Metal working – Method of mechanical manufacture – Electrical device making
Patent
1996-09-13
1998-07-07
Maples, John S.
Metal working
Method of mechanical manufacture
Electrical device making
29730, H01M 602
Patent
active
057762082
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for assembling a battery, and particularly to an assembling apparatus and method for automatically inserting an electrode body into the outer casing of a battery.
BACKGROUND ART
A battery has a basic structure which is simple to have a positive electrode and a negative electrode opposed mutually with a separator between them. Such a battery has output characteristics which are proportional to the opposed surface areas of the positive and negative electrodes. In recent years, there are demands for a battery which has output characteristics as high as possible, a high energy density, a long service life or rechargeability, and an environment-friendly property.
Under such circumstances, Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. Sho 63-299056 and Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. Sho 62-90863 describe to overlay positive and negative electrodes with a separator between them, and to wind in the form of a roll to substantially increase the opposed surface areas of positive and negative electrodes to provide batteries with high power.
Besides, to meet the above demands, a nonaqueous electrolyte battery, e.g., a lithium ion secondary battery, using lithium composite oxide as a cathode active material and a carbonaceous material as an anode active material has been used actually.
To provide power as high as possible, such batteries are designed to enlarge the opposed surface areas of the electrodes to the maximum and also to increase the number of overlaid electrodes to the maximum. Accordingly, the allowable tolerance of the inner size of an outer casing for accommodating these electrodes and the outer size of the electrodes are highly restrictive.
As shown in FIG. 7, for example, when an outer casing 12 is square, the outer casing 12 has an inner vertical size C of 7.5.+-.0.1 mm while an electrode body 5 has an outer vertical size D of 7.2.+-.0.05 mm, and the outer casing 12 has an inner width size E of 33.0.+-.0.1 mm while the electrode body 5 has an outer width size F of 32.7.+-.0.05 mm. Thus, they are designed to have very strict specifications with a tolerance of only 0.3 mm.
Therefore, it is very important to control the battery assembling process so that many electrodes are accurately overlaid or wound and the electrode body has the outer size within the specified tolerance, and the electrode body is smoothly inserted into the outer casing of the battery.
As to issues involved in the battery assembling process, Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. Hei 5-74424 for example has proposed to attach an insulating plate to the bottom of an electrode body to limit the outer size of the electrode body within a tolerance, and to facilitate the insertion of the electrode body into the outer casing.
But, in spite of such proposals, there is still a serious problem in mechanically inserting the electrode body smoothly into the outer casing. In other words, in order to automatically insert the electrode body into the outer casing, first the electrode body and the outer casing may be opposed mutually with their center axes for insertion aligned and automatically inserted mechanically.
However, because of such a small tolerance between the inner size of the outer casing and the outer size of the electrode body, the conventional automatic assembling apparatus having the structure based on a simple idea has a difficulty in exactly aligning the bottom of the electrode body and the opening of the outer casing, so that the bottom of the electrode body is brought into contact with the opening edge of the outer casing, damaging the bottom of the electrode body and extremely increasing an insertion fraction defective.
Accordingly, as the most secure inserting method, workers can manually insert one by one. But, its work efficiency is limited and productivity is low, hindering cost-reduction measures.
It is also possible to use robots which operate in the same way as human hands do to insert the components, but there are still problems in view
REFERENCES:
patent: 4574472 (1986-03-01), Epstein et al.
patent: 5099569 (1992-03-01), Ribordy et al.
Form PCT/ISA/210 for PCT/JP95/00450, Jun. 1995.
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
Maples John S.
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