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

Module stacking and pressing / BLP-SP — the station that turns a stack into a dimension

0–8000 N Is What This Machine Can Apply —
the Number Inside It Is Yours

Every pressing station publishes a maximum. The figure that decides your module is the one chosen inside the range, and it comes from your cell and your end plates rather than from our datasheet.

Send your cell and end plate drawing Go to the pressure record question

⚠️ Both figures describe the machine. Neither is a recommendation for your module — which force your stack is pressed at is section 03, and what the pressing length span is not is section 06.

Two figures, and what each one is

  • 0–8000 N — a ceiling, not a setting
  • 300–1100 mm — tooling, not a module length
  • Real time — measured while it is applied
  • 0–8000 NServo pressing force, sensor-monitored
  • 300–1100 mmPressing length the tooling accepts
  • Real timeForce is measured while it is applied

The station's output is a dimension, and force is only how it gets there

It is easy to buy this machine on its force figure. What every station after it consumes is not force at all — it is a block of known length that stopped moving.

A stack of cells is a sum, and sums have spread

Cells, adhesive layers, insulation sheets and end plates each contribute a thickness. Loose, that sum is a number with tolerance around it. The machine's job is to turn a number with tolerance around it into a number.

Force is the instrument, not the product

Nothing downstream of this station consumes newtons. The addressing camera consumes a located terminal, the welder consumes a part that is where it was told, the enclosure consumes a length. Force is how a stack becomes those things, and the reason it is worth publishing is that it is the one input you can choose.

Which station number this is

It is the pressing position of the module segment, and it is the one position there that is not fully automatic. Why it carries that label, and what a person does at it, is argued on the module segment page — this page does not repeat it.

The two halves of the station's name describe two different kinds of problem. Stacking is arithmetic — the right parts in the right order. Pressing is physics — a force applied to a sum until it becomes a dimension. The arithmetic half is section 12; the physics half is everything between here and section 09.

Module stacking and pressing position seen from the aisle
Rendering — the pressing position, front on
Prismatic cells waiting to be stacked
Rendering — a sum, before it becomes a dimension
Pressed module block leaving the station
Rendering — what leaves: one length

Who chooses the number inside 0–8000 N, and from what

⚠️ Published here for the first time on this site. The range is ours. The value inside it is decided by three properties, and all three of them live on your side of the drawing.

How your cell behaves under load

What it decides about the force

Whether a stack that is correct today is still correct after the cells have worked. A cell that grows under charge is asking to be pressed differently from one that does not.

Who holds it

You, from your cell supplier's data — not something a line builder can measure for you before the cells exist.

What the module has to survive

What it decides about the force

How much margin the pressed dimension needs. A module that will be shipped, cycled and left standing for years is a different requirement from one built to a bench specification.

Who holds it

You, from the pack this module goes into.

How stiff your end plates are

What it decides about the force

Where the force ends up. The plates are what the press acts through; their stiffness decides how much of the applied force becomes dimension and how much becomes plate deflection.

Who holds it

You, from your module drawing — ⚠️ and it is the input most often left out of an enquiry.
8000 N is a ceiling, not a setting. It tells you the station will not be the thing that runs out of capability. It does not tell you what your stack should be pressed at, and any supplier who answers that question before seeing the three rows above has answered it for their own demo module.
The range is written starting at zero on purpose — see section 07 for what that buys you when you run more than one module on the same station.
We do not publish a recommended pressing force. It would be a number about a cell we have not seen, printed next to figures that are about our machine, and the two would be read as one statement.
Servo press head closing on a module stack
Rendering — where the force is applied
End plate face of a battery module
Rendering — the plate the force acts through

A press is an event. A dimension is a duration. This machine owns the event, completely — and the rest of this page is about who owns the duration.

The event

Force applied, measured, released.

The duration

The length the enclosure was drawn for, months later.

Two different owners

And a quotation that blurs them has sold you one.

Pressed to size is an event. Held at size is a duration.

The two sound like one sentence in a specification and they are not. Only the first is this machine's, and knowing where the handover falls changes what you should be asking for.

The event The duration

Force applied, measured, released — then the length the enclosure was drawn for, months later.

Why this one

The station's name contains a verb that finishes, and the buyer needs one that does not.

Pressing is bounded in time: the head closes, the force rises to the commanded value under servo control, the sensor reads it while it happens, the head opens. That is a complete operation with a start and an end. What the pack enclosure needs is a length that is still that length in a year. Those are not the same requirement, and only one of them has a machine attached to it.
On release

A compressed stack pushes back, and it always has.

Everything in the stack that was compressed — the cells, the layers between them — stores some of that compression and returns part of it when the press opens. We do not print how much. It is a property of your cells and your end plates, not of this machine, and a number printed here would be a number about somebody else's module. What matters for the specification is that the effect exists and is designed around, not ignored.
The record

A record of the application, not of the retention.

The sensor measures force during the press. That is genuinely valuable and it is why the figure is worth publishing at all — but read it for what it is: it is evidence that this stack received the force it was supposed to receive, at the moment it received it. It is not, and cannot be, evidence about what the stack is doing three stations later or three months later. Section 09 →
The duration

The end plates and the banding own it, not the press.

Once the head opens, holding the pressed dimension is a structural job done by the parts of the module itself. That is the handover, and it is physical rather than contractual. How that half of the position is staffed, and why the module segment labels it the way it does, is written up on the module segment page; this page does not restate it.
What to ask

Ask whether you can have the pressing record, not what the maximum force is.

Maximum force is a comparison every supplier wins on paper, and it is the least informative figure in the specification because nobody is going to run at it. The useful question is whether the force actually applied to each module was measured, and whether that measurement leaves the machine. Section 09 is our answer, including the part of it we will not promise before seeing your systems.

The argument about who performs each half of this position, and why calling the whole thing automated overstates it, belongs to the module segment page and is not repeated here.

Press head closed on a module stack
Rendering — the event
Module stack immediately after the press has opened
Rendering — the moment force is released
Banded module holding its pressed dimension
Rendering — the duration, owned by the module

300–1100 mm describes the tooling, and it is not a module length

⚠️ This is the figure on this page most likely to be misread, and the misreading is always in the same direction — as a statement about how long a module we can build. It is not one.

What the span is a statement about

It is the range of pressing lengths the station's tooling accommodates. It answers one question: can this station close on a stack of that length at all. It is a property of the fixture and the press, which is why it belongs in the same sentence as the force figure — both describe the machine.

What it is not a statement about

Whether a module of a given length can be built on our lines is a different question with a different answer, published per tier as a module envelope on the energy-storage pack line page. We do not restate that envelope here. The two figures answer two questions, and your module has to satisfy both — checking one is not checking the other.

Why we separate them rather than quote the friendlier one

A pressing span quoted as a module capability is a larger-sounding number in the same units, and it is the easiest substitution to make in a quotation. It is also the one that gets discovered late, because it reads as an answer to the question you asked.
Long module stack held in the pressing fixture
Rendering — a stack at the long end of the span
End locating block of the pressing fixture
Rendering — what the span is really about
We do not print this figure as a module length anywhere on this site, and if you see it quoted that way in a comparison, that is the thing worth asking about.
⚠️ The pressing span is published as one figure for the station; the module envelopes are published per tier, as two sets. The source data does not say whether this span varies by tier, and we do not supply that sentence for it. Which of the two figures binds your module is answered against your length rather than derived here.
⚠️ If your module sits near either end of your tier's envelope, send the length with your enquiry and we will state plainly which of the two figures is the binding one for your case, before quoting rather than after.
Within the span, changing module length is a tooling question rather than a machine question — section 13.

A range that starts at zero is a set-point, not a fixture

The way the force figure is written tells you something the figure itself does not: what has to change when the module running on this station changes.

01

Read the notation

The figure is published as a range beginning at zero under servo control, which is the specification's way of saying the force is commanded. It is a value the station is told, not a value built into the hardware.
02

What that means with two products

Two module types with different cells can be pressed at different forces on the same station. The force follows the product, and nothing has to be rebuilt for it to do so.
03

What it does not mean

It does not mean the same station runs both without preparation. Length and end plates are physical; they meet physical tooling. Force is the part that is soft; the fixture is the part that is not. → section 13
04

What we need to set it

Your cell, your end plate design and what the module has to survive. Those are the three rows of section 03, and they are what a commissioning conversation is actually about — not a number you have to invent in advance.

This is the honest reading of one small piece of notation, and it is worth a section because it is the difference between a station you can grow into and a station you have to replace. If you expect a second module type within the life of the line, the question to put to any supplier is which parts of their pressing position are commanded and which are built in.

Two prismatic cell formats side by side
Rendering — two products, one station
Control side of the pressing position
Rendering — where the value is commanded

Send the cell and the end plate drawing. We will send back what this station does with both.

Your cell, your end plate and banding design, and the module length. If the pressing force is the thing you have not decided yet, say so — section 03 is the answer to that, and it is a normal place to be.

Send your cell and end plate drawing WhatsApp

Reply within 24 hours / If your module length is near the edge of your tier's envelope, we will say which figure binds before quoting

The press is measured while it presses — what that is worth to you

Real-time monitoring is a machine property and it is in the specification. What happens to the measurement afterwards is a project agreement, and we would rather draw that line than blur it.

What the machine does

Force is measured by sensor during the press, not inferred afterwards from what the station was set to. The difference matters because a setting is an intention and a measurement is an event — one of them survives a question asked six months later.

What that makes possible

A per-module statement that the force applied was the force intended. That is the raw material for traceability at this station, and it is why section 05 says the useful question is about the record rather than about the maximum.

What has to be agreed rather than assumed

We do not publish a data specification here — what is retained, in what form, where it is sent and for how long. Those are answered against your plant systems, and a supplier who prints them before seeing yours has described their own installation. Ask for it in the acceptance document; it is a reasonable thing to require and a normal thing to specify.

There is a version of this section that would read better and be worse: one that promises an upload path and a file format. We can state what the machine measures, because that is ours. What happens to the measurement crosses into your network, and that is a conversation rather than a claim. If any of it needs to be contractual for you, say so in the enquiry — it is much easier to scope before the line is designed than to add afterwards.

Sensor side of the pressing position
Rendering — where the force is read
Single module passing through the pressing position
Rendering — one press, one measurement

Four figures this page leaves blank, and a different reason for each

These four come up in nearly every enquiry about a pressing station. ⚠️ Not one of them is missing for the same reason as the others, which is why they are listed rather than summarised.

Springback after release

Why it is not here

It is not a figure about this machine. How much a stack returns is a property of your cells and the layers between them. Printing ours would be printing a measurement of somebody else's module.

Where the answer actually comes from

Measured on your own parts, with your own end plates, during commissioning. Section 05 →

Long-term retention force

Why it is not here

It is not this station's output at all. The press applies force; it does not hold it. What holds the pressed dimension is the end plate and banding assembly that leaves with the module.

Where the answer actually comes from

The module structure. The segment page describes the position; the value belongs to your module design. Module segment page →

Tolerance on the commanded force

Why it is not here

⚠️ This one genuinely is a machine figure, and it is not in our source data. We would rather leave the cell empty than fill it with something we cannot stand behind when it appears in an acceptance document.

Where the answer actually comes from

Requested from us with your enquiry. We will not invent it to make this table look finished.

Cycle rate at this station

Why it is not here

It exists, but not as a station figure. Line output is set by the slowest position, and quoting a fast station rate tells you nothing about the line you would actually receive.

Where the answer actually comes from

Published per tier as line takt on the tier selection page. Not restated here.
Blank is a decision here, not an omission. Three of the four are blank because the figure belongs to something we have not seen — your cell, your module structure, your line configuration. One is blank because we do not have it, and that row is worded differently on purpose.
A specification that fills all four looks more complete and makes your acceptance document less true. Every number in an acceptance document is something somebody has to verify on a real machine with your parts on it.
⚠️ If any of the four has to be contractual for your project, ask for it explicitly rather than assuming it is covered. That is a short conversation now and an expensive one at handover.
End plate and steel banding on a finished module
Rendering — where two of the four blanks actually live

What the stations after this one are allowed to stop checking

The value of a pressing station is measured downstream of it. Four assumptions are made about every module that leaves here, and every one of them was paid for at this position.

It has one length, not a range of lengths

The stack stopped being a sum with tolerance around it. Whatever locates it next can be built to a dimension rather than to a dimension plus an allowance.

It will still have that length after this station

Not because the press is still holding it — the press let go — but because the end plates and banding took over. Which half of that is machine work and which is not is on the module segment page.

The force it received was measured, not assumed

If a module is questioned later, there is a measurement from the moment it was pressed rather than a setting that was believed. Section 09 →

It is a part now, not an assembly of parts

Everything after this position handles one object. That is what makes locating, addressing and welding tractable — and it is why a stack that was pressed wrong stops being cheap to fix here.

Every one of those four is an assumption, and assumptions are what make the downstream stations fast. A pressing station that gets any of them wrong does not produce an error at the pressing station — it produces one at a machine that was entitled to trust it, several positions later, on a part that is by then worth much more.

Pressed module leaving the stacking and pressing position
Rendering — one object, leaving
Entry of the next position downstream
Rendering — what receives it
Top face of a pressed and banded module
Rendering — the face the next stations work on

Before any force is applied, the stack has to already be right

The station's name has two halves and this page has spent nine sections on one of them. The other half is short, and it decides whether the force does anything useful at all.

The order is fixed before the press ever closes

Cells, the layers between them, insulation and end plates go in as a defined sequence. The press acts on whatever is there — it has no opinion about whether the right things are in the right places, and nothing gets added to the stack afterwards except what holds it.

A press cannot correct a stack that was assembled crooked

It will compress it exactly as crooked as it was, and the force reading while it does so will look completely ordinary. This is the one failure at this position that produces a normal-looking record, which is why alignment before the press is a fixture question rather than an operator question.

The press settles a sum, it does not reduce one

If the parts going in add up to more than the design allowed for, the answer is not more force — it is the wrong parts. Pressing gives a stack its final, repeatable dimension; it does not rescue a stack that was never going to be the right length.

This is why the arithmetic half is worth its own section even though the physics half is what gets published. The force figure describes the best this station can do with a stack that was built correctly. Nothing in section 03 or section 07 applies to one that was not.

Cells and insulation layers being placed into the stacking fixture
Rendering — the order, before the force
Side of the stacking fixture where the stack is aligned
Rendering — where crooked is prevented

A different module length changes the fixture, not the station

Inside the published pressing span, a second module type is a tooling conversation. It is a real cost and a knowable one, and it is better priced early.

01

What stays

The station, the press, the servo control and the measurement. Force is commanded, so it moves with the product at no hardware cost — section 07.
02

What changes

Whatever physically locates the stack at its ends and along its sides. Within our published compatibility ranges, a change of format is handled by changing tooling, and that is stated the same way across this site rather than glossed.
03

What is worth asking for now

If you already know a second format is coming, ask for it to be scoped with the first line rather than after it. What a changeover involves and what it costs will be written up on its own page; until then it is a question to put in the enquiry.

The reason to raise this early is that the answer changes the fixture design, not the price of a spare part. A station specified around one module and asked about a second one later gets a different, worse answer than the same station specified around two from the beginning.

  • Turnkey line
  • Single station
  • Segment retrofit
Locating tooling on the pressing position
Rendering — the part that is not soft

Four questions that separate a press from a pressing station

None of them needs a drawing to ask, and all four can be put to any supplier including us before anything is committed to a purchase order.

Is the force written as a range, and does it say who picks the value?
A single force figure quoted as the pressing force is a figure about the module the supplier last built.
Does it separate what is applied from what holds?
If one line item claims both the pressing and the retention, one of the two has not been engineered — it has been assumed.
Can you have the pressing record, and in what form?
This is worth more than the maximum force, and the answer should distinguish what the machine measures from what the installation delivers.
Is the pressing length quoted as a module capability?
They are two different figures in the same units, and swapping them makes a specification look more capable than it is.

Our four answers, from this page: a range with three named inputs that are all yours; separated, in section 05; measured per press, with the delivery of that measurement scoped against your systems rather than promised here; and a pressing span stated as tooling and never as a module length. Everything above was written so those four can be checked against it rather than taken on trust.

Stacking and pressing position seen alongside its neighbouring stations
Rendering — the position, with its neighbours

Where the sequence, the envelope and the banding are written up

This page owns pressing force, pressing length, and what the record does and does not cover.

  1. Cell handling
  2. Stacking and pressing — you are here
  3. Module segment
  4. Pack segment

Send the cell, the end plate drawing and the module length

Those three answer most of what this page raises. The pressing force is allowed to be undecided — section 03 explains why that is normal.

What comes back

How this station would be configured for your module, which of the two published figures binds in your case, and a plain statement of what the pressing record contains.

If you are comparing quotations

Send us the pressing line item you are comparing against. We will tell you which of the four questions in section 14 it has actually answered, including where ours would be the weaker one.
Go to the enquiry form WhatsApp
Finished module handed to the next stage of the module segment
Rendering — what leaves this station
Phone / WhatsApp
+86 15327155363
Address
Wuhan, Hubei, China
Response
Reply within 24 hours
Stacking and pressing area of a module segment
Rendering — the pressing area of the module segment