Bruckmuehl, Germany, July 3, 2026 

The adphos Group has installed a BearLITE^® Technicum system for the ultra-fast drying of wet slurry-coated battery electrodes at a Japanese engineering and consulting company and adphos partner. The system will be used to evaluate drying processes for NMP-based cathode coatings and water-based anode coatings under application-oriented conditions.

Electrode drying is one of the most demanding process steps in battery cell manufacturing. Conventional hot-air systems require long dryer sections, extensive media supply and solvent-handling infrastructure, and substantial energy input. The drying process can also affect electrode quality, particularly through cracking or binder migration.

BearLITE^® uses high-intensity photonic energy to transfer heat directly and homogeneously into the wet slurry layer. This enables volumetric heating across the coating thickness. The liquid or solvent vapors released during drying are removed locally and in a controlled manner.

Numerous tests have shown that this process enables drying times in the range of seconds while maintaining crack-free coatings and avoiding binder migration.

Compared with conventional hot-air drying, BearLITE^® offers the following potential:

• up to 90% less dryer footprint
• up to 85% lower power demand for drying
• more than 50% lower energy demand for NMP treatment and recovery
• drying of wet-coated electrodes within seconds instead of minutes
• fully electrothermal and therefore CO₂-free drying technology

During the on-site tests, several NMP-based cathode and water-based anode formulations were evaluated. These included formulations associated with a major Japanese automotive manufacturer. Wet coating thicknesses of up to 500 µm were dried within approximately 15 to 30 seconds. Final residual moisture was below 0.1%. The tests also showed crack-free coatings and no binder migration.

The Japanese partner is now investing in a BearLITE^®-based pilot line and assessing the economic potential of the technology for future battery electrode production. The evaluation includes significant reductions in dryer-related CAPEX, media supply requirements, production space and operating costs.

“For us, the installation in Japan is an important step in developing BearLITE^® further under demanding application conditions,” says Dr. Kai K. O. Bär, CEO and CTO at adphos. “If drying time, energy demand and system footprint can be significantly reduced without compromising coating quality, manufacturers gain more flexibility in the design and scale-up of electrode production.”

For battery manufacturers, equipment suppliers and material developers, BearLITE^® can turn electrode drying from a fixed production bottleneck into an opportunity to improve performance and reduce costs. Existing systems in China and South Korea, the installation in Japan and further activities in Taiwan show that BearLITE^® is increasingly being evaluated under real market and production requirements. This underlines that BearLITE^® is not a concept, laboratory approach or early pilot idea, but a real application with validated TRL 8.

About adphos

The adphos Group develops and implements advanced thermal process solutions for industrial applications. With its proprietary aNIR^®-, aLITE^®– and BearLITE^® technologies, adphos helps companies make production processes more efficient, compact, flexible and sustainable. The solutions are used in battery manufacturing, printing and coating, printed electronics, metal coil coating and other industrial applications.

Press Contact:
adphos Innovative Technologies GmbH
Bruckmuehler Str. 27
83052 Bruckmuehl
Germany
www.adphos.com
info@adphos.de

Note: aNIR^®, aLITE^® and BearLITE^® are trademarks of the adphos Group. Please pay attention to the correct spelling.