From 23 to 25 October, the historic city of Shaoxing hosted a high-profile event for the new energy industry: the 20th China Renewable Energy Conference and New Energy Technology and Products Exhibition, held at the Shaoxing International Convention and Exhibition Center.
As a specialist in bead mills and front-end wet grinding equipment for new energy materials, INFOR exhibited at the conference, joining academicians, experts, research institutes and leading companies across photovoltaics, energy storage, hydrogen, wind, biomass, geothermal and ocean energy to explore new paths for materials and equipment under the theme "Green Energy, Innovation Leading".
A system-level dialogue on renewable energy and new energy technology
The conference was hosted by the Chinese Renewable Energy Society and co-organized by institutions including the Shaoxing Research Institute of Renewable Energy and Molecular Engineering of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Under the theme "Green Energy, Innovation Leading", it covered academic frontiers, technological innovation, industrial development and international trends.
Over three days, the programme included a plenary session and a youth forum, alongside more than a dozen specialist sessions covering photovoltaics, biomass, thermal utilization, wind energy, photochemistry, hydrogen, solar buildings, ocean energy, natural gas hydrates, power generation and grid integration, energy storage, geothermal energy, concentrated solar power, integrated systems and renewable power.
The concurrent New Energy Technology and Products Exhibition brought technology, equipment, materials and applications together in one space:
• PV and energy storage are moving toward system-level integration
• Hydrogen, sodium-ion and solid-state batteries are accelerating toward industrialization
• New materials such as LFP, silicon-carbon anodes, carbon nanotubes and graphene slurries place ever tougher demands on wet grinding and dispersion equipment
• Production-line competition is shifting from "can it be made" to "can it be made stably, efficiently and at scale"
The next stage of new energy depends not only on material formulations but also on the process consistency of front-end equipment, and that is exactly where INFOR is most at home.
At the INFOR booth: putting process pain points on the table
At the Shaoxing exhibition, INFOR's booth focused on wet grinding and dispersion processes for new energy battery materials, highlighting bead mill solutions for:
🔹 Grinding solutions for LFP / LMFP
Designed for high-solids, high-viscosity systems, tackling mass-production pain points such as wide particle size distribution, batch-to-batch drift and downtime for screen cleaning.
🔹 Ultrafine grinding solutions for silicon-carbon / hard carbon / porous carbon anodes
Connecting anode material processes from R&D through pilot production to large-scale manufacturing.
🔹 Carbon nanotube dispersion systems for CNT / graphene conductive slurries
Focused on agglomeration control, metallic contaminant control, slurry stability and continuous operation.
🔹 Grinding and dispersion process packages for solid-state battery materials
Providing replicable equipment and process approaches from laboratory R&D to production scale-up.
🔹 LPM vertical nano ceramic bead mill (sand mill) / NCP pin-type bead mill / NCT turbine bead mill
Demonstrating INFOR's full range of capabilities, from vertical, pin-type and turbine bead mills to lab bead mills and equipment for 10,000-tonne-scale production lines.
At the booth, the INFOR team held one-on-one discussions with process managers from materials companies, supply-chain representatives from cell manufacturers and researchers from academic institutions. Three days in Shaoxing left us even more convinced:
Competition in new energy is not only about resources and cells, but also about whether materials can be produced consistently at this one critical process step.
A "process partner" for renewable energy
Now that new energy materials have entered a stage defined by nanoscale, continuous, low-energy and highly consistent production, nano bead mills and other grinding and dispersion equipment are no longer a supporting role but a core node that determines material performance and manufacturing cost.
INFOR's differentiation lies not in a longer equipment list, but in five core strengths:
① Deeper understanding of materials
From LFP, silicon-carbon, hard carbon and sodium-ion materials to solid electrolytes, INFOR matches processes to the material system rather than simply recommending a machine model.
② Scale-up on the same principle, without re-tuning
The LPM series of vertical nano ceramic bead mills spans 1 L lab bead mills to 1000 L/2000 L production models. Laboratory trials and mass-production lines scale up on the same working principle, reducing the risk of moving from pilot to volume production.
③ No clogging, built for continuous manufacturing
A screenless / special centrifugal separation structure handles high-solids, high-viscosity systems and reduces downtime for screen cleaning, meeting the needs of continuous new energy material production lines.
④ Fineness, morphology and energy consumption managed together
Reliable use of 0.05-0.3 mm micro grinding media, such as zirconia beads, delivers a narrower particle size distribution, while minimizing crystal damage and secondary agglomeration as particles get finer.
⑤ From standalone machines to EPC system delivery
INFOR has delivered more than 30,000 machines and 500+ engineering projects, and has expanded from equipment sales to integrated EPC services for grinding systems: process design, equipment selection, line integration, installation and commissioning, and after-sales maintenance, all from one supplier.
INFOR does not just sell a bead mill (sand mill); it acts as a "process partner" for renewable energy, helping lock in material yield right from the front end of the process.
The show closes in Shaoxing, the collaboration begins on the production line
The 20th China Renewable Energy Conference and New Energy Technology and Products Exhibition has concluded, but the process upgrade of new energy materials is only just entering its most demanding phase.
For INFOR, the exhibition is not an end point but a starting point for bringing customers' production-line challenges back to the factory:
• Bringing back samples for material testing;
• Bringing back line sketches to calculate energy consumption and yield;
• Bringing back process pain points to iterate on separation structures, media grading and intelligent control systems.
Going forward, INFOR will keep to a simple path:
Rather than chasing the hottest concepts, we will stay with new energy materials through the toughest stretch of the journey. The exhibition may close, but our process co-development with customers never will.