New Era’s Executive Vice President Discusses Opportunities in the Battery/EV Market
- Published: February 25, 2025
New Era is a global enterprise focused on providing custom designed equipment solutions for the web handling industry. With decades of industry experience on staff, New Era can apply its engineered solutions to provide customers with web handling equipment tailored to
their converting needs. New Era has a great deal of experience with coating, laminating, calendering and drying systems for a wide variety of environments, with a customer base spanning most industries which handle materials in a roll-to-roll fashion. Paul Lembo, Executive Vice President at New Era Converting Machinery, Inc. recently took some time to discuss the company’s diverse experience in the battery and energy space.
Here is what he had to say:
What specific types of applications has New Era provided for machinery solutions for the battery market?
New Era’s web handling experience with nearly any material which can be handled in roll-to- roll format has provided the tools for us to be competitive in several market segments, all parts of which are important to battery production. New Era designs and manufactures pilot and production equipment
for electrode coating, separator production and coating as well as gasketing/thermal barrier products. Our vast experience in coating, laminating, calendering and general web handling has positioned us well to be a major player in all of these areas of energy storage component materials. Additionally, we are also working with several partners for large, subsystems to be able to offer our clients fully integrated equipment lines and turnkey installations.
Are there any unique challenges US equipment vendors face and how has that affected your approach to the market?
As with most equipment, US converting machine manufacturers face challenges from the Asian market related to equipment cost, particularly on standard, off the shelf systems.
This has led New Era to focus on customized equipment and lines, finding machinery and processes where we can add value and differentiate ourselves from competitors with our innovative designs.
There are so many emerging technologies, many of which require customized equipment solutions, an area where we excel.
As the battery market continues to grow, what do you see coming for new or different converting applications?
Machinery manufacturers are being challenged to offer a range of integrated subsystems outside of traditional roll-to-roll converting equipment to provide clients with a sole source, and more importantly, a single integrator for process lines. Converting equipment manufacturers are being asked to provide and integrate mixing/delivery systems, automate input and output roll handling and even provide robot- ic solutions for material and part handling.
Additionally, as referenced above, there are a tremendous number of emerging technologies and it will take a lot of depth and expertise from the converting community to be able to respond to the demands of this quickly evolving market.
How much of New Era’s current business would you say is related to battery/EV market applications? Do you see that growing over the next few years?
While New Era remains committed to its traditional core markets, we’ve seen over 25% of our sales to date in 2024 related to the energy market. This spanned many of the battery market segments described above, as well as a significant number of fuel cell related projects.
As far as growth over the coming years, the outlook for the battery and fuel cell market as far as volume of new equipment installations is very exciting, and there is plenty of business to go around.
With all the potential opportunities that this market provides, does New Era plan on growing or expanding to keep up with the new business?
New Era has seen steady organic growth over the past few years and we see that continuing as these markets, as well as others, are anticipated to remain healthy. New Era has and will continue to add people as well as evaluate opportunities for additional physical expansion.
