BLP-P8SSemi-automatic, economy
- Takt
- 4–8PPM at the loading point
- Footprint
- 56×10metres, 4 m clear height
Lowest installed power of the three at 200 kW, and the build that wants length and width to spare.
Tier selection · 4 to 15 PPM
Battery Pack Line Capacity Planning
Send the cell datasheet, the target annual output and the floor plan. Back within 24 hours: the takt the target implies, the tier that carries it, the floor and the power it needs, and the headcount by segment.
BLP-P8Standard
- Takt
- 8PPM at the loading point
- Footprint
- 55×9metres, 3.5 m clear height
The only one of the three that fits under 3.5 m of clear height, and the narrowest at 9 m.
BLP-P15High automation
- Takt
- 12–15PPM at the loading point
- Footprint
- 54×20metres, 4 m clear height
Width, not length, is its distinguishing figure — and the reason it is ruled out early.
What the plan ends with
Four Figures Battery Pack Line Capacity Planning Settles
Battery pack line capacity planning ends with these four, and every later decision on the project hangs off them. They are quoted together or not at all.
GWh / yr
Annual output
The figure promised to your own customer or board. The rest of the plan is solved backwards from it.
PPM
Takt at the loading point
The rate the line has to hold. Counted as cells entering the module segment, not packs leaving the end.
L × W × H
Footprint
Length, width and clear height. Decides whether the building you already have can take the line at all.
By segment
Headcount
Cell handling, module welding and pack assembly counted apart. The figure that repeats every year the line runs.
The four constrain each other
That is why they are settled at the selection stage, before a configuration is fixed. A target that needs 12 to 15 PPM needs a bay 20 m wide; a bay 9 m wide sets a ceiling on the tier that no budget lifts.
Working them out in the wrong order is how a plant ends up with a line it cannot fit, or a rate it cannot staff.
17 + 15 stationsOnce the tier is set, what happens inside the line takes over — the module and pack station lists are on the battery pack assembly line page
Five documents
Five Inputs Battery Pack Line Capacity Planning Needs
Five documents let the whole calculation run the same day it arrives.
CellOutput targetFloor planShiftsConfiguration
01
Cell datasheet
Capacity in Ah and the three dimensions — width, height and thickness. They decide both the energy arithmetic and whether the cell sits inside the tooling envelope of 100 to 220 mm wide, 100 to 220 mm high and 20 to 80 mm thick.
02
Target annual output
In MWh or GWh. This is the number the plan is solved backwards from, and the one figure that cannot be inferred from the other four.
03
The building
Length, width and clear height — the last one measured to the lowest obstruction over the line route rather than to the underside of the roof.
The two that move the answer most
- 04 · Shift pattern and working days. Sets the hours term. Moving from one shift to two changes the answer more than any equipment choice on this page does.
- 05 · Module and pack configuration. Closes the calculation, because annual output is energy per unit multiplied by units per year.
Back in 24 hoursA tier recommendation with the arithmetic written out, a layout drawn against your floor plan, and a headcount table by segment — from the contact page
The expression in full
From Cell To Annual Output
Printed so it can be run again with your own cell rather than taken on trust.
- PPM
- Cells entering the module segment
- 60 × 8 × 300
- The basis we quote on, not a ceiling
- 1.005 kWh
- 314 Ah at 3.2 V nominal
- 0.85
- Uptime, broken out below
- 1P13S
- 13.1 kWh in a blueprint module
- 1P52S
- 52.3 kWh in a blueprint pack
BLP-P8S · 4–8 PPM
500 MWh – 1 GWh
Run the expression at the economy tier and this range is what comes out. It is the output of the arithmetic, not a claim sitting beside it.
BLP-P15 · 12–15 PPM
1 – 2 GWh
Same expression, same blueprint cell, high-automation takt. Two shifts move it above the band on identical hardware.
What PPM counts, and where
PPMPieces per minute, counted as one cell entering the module segment — not packs per minute and not modules per minute. is a loading rate at a physical point, not an average across a shift. Every cell is scanned, tested and sorted at the cell testing and sorting station before anything downstream sees it, so the count already exists inside the machine and can be read off it during acceptance.
Substituting your own figures
A 280 Ah cell moves the energy term. A different series count moves the module and pack figures but not the cell rate. Two shifts move the hours term. That substitution is done for you, with the counting point named, and the same expression is run again in the pre-assembly bay before the line ships.
The 0.85, settled early
Shift Pattern And Uptime
The 300 days at eight hours is a basis, not a limit — and the 0.85 is the term worth agreeing before anything is quoted.
Time availability
Changeovers, breaks, handovers and maintenance windows — decided by your plant as much as by machine faults. Shared.
Performance availability
Whether the line is actually fed at rate. A plant with clean handovers and a stable cell supply runs above 0.85. Shared.
First-pass yield
Good units divided by units started. Ours aloneEquipment-caused yield of 99% or better, human factors excluded in writing — the one term of the three we sign for. at 99% or better.
Shifts move the answer further than equipment
Two shifts change the hours term from eight to sixteen, and the annual output with it. Most plants that reach the upper half of a tier's range do so on shifts rather than on hardware, and a plant running more working days than the 300 quoted lands above the range on identical equipment.
≥99%What goes into the acceptance document is takt at the loading point and equipment-caused yield — both measurable in a single continuous run
Three builds, one station set
Three Tiers, Five Planning Figures
Takt is not what separates the three builds on offer. The automation level is — and the floor area, clear height and installed power that follow from it. Those are also the figures your building has to accept.
| Planning figure | EconomyBLP-P8S | StandardBLP-P8 | High automationBLP-P15 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Automation level | Semi-automatic. More operator positions, fewer automated ones. | Standard split of machine and people positions. | Automation added alongside the flow, not after it. |
| Takt | 4–8 PPM | 8 PPM | 12–15 PPM |
| Footprint L × W × H | 56 × 10 × 4 mThe longest and, at 10 m, wider than the standard build | 55 × 9 × 3.5 mThe narrowest of the three | 54 × 20 × 4 mBarely shorter, twice as wide |
| Clear height required | 4 m | 3.5 m — the only tier that fits a low beam line | 4 m |
| Installed power | 200 kWLightest on supply of the three | ≤250 kWHigher draw on a smaller floor | 300 kWIn the building, not in a plan |
Read the table by column, not by row
BLP-P8S is the economy build: more operators, fewer automated positions, the lowest installed power of the three, and it wants a building with length and width to spare. BLP-P8 is the standard build and the only one that fits under 3.5 m of clear height, which makes it the tier for older halls with a low beam line.
BLP-P15 is the high-automation build, and its distinguishing figure is width rather than length. All three come off the same station designs and the same acceptance criteria; what changes is how many positions are machines.
Adjustable to your hallLayout dimensions are drawn to the building you have, so the figures above are the configuration as drawn rather than a fixed outline
Floor traded for kilowatts
Footprint Against Installed Power
Two figures in that table run against the intuition that a cheaper line is a smaller one: the economy build is 56 × 10 m against 55 × 9 m, and draws 200 kW against 250 kW or less. It is the larger line and the quieter one at once.
Drawn to one scale. Length moves by 2 m across the three tiers; width doubles.
A manual position
Needs an aisle behind it, a working face in front of it and room to move between the two. It draws almost nothing.
An automated position
Needs the machine envelope, its guarding and its installed power — and no aisle at all.
Bay width rules a tier out
Trading people for machines trades floor area for kilowatts, in both directions. A hall long enough for all three can still be too narrow for one of them.
One reply, four figures
Send The Cell And The Floor Plan
The tier that fits your bay and your supply, with the arithmetic worked on your own cell — back within 24 hours.
Tier recommendationOutput calculationLayout drawingHeadcount table
Counted by segment
Headcount By Line Segment
Given by segment rather than as a line total, because the segments do not move together when automation is added.
| Line segment | BLP-P8S economy | BLP-P15 high automation |
|---|---|---|
| Cell handling | 4 | 4 |
| Module welding | 4 | 3 |
| Pack assembly | 12–14 | 12–14 |
Quoted for the tier you are offered, alongside the station list with an automation label on every station.
Automation buys one person, in one segment
Set the two columns side by side and the whole effect of automation on this line is one person, in module welding. Cell handling is 4 in both, because unloading, scanning, sorting and gap refilling are already machine work at every tier — the operators feed trays and clear rejects.
Pack assembly is 12 to 14 in both, and that is the figure worth reading twice.
Countable on the floorThe line is stood up in our pre-assembly bay in its shipping configuration, so your engineers can walk it counting positions against both documents
AUTO
One automated station in the pack segment
Of the 15 pack stations, gluing is the automated one — and that is why the headcount does not fall.
MANUAL
Hand work at every tier on offer
Enclosure and cooling plate cleaning, module insertion and fixing, busbar and BMS installation, MSD and connector fitting, harness dressing, lid tightening and front panel assembly.
SEMI-AUTO
Labelled station by station
Every station carries AUTO, SEMI-AUTO or MANUAL, so no segment gets called automated while 12 to 14 people stand on it. Station detail is on the battery pack assembly line page.
Three numbers and one habit
Your Building In Battery Pack Line Capacity Planning
Length and width decide whether the line runs straight or has to be folded, and folding costs transfer distance rather than capability. Clear height decides which tiers are available at all, since two of the three want 4 m.
Measure to the lowest obstruction
Ceiling services — cable tray, sprinkler pipework, ducting and crane rail — commonly occupy 300 to 500 mm across an industrial hall. A building quoted at 4 m to the beam can leave 3.6 m of usable height along the line route.
Send a floor plan with the low points marked and the layout comes back drawn around them, rather than drawn to a ceiling height that only exists between the obstructions.
3.5 m or 4 mTwo tiers need 4 m of clear height; one fits under 3.5 m. Which of those your hall really offers is settled with a tape measure, not a drawing
The first fork
Economy Or Standard Build
Decided on three things: the floor you have, the supply you have, and how many operators you can staff. It is not decided on rate.
Take the economy build
When the building has length and width to spare and the electrical supply is the tight constraint. At 200 kW it is the lightest of the three on installed power, and it puts the work into positions people hold rather than into machines that have to be fed.
Take the standard build
When the hall is the constraint. It is the only one of the three that fits under 3.5 m of clear height and the narrowest at 9 m, which makes it the answer in older buildings with a low beam line or a crane rail in the way.
Same criteria either wayBoth hold equipment-caused yield of 99% or better and are signed off against the same written criteria. What is being chosen is the split between machine positions and people positions — and the floor and power that split produces
Three conditions, together
The Case For High Automation
The high-automation build earns its place when all three hold at once. Two out of three is a reason to stay on the standard build.
1 – 2 GWh
Output beyond one line
A target above what a single economy or standard line reaches on the shifts you can actually staff. At 12 to 15 PPM this build is quoted at 1 to 2 GWh a year on the blueprint configuration.
20 m × 4 m
Bay width and clear height
The condition that decides the answer earliest, because a 20 m bay width is not something a layout revision recovers. Length is rarely the problem; width is.
300 kW
Installed supply at the line
Present in the building rather than in a plan. Three-phase five-wire 380 V ±5% at 50 Hz, like the other two tiers.
Pack assembly stays at 12 to 14 people. Weigh the tier on those terms rather than on an expectation that a faster line is a leaner one.
Four routes, in cost order
Growing Past The First Line
Expansion has four routes and they are not equally expensive. Taken in order of what they cost you:
Add a shift
The hours term in the calculation doubles, the line is untouched, and nothing in the building changes.
Raise uptime above 0.85
Changeover discipline, feeding and handover rather than hardware. Worth doing before any capital route, because it multiplies everything after it.
Change the cell or configuration
Inside the printed envelopes this is a tooling and recipe change rather than a new line, and the fixtures are quoted against your part.
Build the next one
Needs its own length, width, clear height, installed power, and floor loading of 800 kg per square metre or better.
Three margins keep routes three and four open
- Clear height. Fixed the day the building is chosen, and the one margin no revision recovers.
- Bay width. A hall filled to its width by the first line closes the cheapest version of the fourth route.
- Spare installed power. Cheaper to specify once than to bring in again later.
All three are marked on the layout drawing at the quotation stage — so the second line is a decision, not a discovery.
100–220 mmCells 100 to 220 mm wide, 100 to 220 mm high and 20 to 80 mm thick; modules 400 to 1200 by 100 to 300 by 100 to 250 mm. Station by station on the cell compatibility and changeover page
Fixed inputs
Figures Every Tier Shares
Constants the plan is built on
Some figures do not move with the tier. Change the blueprint and the energy per unit changes; the structure of the calculation does not.
Compressed air and nitrogen flow are the two utilities that do move with the tier — stated one by one, with supply and floor loading, on the factory layout and utilities page.
- Equipment-caused yield
- ≥99%
- Supply
- 380 V ±5%, 50 Hz
- Floor loading
- ≥800 kg/m²
- Module stations
- 17
- Pack stations
- 15
- Blueprint cell
- 314 Ah · 1.005 kWh
- Blueprint module
- 1P13S · 13.1 kWh
- Blueprint pack
- 1P52S · 52.3 kWh
What comes back
Battery Pack Line Capacity Planning Deliverables
Four things come back within 24 hours, and the takt, the footprint, the power and the people are all four in that first reply.
- Tier recommendation with the reason attached. Named against your bay, your supply and the operators you can staff — not against rate alone.
- The output calculation worked on your figures. Your cell, your series count, your shift pattern, with the counting point named.
- A layout drawn against your floor plan. To your column grid and clear height, with the three expansion margins marked.
- The headcount table by segment. With the station list and an automation label on every station.
Then the line is stood up before it ships
After the order it is assembled and powered up in our own hall before anything is crated. Three bays in the 6,000 m² assembly hall are kept for full-line pre-assembly, so it stands in its shipping configuration and runs there first. Two weeks' notice with your cell drawings and target takt, and the bay is set up in your configuration for the visit. If travel is not possible, the same criteria are run on video.
Behind it: 26 engineers, 40+ line segments delivered into 12 countries, wear parts within 48 hours — on the about page.
Four documents
Send Your Cell And Target
One reply, no third round
If a tier you were considering does not fit your bay or your supply, that is in the first reply.
Cell datasheetCapacity in Ah, plus width, height and thickness.
Target annual outputIn MWh or GWh.
Floor planLength, width and clear height, measured to the lowest obstruction over the line route.
Shift patternShifts and working days planned.
Your enquiry, ready to send
If your email client opened, it is already in the message. If nothing opened, use one of the two routes below.
Start a project
Talk To An Engineer
Four inputs to our engineering team and the arithmetic with your own figures substituted, a tier recommendation with the reason written out, a layout drawn to your building and a headcount table by segment come back within 24 hours. Behind it: 26 engineers, a 6,000 m² assembly floor and more than 40 line segments delivered into 12 countries, on the about page.