Metal working – Means to assemble or disassemble – Means to assemble electrical device
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-28
2001-12-11
Brouillette, Gabrielle (Department: 1745)
Metal working
Means to assemble or disassemble
Means to assemble electrical device
C029S731000, C029S002000, C029S623100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06327774
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an assembling machine for Ni-MH batteries and an assembly process thereof, more particularly, to an automated assembling machine for a negative electrode plate NI-MH battery which is a secondary battery and the assembly process using the assembling machine thereof.
(b) Description of the Related Art
With the rapid increase in the spread of portable devices such as personal communication systems and notebook computers, there has bee a demand for the development of secondary batteries that are compact, lightweight, and have high energy density. The introduction of environmentally friendly zero-emission electric vehicles have also resulted in the further demand for the development of secondary batteries as power sources.
Batteries generally convert chemical energy into electrical energy by the electric potential difference between metals, and can be classified as primary (nonrechargeable) batteries, secondary (rechargeable) batteries, and special batteries such as solar cells. Primary batteries can be further classified as manganic cell, alkaline cell, mercuric oxide cell, and silver oxide cell batteries depending on the type of electrode, while secondary batteries can be classified as Ni-MH batteries using metal-hydroxide as the electrode, sealed nickel-cadnium batteries, lithium-metal batteries, lithium-ion batteries, and lithium-polymer batteries.
While primary batteries have disadvantages such as short life, low capacity, and nonrechargeability, secondary batteries have excellent performance characteristics for electric vehicles due to their high capacity and long life. Ni type batteries are widely used as secondary batteries because they have proven to have good recycling characteristics and environmental performance.
However, the above Ni type batteries, especially Ni-MH batteries have the disadvantage of low production efficiency that results from a large number of operational steps and a long lead time due to manual assembly operations.
FIG. 1
shows the production process for the negative electrode plate for Ni-MH batteries with previously employed manual assembly operations consisting of seven operational steps.
As indicated in
FIG. 1
, a line operator pulls by hand a predetermined length negative electrode plate
103
from a negative electrode plate roll
101
and cuts it with a hand cutter. After the cut negative electrode plate
103
is transferred to a rubber table, a line operator marks a boundary of an active material removal area
105
using an engraver, removes the active material of an active material removal area
105
using a manual hammer, and cuts a predetermined length of Ni foil for a tab
107
using a cut-off machine. The corner folded with two Ni foil pieces is weld using a welding machine in a process where a pair of welded Ni foil pieces
107
are positioned at the active material removal area
105
of the negative electrode plate
103
and four corner points of the folded area are temporarily welded using the welding machine. The temporarily weld electrode plate
103
-
1
is fully welded using a direct current resistance welding machine, and a final electrode plate
103
-
2
is then blanked using a blanking press.
However, as the above assembly process for a negative electrode plate for Ni-MH batteries by previously employed manual assembly operations is dependent on manual operations using manual tools, the total manufacturing expense and product reject rate is high due to a large number of assembly operational steps.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention made to solve the above problems provides the assembling machine for a negative electrode plate and an assembly process thereof, wherein the negative electrode plate for Ni-MH batteries can be made through an automated through production process so that cost, time, and reject rate of production can be substantially reduced, and hence production efficiency can be maximized.
The above described assembling machine for the negative electrode plate consists of an electrode plate feeding unit supplying a source material of the negative electrode plate from an electrode plate roll, a first blanking press cutting the source material of the negative electrode plate into a rectangular negative electrode plate unit, an active material removing unit removing an active material of the surface of the negative electrode plate by striking the active material removal area of the negative electrode plate, a tab feeding unit supplying a tab strip from a tab strip roll, a tact welding unit that temporarily welds an edge area of a tab strip that is supplied from the tab feeding unit to upper and lower faces of the active material removal area of the negative electrode plate, a cutting unit that cuts rectangular tabs of a predetermined size from the temporarily welded tab strip, a finish welding unit that fully welds the temporarily welded tab, a second blanking press unit that finally cuts with a desired shape the negative electrode plate that is fully welded with the tab.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4509252 (1985-04-01), Sabatino et al.
patent: 4510682 (1985-04-01), Sabatino et al.
patent: 4583286 (1986-04-01), Schaumburg et al.
patent: 5045086 (1991-09-01), Juergens
patent: 5637416 (1997-06-01), Yoshii et al.
Cheon San
Kim Ho-Yeon
Won Hi-Un
Alejandro R.
Brouillette Gabrielle
Christie Parker & Hale LLP
Hyundai Motor Company
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