Cells in at one end, tested packs off the other — one takt across both segments +86 15327155363 sales@batterylinepro.com

Module segment / seventeen stations, three levels

Battery Module Assembly Line,
Station by Station

Prismatic cells in at one end, welded and tested modules out the other — with every station marked AUTO, SEMI-AUTO or MANUAL before you sign anything.

Send your cell and module drawing Walk the seventeen stations

Seventeen stations — station 09 is the only SEMI-AUTO position on the line, and station 13 is the one that cannot be undone.

The two stations that decide it

  • Station 09 — the only SEMI-AUTO position
  • Station 13 — the one that cannot be undone
  • Station 16 — where the verdict is attached

By the time this segment is quoted, the module is already designed

Which means the line is not being asked what a module should be. It is being asked to build the one you already drew.

The cell is fixed

Prismatic, already contracted, already the thing the module drawing was built around. Nothing on this segment gets to prefer a different one.

The module structure is fixed

How many cells in series, where the busbars run, where the CCS sits, what holds the stack together. Somebody signed that drawing before anyone quoted a line.

What is still open is the sequence

In what order those cells become a module, which positions are machines, which are people, and what has to be true at each handover.

That is the whole subject of this page

Not what a module is — what it takes to build the one you have, repeatably, at a takt somebody already promised.

The pack segment is the other half of the same line and is written up separately, station by station. This page stops where a finished module leaves — what happens to it after that belongs to the pack segment page.

Prismatic cells delivered on protective trays before entering the module segment
The cell — contracted before the line was
Assembled module with busbars fitted along its length
The module — drawn before the line was quoted

Three ways a module segment goes wrong, and the station where each one happens

None of them is exotic. All three are the same shape: something upstream was almost right.

Cell scanning and sorting station at the head of the module segment
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Station 02 — sorting that was never tightened

A group is only as consistent as the rule used to build it. If the rule is loose, every module leaving this segment is slightly different from the next, and nothing downstream re-opens the question. The pack that shows it is somewhere else entirely, months later.
The sorting machine
Pressing and banding position with fixtures on the work surface
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Station 09 — a stack that was pressed but not held

Pressing gives the stack its dimension; banding is what keeps it. Get the sequence or the tension wrong and the stack relaxes after the welder has already treated it as fixed. The module still looks right — it just is not the length the pack enclosure was drawn for.
Section 08
Gantry welding head above a module on the line
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Station 13 — welding onto a part that moved

The welder is fast and accurate and completely uninterested in whether the terminal is where the previous station said it was. Everything before it exists to make that assumption safe.
Section 07

All three share a property that makes them expensive: the operation that reports the problem is never the operation that caused it. That is why this page names all seventeen positions rather than describing the segment as “automated”.

A module segment does not fail at the welder. It fails twelve operations earlier, and the welder is simply the first machine that cannot work around it.

Station 02

Where the rule was set, loosely.

Station 09

Where the stack was pressed but not held.

Station 13

Where it shows, not where it started.

The module segment: seventeen stations, named

Levels describe the standard configuration. Cells arrive sorted; modules leave welded, tested and ready for the pack segment.

Auto Semi-auto Level set by tier
  1. 01Cell unloading and feedingAuto
  2. 02Cell scanning, OCV test and sortingAuto
  3. 03NG removal and OK refillAuto
  4. 04Cell flipping and groupingLevel set by tier
  5. 05Large-face plasma cleaningLevel set by tier
  6. 06Cell tapingLevel set by tier
  7. 07End plate and insulator handlingLevel set by tier
  8. 08Module stackingAuto
  9. 09Pressing, shaping and steel bandingSemi-auto
  10. 10Polarity and insulation testAuto
  11. 11Terminal addressing and laser cleaningAuto
  12. 12Busbar plate and CCS assembly installationLevel set by tier
  13. 13Busbar laser weldingAuto
  14. 14Post-weld cleaning and inspectionLevel set by tier
  15. 15Manual re-inspection and communication testManual
  16. 16Module end-of-line testAuto
  17. 17Module offloadLevel set by tier
SEMI-AUTO means the machine owns the cycle and a person owns part of the loading. It appears exactly once in this segment, at Station 09, and it is the subject of section 08.
Stations 02, 03, 10 and 16 are machines and instruments that run their own cycle and report their own result — an operator loads the part and reads the verdict.
Station 16 is the module end-of-line test; its thresholds are published on the EOL testing page. Station 17 hands the module to the pack segment, and who owns that handover is argued on the home page.
Seventeen stations, not seventeen machines. Some share a footprint — NG removal happens at the sorting station, post-weld cleaning at the welding station. They are listed separately because each is separately checkable, not because each has its own floor space.
The seven rows marked level set by tier have no level published yet: neither a machine in the equipment list nor a stated level exists for them, so the level is set by tier and appears in the station list that comes back with your layout. We would rather leave the column open than fill it with a guess.
Station 1 — cell unloading and feeding
Station 01 — unloading
Station 8 — module stacking fixtures
Station 08 — stacking
Station 13 — busbar laser welding enclosure
Station 13 — welding
Station 15 — manual re-inspection and communication test
Station 15 — re-inspection

Seventeen stations, four things they are doing

Read as a list it is seventeen stations. Read as a sequence it is four moves, and only one of them is irreversible.

Stations 01–06

Prepare the cell

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Stations 07–09

Build the stack

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Stations 10–14

Join it

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Stations 15–17

Prove it and hand it over

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Prepare the cell · build the stack · join it · prove it and hand it over.

Nine stations before anything is joined

More than half the segment happens before two parts are permanently attached to each other. That is not inefficiency — it is the only window in which a mistake is still cheap.

One phase you cannot re-enter

Everything in “join it” assumes the stack is final. If it is not, the assumption fails at the welder rather than at the operation that broke it.

The proof is three stations, not one

A module is re-inspected, tested and only then offloaded — because a verdict that travels with the module is worth more than a verdict that travels with the shift.
Module segment seen along its length, from stacking through to welding
Stacking through welding — the phase you cannot re-enter

Three things must already be true before the welder is allowed to fire

The welding station is not where a module is made or lost. It is where the previous twelve stations get their answer.

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  1. Why this one

    Of the seventeen, this is the only station whose success is decided somewhere else.

    The machine does what it is told, quickly and repeatably. What it is told comes from Station 11 (where the terminal is), Station 12 (what is seated on top of it) and Station 09 (whether the stack is still the length everyone assumed).
  2. What has to be true

    Three conditions, none of which the welder checks.

    The terminal has to be where addressing said it was. The busbar plate and CCS have to be seated flat rather than nearly flat. The stack has to have stopped moving. Each is another station's output, and the welder inspects none of them — it welds where it was pointed.
  3. What it costs when one is not

    Not a bad weld you can see.

    It is a joint with less contact than the drawing assumed, on a module that will pass its tests and then spend ten years carrying current through the one position that was never designed to behave like a fuse. By then the module is inside a pack, in somebody's installation.
  4. What we do about it

    The three conditions are stations, not assumptions.

    Addressing and laser cleaning immediately before, CCS installation immediately before that, and the banded stack checked before the module ever reaches the joining phase. The weld runs in-line on a located part, not on a part that was placed.
  5. What proves it

    Figures on the page that owns them, with the acceptance method beside them.

    Weld geometry and joint-strength criteria, and the method used to accept them, are published on the busbar welding station page — where they can be checked line by line against the quotation on your desk.

Weld geometry and joint-strength figures are stated once, on the busbar welding station page.

Welding station receiving a located module on the line
In-line, on a located part
Module top face with busbar plate and CCS seated before welding
What has to be seated flat first
Module after welding, busbars joined along its length
After — the assumption is now permanent

One station is neither automatic nor manual, and that is the honest answer

Pressing is the machine's job. Banding is not. A quotation that calls this station automated has rounded in the direction that flatters it.

Level 01

AUTO

The station owns the whole cycle.
Level 02

SEMI-AUTO

The machine owns the cycle, a person owns part of the loading. Exactly one station in this segment.
Level 03

MANUAL

A person does the work.
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  1. Why this one

    It is the only position in the segment that needs both.

    Servo pressing gives the stack a dimension; steel banding is what makes that dimension survive the rest of the line. Calling the pair AUTO overstates it; calling the pair MANUAL hides the machine that does the hard part.
  2. Rounded up to AUTO

    Two errors, one shift.

    Your headcount model loses a person who is actually standing there, and your takt model assumes a cycle nobody has to keep up with. Both show up at commissioning, together, on the same shift.
  3. Rounded down to MANUAL

    You budget and train for the wrong thing.

    You budget hand-work at a position that is machine-paced, and you plan a training programme for a skill the operator does not need — while the skill they do need, keeping the banding consistent, gets no attention at all.
  4. What we do about it

    Three levels, published in three places.

    The segment publishes three levels rather than two, and this station carries the middle one. AUTO, SEMI-AUTO and MANUAL appear on the layout drawing, in the station list, and in the acceptance document — and they agree in all three.
  5. What proves it

    A question you can ask before you order.

    Ask any supplier which stations in the module segment are SEMI-AUTO. A segment quoted with only two levels has either never had one, or has stopped mentioning it.
Servo pressing mechanism closing on a module stack
Pressing — the machine's half
Open bench position where steel banding is fitted by hand
Banding — the person's half
Banded module holding its pressed dimension
A stack that will still be this length at the welder

The same module segment serves storage and EV customers

The sequence does not change between them. The module envelope does — and with it every fixture that touches it.

Prismatic storage cells with busbars and terminal hardware

Energy storage

Commercial and industrial systems first, then grid-scale, then residential. The blueprint module here is 1P13S, and the pack it goes into is written up on the energy-storage page.
Module installed into a pack enclosure with cooling plate and harness

EV modules and packs

The same seventeen stations in the same order. What changes is the module envelope and therefore every fixture that touches it: stacking pitch, pressing length, busbar geometry, CCS footprint.

The sequence does not move

Cells are prepared, stacked, joined and proved in that order regardless of who the module is for.

The tooling does

Which is why the first question is about your module drawing rather than about your market.

Station lists mislead across markets too

Two identical seventeen-row lists can describe two segments, only one of which will take your module.

Your cell decides the first six stations; your module decides the next eleven

Which is why both drawings are asked for before anything is cut, and why neither can be substituted with a blueprint.

  • Stacking pitch
  • Pressing length
  • Busbar geometry

The cell sets the front of the segment

How cells are presented, flipped, cleaned and taped is dimensioned from the cell you contracted, not from a representative one.

The module sets the back

Stacking pitch, pressing length, where the busbars run and what the CCS sits on — all of it comes off your module drawing.

1P13S is the blueprint we quote against

Blueprint module and pack dimensions are stated once, on the energy-storage pack line page.

A segment quoted without those two drawings is a segment quoted against somebody else's module. It will be the right price for the wrong line, and the difference appears as tooling changes after the order rather than before it.

Terminals and top plate of prismatic cells
The cell — front of the segment
Busbar carrier and cooling plate geometry above a module
The module — back of the segment

This is the half of the line where the machines are

Which is worth stating plainly, because the other half is not — and a single headcount figure for “the line” hides both.

4 Operators in the cell-handling section
BLP-P8S and BLP-P15 alike
  • 4Module welding section, BLP-P8S
  • 3Module welding section, BLP-P15
  • 1SEMI-AUTO station in the segment

The higher-automation tier needs one fewer person in the welding section, not ten fewer — automation in this segment buys consistency and takt rather than an empty floor. The pack segment is staffed very differently, and its figure is published on the pack assembly line page rather than averaged into this one.

Hand-work bench position in the module segment
Where the person in station 09 stands

Send the cell drawing and the module drawing

Those two decide every fixture in this segment. With them we can come back with a station list, the levels against each station, and a layout drawn into your bay.

Send the two drawings WhatsApp

Reply within 24 hours / If the module is not designed yet, say so — that changes what is useful to send

What a module has to be when it leaves this segment

Four properties. All four are checkable, and all four are what the pack segment is entitled to assume.

  1. Property 01

    Dimensioned

    The banded stack is the length and width the pack enclosure was drawn for, not the length it was before banding.
  2. Property 02

    Joined

    Busbars welded, post-weld cleaned and inspected, with nothing loose on top of the module.
  3. Property 03

    Proven

    Polarity, insulation and communication checked, with a result attached to the module rather than to the shift.
  4. Property 04

    Located

    Sitting on the carrier the pack side's receiving tooling expects.

The handover itself is a whole-line question

Who owns the carrier, the receiving tooling and the takt on both sides is argued on the home page, because it belongs to whoever owns both segments rather than to this one.

Module EOL thresholds are published separately

What is measured, and against what, is on the testing page.
Finished modules leaving the segment on the transfer rack
Station 17 — offload
Module positioned on the carrier the pack side expects
Located, not just finished

What a different module does to this segment

Less than people fear at the front of the segment, and more than they expect at the back.

The sequence survives

Seventeen stations in the same order. A format change does not re-plan the segment.

The front adapts cheaply

Presentation, flipping, cleaning and taping are dimensioned from the cell; within the compatibility envelope these are settings and light tooling.

The back is where the cost is

Stacking pitch, pressing length, busbar geometry and CCS footprint all come off the module drawing, and changing it changes fixtures rather than parameters.

What falls inside the compatibility envelope, and what a change costs in tooling and downtime, is set out on the compatibility page — with figures, which is why they are not repeated here.

Fixtures and tooling on a module segment station
Fixtures, not parameters

Where the pack segment, the equipment and the figures are written up

  1. Cell handling
  2. Module segment — you are here
  3. Pack segment
  4. Offload

If the module is not final, say so before it is quoted

A segment quoted against a module that is still moving is a segment quoted twice.

The second quotation is the expensive one

Tooling is cut from your module drawing. When the drawing moves the tooling moves with it, and by then it exists.
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Finished module terminals at the end of the segment
What seventeen stations add up to