Nation’s First GW-Class PEM Electrolyzer Wet-Film Process Automated Production Line Ships; Hydrogen Guide Intelligence Completes Delivery in Three Months

Recently, Lead Intelligent Equipment's wholly-owned subsidiary, Hydrogen Intelligent Equipment, successfully shipped a GW-class PEM electrolyser intelligent assembly line built for a major domestic energy equipment top-tier player. The equipment has arrived at the client's site and is currently entering the commissioning phase. As the first automated PEM electrolyser production line in China to adopt a wet-membrane assembly process, the project took only three months from scheme design, process validation, assembly and commissioning to equipment shipment, demonstrating Hydrogen Intelligent Equipment's comprehensive strengths in core PEM electrolyser manufacturing processes, technological innovation, and rapid delivery of complex projects.

Full-process compatible production, with capacity expandable to 1 GW/year

The line covers full-process compatible production of 100-750 Nm³/h PEM electrolysers, integrating core modules such as warehousing and logistics, incoming inspection, material pre-treatment (including marking, cleaning, cutting, dimensional and defect detection, and other processes), automatic stacking, press-fitting and tightening, leak testing, electrical control, and data acquisition, achieving integrated, automated, and intelligent production from parts warehousing to finished stack output. It also features high efficiency, high precision, high reliability, and high scalability, with capacity expandable to 1 GW/year after completion.

Three key technologies overcome wet-membrane assembly industry challenges

The proton exchange membrane is the core component of a PEM electrolyser, and in the wet-membrane assembly process it must remain moist during assembly. However, the membrane's dimensional chain, flatness, and bonding surface tension differ significantly between dry and wet states, which in turn affects visual correction, automated pick-and-place, high-speed transfer, automatic stacking, and closed-loop re-inspection. This "one small move affects the whole system" process characteristic has made wet-membrane assembly highly dependent on manual operation for a long time, as delicate and inefficient as "hand embroidery," and the automation of wet-membrane assembly for proton exchange membranes has therefore become a widely recognised industry challenge.

To address this, Hydrogen Intelligent Equipment formed a dedicated technical task force spanning mechanical, vision, electrical, software, and commissioning disciplines, and developed three key technologies targeting the core pain points of wet-membrane assembly: first, adaptive flexible adsorption, which mitigates membrane swelling and water film interference to achieve stable grasping without damage; second, AI machine vision dual positioning, which uses proprietary dual positioning closed-loop detection combined with real-time dynamic stacking references to achieve high-precision stacking of electrolysis cells; and third, a water mist closed-loop control system, which precisely controls spraying and humidity micro-environment to suppress sudden membrane deformation at the source.

On this basis, the team further integrated multi-mechanism adsorption, grasping heterogeneous fusion, and zone-based dynamic matching technologies to achieve zero-damage transfer of all materials from gram-level membranes to kilogram-level plates. After preliminary DOE testing and multiple rounds of validation, membrane grasping success rate and positioning accuracy have stabilised at over 99.5%, successfully overcoming the key wet-membrane automated assembly bottleneck and achieving the leap from "hand embroidery" to "automated high-speed operation."

Three months to client site, engineering capability recognised by the client

Beyond technological breakthroughs, converting a brand-new process into a stably operating production line places even greater demands on the company's engineering capability, project management capability, and rapid delivery capability. Faced with multiple challenges including "no mature precedent, process requiring validation, short project cycle, and high delivery requirements," Hydrogen Intelligent Equipment began with early-stage product adsorption validation and simultaneously advanced process validation, scheme design, equipment manufacturing, and full-line commissioning, using DOE testing, simulation testing, DFMEA, and other engineering methods to bring quality risk identification and key process validation forward to the pre-shipment stage. At the same time, R&D, process, engineering, and project teams collaborated efficiently and responded rapidly, continuously tackling technical difficulties and resolving on-site issues, ultimately driving the project to on-schedule, high-quality shipment and entry into the on-site commissioning phase.

The on-site project leader of Hydrogen Intelligent Equipment stated that the transition from "equipment running automatically" to "process running stably" reflects Hydrogen Intelligent Equipment's deep understanding of PEM electrolyser manufacturing processes and its technical accumulation. Leveraging long-accumulated industry experience and technical capabilities in electrolyser assembly line speed, precision, stacking quality control, product compatibility, and capacity expansion, Hydrogen Intelligent Equipment can provide customised designs tailored to clients' product characteristics, ensuring that the equipment not only meets current production needs but also possesses the capability for continuous future upgrades.

As a core process equipment expert in hydrogen energy technology, Hydrogen Intelligent Equipment leverages its independently controllable core technologies and comprehensive intelligent manufacturing capabilities to continuously drive quality and efficiency improvements in green hydrogen equipment manufacturing. At the intersection of global energy transition and the "dual carbon" goals, the green hydrogen industry has become a must-win arena in the strategic layouts of countries worldwide. Hydrogen Intelligent Equipment will continue to deepen its focus on intelligent manufacturing for hydrogen energy equipment, contributing professional strength to building a clean, low-carbon, safe, and efficient modern energy system.