries are all used in AGV cars. From a technical point of view, these three are mature, and the safety of iron and lithium is slightly higher. The current market situation is that lithium iron phosphate and ternary batteries are constantly replacing traditional lead-acid batteries. This is because of cost reduction and efficiency enhancement, first of all, cost reduction. From the point of view of the simple battery cost, the unit price of lead acid is around RMB 5 per watt hour, while that of iron and lithium is 6 RMB. The ternary is the highest, requiring 9 RMB. In this way, iron-lithium and ternary do not seem to have an advantage. However, as an industrial equipment, AGV has certain requirements for the life cycle. The number of cycles of lead-acid charging is about 500 times, iron-lithium is more than 2,000 times, good manufacturers can do 4,000 times, and ternary batteries can also do more than 1,500 times. . From this point of view, the price-performance ratio of iron-lithium and ternary is very high. The second is efficiency. This is also the absolute flaw of lead-acid batteries. The energy density of lead-acid (watt hour per kilogram) is 50, iron-lithium is about 110, and ternary is 200, so the battery life of ternary is nearly double that of iron-lithium. The battery life of iron-lithium is twice as long as that of lead-acid. This also leads to the higher the weight of the lead-acid battery and the more power it consumes. In the case of 1 KWh, the lead-acid battery weighs 20KG, the iron-lithium battery is about 5KG, and the ternary is about 5KG; from the charging situation, it is also 1 KWh, the rated voltage is 48 volts, and the lead-acid battery takes 7 to 8 hours. , Lithium iron and ternary can be done in 1 to 2 hours. On the whole, lithium iron phosphate batteries are more cost-effective. 2 But do AGVs and unmanned forklifts all need to be replaced with lithium iron phosphate or ternary batteries? At present, it is not necessarily true. Because AGV is different from a car, as a handling equipment, it often runs at full load or even overload, and its chassis weight is positively related to its load. In some special cases, it is not as light as possible. For example, the requirements of the e-commerce environment are low load and high efficiency, and batteries require small size and high battery life. Ternary materials are more popular. Lead-acid batteries are still the mainstream in the forklift industry. Lithium iron phosphate is still in the process of gradual replacement. Therefore, AGV manufacturers are also customizing battery procurement. First, look at the usage scenario and require the energy density of the battery. Second, the battery is a part of the car body. Its size and self-weight are different, and there is no way to buy it straight. In view of this situation, the current battery manufacturers mostly use two models of 18650 and 26650. These two types are small in size, so there are more possibilities for permutation and combination to meet most customer needs. At the same time, the technology is mature. Second and third-tier battery manufacturers can do it. Zhang Xin, a decomposer of the Advanced Robotics Research Institute, said: AGV batteries and their management systems are the source of motive power for AGV products. At the beginning of product design, its size, capacity, weight, etc. must first be considered. This is not only related to the industrial design of the product, but also Affect the performance and power consumption of the product. In terms of battery selection, nominal voltage, peak voltage, battery internal resistance, self-discharge rate, charging time and charging method are all factors that need to be considered. In addition, the integration of an intelligent battery management system makes the safety, flexibility, efficiency, and reliability of AGV products more prominent. 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