TUCSON, AZ—American Battery Factory (ABF), a manufacturer of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, has selected Lead Intelligent Equipment to supply custom automation equipment for its upcoming gigafactory here. 

The facility will serve as the flagship plant in ABF’s plan to establish a network of battery factories across the United States. ABF says that it expects the Lead equipment to support an production capacity of up to 20 gigawatt-hours (GWh).

In addition to producing the custom automation equipment, Lead will be involved in the build out and installation of the fully automated production line. The line will be designed specifically for ABF’s Tucson facility and encompass all aspects of battery cell manufacturing, from mixing and coating to stacking and packaging.

"Our collaboration with LEAD allows us to secure world-leading intelligent equipment, a significant milestone as we advance toward construction in the coming months," says American Battery Factory CEO Jim Ge. "This brings us one step closer to our primary goal of onshoring a domestic supply chain and accelerating the growth of the country's clean energy economy."

ABF’s decision to partner with Lead on manufacturing equipment is part of a wider procurement process. The company says it is also working with U.S.-based suppliers on securing equipment for the gigafactory’s building controls, software, programmable logic controllers and cyber systems.

Lead says that its collaboration with ABF is a key part of the company’s larger strategy to expand within the U.S. and throughout North America.