JP2002343345A - Manufacturing method of electrode plate for battery - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a manufacturing method which can manufacture an electrode plate for a battery with large active material per unit volume without trouble. SOLUTION: A core material exposed part 24 is formed with active material removed, by giving ultrasound vibration over a marginal part of active material- filled part 22 with active material filled all over a thin-plate core material 21 with porous nature. Lead hoops 9 are bonded by welding to given places along marginal parts in the core material exposed part 24, the part of the core material exposed part 24 where the lead hoops are not yet bonded is compressed toward the active material-filled part 22 to make it in minimal width. The active material-filled part 22 and the lead hoops 9 are cut out in specified dimension to divide into individual electrode plates 28 for a battery. Or, after the lead hoops are bonded, they are cut out in specified dimension to divide into individual electrode base bodies 32, and the part of each electrode base body where the lead hoops 9 are not yet bonded to the core material exposed part 24 is compressed to a minimal width, to make each electrode base body 32 an electrode plate 28.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electrode plate for a battery constituting a power generating element together with an electrolyte in a secondary battery such as a nickel hydride battery, a nickel cadmium battery and a lithium ion battery. The present invention relates to a method for producing a non-sintered battery electrode plate in which a porous core material such as a foamed metal is filled with an active material.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As an electrode plate for a secondary battery, a core material made of a foamed metal having a continuous three-dimensional network structure having a high porosity and a core material filled with an active material has a charge capacity. It is widely adopted because it is very good in terms of quality. Further, in recent years, batteries have been strongly required to have improved high-rate discharge characteristics, and the following configuration has been adopted as a countermeasure.

In other words, a battery electrode plate having improved high-rate discharge characteristics has a core material exposed by removing a filled active material at a location along one side of an active material filled portion in which a core material is filled with an active material. A current collector is formed by compressing the exposed portion of the core material before or after filling the active material to reduce the porosity, thereby forming a current collector, and welding a connection lead portion to the current collector by welding. The structure is joined.

[0004] The prismatic battery electrode group is constituted by alternately stacking the positive and negative electrode plates having the above-mentioned current collector with a separator interposed therebetween. On the other hand, the cylindrical battery electrode group is formed by spirally winding the positive and negative electrode plates having the above-mentioned current collectors in a state of being stacked with a separator interposed therebetween. Therefore, in any of the electrode groups, positive and negative current collectors having connection leads joined at both ends are formed over a plurality or all around. By joining a current collector plate to the connection leads at both ends, In addition, it is possible to collect current from each electrode plate individually or from the entire circumference of the spiral shape, thereby improving the overall current collection efficiency. Moreover, since the current collector has a metal core material exposed and is in a state suitable for welding the connection lead, the current collector is collected by a tabless method in which a current collector plate or the like is joined to the connection lead by welding. The electric characteristics are significantly improved, and it is possible to meet the demand for improving the high-rate discharge characteristics described above.

A battery electrode plate capable of improving the high-rate discharge characteristics as described above is manufactured, for example, through the steps shown in FIG. 9 (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-315498). First, in a first step shown in FIG. 3A, a core material 1 having a three-dimensional structure such as a foamed metal is provided with a concave portion along both sides and a double parallel to the concave portion. And a plurality of groove portions having the groove widths described above are formed through a press molding or compression process. Next, the entire core material 1 including the concave portion and the groove portion is filled with a slurry-like or paste-like active material, and the active material attached to the concave portion and the groove portion is then brushed and air blown. After removing the core material 1 by removing the core material 1 and exposing the active material, the active material is dried to form the active material filled portion 2 and the core material exposed portion 3 at a position corresponding to the concave portion and the groove portion. . Next, the core material exposed portion 3 corresponding to the groove is cut along a cutting line indicated by a broken line at the center of the groove width, so that the core material is exposed at both ends along the longitudinal direction of the band-shaped active material filled portion 2. An electrode plate hoop 4 having an exposed portion 3 is manufactured.

In a second step shown in FIG. 1B, the upper and lower core material exposed portions 3 of the electrode plate hoop 4 which have been compressed by passing between a pair of compression rolls (not shown) are provided. The lead hoop 9 which is a strip-shaped metal plate is joined by a seam welding method using a pair of disk electrodes 7 and 8.

In a third step shown in FIG. 1C, the lead hoop 9 is formed into a connection lead portion 12 by punching the lead hoop 9 using a trimming punch 10 and a trimming die 11. The electrode plate hoop 4 in which the connection lead 12 is formed is housed in the battery outer can using the cutting punch 13 and the cutting die 14 while intermittently feeding the electrode plate hoop 4 by a distance corresponding to the electrode plate width of the electrode plate to be manufactured. Cut to standard dimensions. As a result, as shown in FIG. 7B, one end of the active material filling portion 2 is connected to the connection lead portion 1.
Thus, an electrode plate 17 for a prismatic battery having 2 is completed. The electrode plate for a cylindrical battery is manufactured through substantially the same process as described above, and is different from that for a square battery only in the shape of the connection lead and the length longer than the electrode plate width for the square battery. Just cut it.

Conventionally, the step shown in FIG. 9A may be employed instead of the first step shown in FIG. 9A1. In the step (a2), the active material is entirely filled with the active material, and then the rolling process is performed. Thus, the active material filled portion 2 is formed as a whole. By applying ultrasonic vibration having a large amplitude to the predetermined portion along the ultrasonic horn head 18 for the purpose of completely removing the active material, the active material is removed while being peeled off, and the core material exposed portion is removed. 3 is formed. (JP 20
00-77054).

[0009]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional manufacturing method, the width D of the exposed core material 3 needs to be set large as shown in FIG. There is a problem that the volume of the active material filling portion 2, that is, the amount of active material per unit volume is reduced by the large width D of the core exposed portion 3, and it is not possible to increase the capacity when a battery is configured. .

That is, the exposed core member 3 is, for example,
When the width d is set to be as small as necessary for joining the lead hoop 9 as shown in (a), the lead hoop 9 is connected to the core material by the seam welding method using the upper and lower disk electrodes 7 and 8. When joining to the exposed portion 3, there is a possibility that a part of the active material in the vicinity of the core exposed portion 3 in the active material filled portion 2 may enter between the disk electrodes 7 and 8. Both disk electrodes 7,
8, the active material entering from the active material filling portion 2 has a large electric resistance, so that a spark is generated and any one or all of the disk electrodes 7, 8, the lead hoop 9, and the core material exposed portion 3 are generated. Defective melting occurs. As a result, seizure, continuous spark, etc. occur in the welded portion, causing a problem that continuous seam welding cannot be performed. In addition, the disk electrodes 7, 8 are consumed by the generated spark, so that a required life cannot be secured.

Therefore, conventionally, as shown in FIG. 1B, the core exposed portion 3 is set to a sufficiently large width D so as to reliably prevent the occurrence of the above-mentioned burn-in and continuous spark. ing. Accordingly, the conventional electrode plate 17
The decrease in the amount of active material per unit volume is a factor that hinders an increase in capacity when a battery is configured. In addition,
The exposed core portion 3 is formed by compressing a portion to be joined with the lead hoop 9 in advance before joining the lead hoop 9,
As shown by a two-dot chain line in FIGS. 10A and 10B, the lead hoop 9 may be compressed at the same time as the lead hoop 9 is welded by the pair of disk electrodes 7 and 8 when the lead hoop 9 is joined.

On the other hand, the step of FIG. 9 (a2) aims at forming the core exposed portion 3 having a small width while completely removing the active material. If the width of the portion 3 is set to be small, the application of the ultrasonic vibration becomes unstable, and the active material remains in the formed core exposed portion 3. For this reason, the active material must be excessively peeled off, so that the formed core exposed portion 3 is eventually
The width becomes large as in the case of using the step (a1), and the same problem as described above occurs.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, and has as its object to provide a manufacturing method capable of manufacturing a battery electrode plate having a large amount of an active material per unit volume without any trouble. It is.

[0014]

In order to achieve the above object, a method for manufacturing a battery electrode plate according to a first aspect of the present invention is directed to a method of filling an active material into the entirety of a thin porous core material. A material filling step, and by applying ultrasonic vibrations along the periphery of the active material filled portion filled with the active material, the strip-shaped core material exposed portion from which the active material has been removed is applied to the active material filled portion. An active material removing step to be formed along, a lead hoop joining step of joining a lead hoop by welding to a predetermined portion along a peripheral portion of the core exposed portion, and the lead hoop at the core exposed portion being joined. A compression step of compressing the unfilled portion toward the active material filling portion while pressing it to a minimum width, and cutting the active material filling portion and the lead hoop into prescribed dimensions and dividing the battery electrode plate into individual battery electrode plates. Cutting process It is characterized in Rukoto.

According to this method of manufacturing an electrode plate for a battery, the active material filling portion can be set to a large volume in advance in consideration of an extremely small width by compressing the exposed core material in a later step. The amount of active material increases considerably. In addition, after the lead hoop is welded to the required width of the exposed core material, which is sufficiently large, the exposed core material is compressed to a small width, so that seizure and continuous sparking occur during welding. Can be reliably prevented, and the life of the electrodes and the like used for welding can be extended. Further, since only the compression process is interposed in a series of continuous manufacturing processes, the productivity is not reduced. In addition, dimensional variations due to misalignment of the lead hoop in a state where the lead hoop is joined can be corrected when the width of the exposed portion of the core material is reduced in the width shifting compression step, so that high dimensional accuracy can be obtained. it can.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of manufacturing an electrode plate for a battery, comprising: an active material filling step of filling an entirety of a porous thin core material with an active material; and an active material filled with the active material. An active material removing step of forming a strip-shaped core material exposed portion from which the active material has been removed along the active material filled portion by applying ultrasonic vibrations along an edge portion of the filled portion; A lead hoop joining step of welding a lead hoop to a predetermined portion along a peripheral portion of the portion by welding, and cutting the active material filled portion, the core material exposed portion and the lead hoop to a prescribed size to form an individual electrode plate body The cutting step to divide the electrode plate body, by pressing the portion of the core material exposed portion of the core material exposed portion where the lead hoop is not bonded to the active material filling portion while compressing it to an extremely small width, Use the electrode plate body as the electrode plate It is characterized by having a asked compression step.

In this method of manufacturing an electrode plate for a battery, as in the first invention, the active material-filled portion is made to have a large volume in advance in consideration of an extremely small width by compressing the exposed core material in a later step. , The amount of active material is considerably increased. In addition, the core exposed part is compressed after the lead hoop is welded to the current collector that has compressed the required width part of the core exposed part, which has been made sufficiently large, so that the seizure during welding and continuous The generation of sparks can be reliably prevented, and the life of electrodes used for welding can be extended. Further, since only the compression process is interposed in a series of continuous manufacturing processes, the productivity is not reduced. In addition, dimensional variations due to misalignment of the lead hoop in a state where the lead hoop is joined can be corrected when the width of the exposed portion of the core material is reduced in the width shifting compression step, so that high dimensional accuracy can be obtained. it can.

[0018] In the width-adjusting compression step in the second invention, the positive or negative electrode plate body and the negative or positive electrode plate are overlapped with a separator interposed therebetween. After being fixed inside the width-adjusting jig or inside the battery case, the portion of the electrode plate body where the lead hoop of the exposed core material is not joined is compressed toward the minimum width while pressing toward the active material filling portion. You can also.

Thus, the electrode plate body is formed into an electrode plate having a required shape by compressing and reducing the width of the exposed portion of the core material, and an electrode group for a prismatic battery or a cylindrical battery is formed. Therefore, it is possible to further improve the productivity of the battery.

In each of the above inventions, a lead hoop is joined by welding to a predetermined portion along a peripheral portion of the exposed core material formed through the active material removing step, and The joining portion of the lead hoop is compressed before or at the time of joining to form a current collecting portion, and a pressing force applied to the lead hoop is applied to the remaining exposed core material through the current collecting portion in the compression process. Accordingly, it is preferable that the exposed portion of the core material is compressed by being pressed toward the active material filled portion.

As a result, the current collecting portion to which the lead hoop is joined has increased mechanical strength and density by being compressed as compared with the remaining exposed core material. While moving the part, the part moves integrally with the lead hoop, and the remaining exposed core material can be easily and reliably compressed.

In the above-mentioned width-adjusting compression step, the active material-filled portion is placed on the support base in such a manner that a predetermined length of the lead hoop is projected outward, and is projected in two stages in holding the electrode plate. In a state where the two regulating surfaces are opposed to the lead hoop and the active material filling portion and the core material exposed portion with a small gap, a protruding portion of the lead hoop from the support base is pushed toward the support base. After that, it is preferable to move the electrode plate holder close to the support base by the gap.

Thus, since the lead hoop has a small gap with respect to the regulating surface of the electrode plate holder, the lead hoop slides and moves smoothly while being prevented from being bent and deformed on the regulating surface. On the other hand, since the exposed portion of the core material has a small gap with respect to the regulating surface of the electrode plate holder, it is smoothly compressed while slightly expanding. Thereafter, when the electrode plate presser moves close to the support base by the gap, the swelling portion of the exposed core portion when compressed is pressed, and the exposed core portion is flush with the active material filled portion. Can be modified as follows.

The battery electrode plate according to the present invention is manufactured through the manufacturing process according to any of the above-described manufacturing methods. In this battery electrode plate, the amount of active material can be increased as much as the width of the exposed core material can be reduced by compression, so that the capacity of the battery can be increased.

[0025]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view sequentially showing a manufacturing process which embodies a method for manufacturing a battery electrode plate according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, a case is described in which a stacked electrode group is formed to manufacture a battery electrode plate used for a prismatic battery.

First, as shown in (b), the entire core material 21 made of a rectangular or band-shaped three-dimensional foamed metal having a predetermined size is filled with an active material as shown in (b), and an active material filling portion 22 is formed. I do. In forming the active material filling portion 22,
Since the active material is filled into the core material 21 having no unevenness before the press working, it can be filled with a uniform packing density throughout, and since there is no unevenness, that is, no difference in elevation,
The filled active material is held inside without flowing,
It is dried while maintaining a uniform packing density. On the other hand, in the step of FIG. 9 (a1) according to the conventional manufacturing method, the active material is filled into the core material 1 in which the concave portion and the groove portion are formed in advance through the press molding or the rolling process. Therefore, the packing density of the active material varies.

Next, as shown in (c), the core material 21 on which the active material filled portions 22 having a uniform packing density are formed as shown in FIG. By pressing the part of
2 and a portion which becomes a core material exposed portion in a subsequent step remains as two parallel rail-shaped remaining convex portions 23. Although not shown, this press working has the same basic structure as the stripe roll press shown in FIG. 2 in Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-261471 filed by the present applicant, and the working press roll has a predetermined shape. A strip roll press provided in an arrangement is used.

Subsequently, the two remaining ridges 23 are formed as shown in FIG.
In the active material removal step shown in (2), the active material filling portion 22 filled in itself is removed to form two core material exposed portions 24. In this active material removal step,
The processing is performed using an active material removing device (not shown) having substantially the same configuration as the active material removing device having the ultrasonic vibrator shown in FIG. 4 in Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-261471.
Here, the width D of the core exposed portion 24 is set to be larger than a predetermined width necessary for joining the lead hoop in a later step. As a result, ultrasonic vibration set to a sufficiently large amplitude can be applied from the ultrasonic vibrator, and the core from which the active material has been completely removed without remaining remains regardless of the degree of coupling of the active material. The material exposed portion 24 can be formed.

Next, as shown in (e), a portion of each core exposed portion 24 having a predetermined width d necessary for joining the lead hoop is compressed by a press roll (not shown). The current collector 27 is one step lower than the remaining original core exposed portion 24. Subsequently, as shown in FIG.
7, a pair of disk electrodes 7, 8 similar to those shown in FIG.
The lead hoop 9 is joined by a seam welding method using. This lead hoop 9 is set to a sufficiently large width D and seam-welded to a current collector 27 formed by compressing a part of the exposed core 24 from which the active material has been completely removed.
Since there is a core exposed portion 24 in which the active material does not remain on the inner side of the pair of disk electrodes 7 and 8,
There is no possibility that an active material intervenes between 8, and no burn-in or continuous spark is generated.

Therefore, the disk electrodes 7 and 8 can ensure a required long life. According to actual measurement results, as shown in FIG. 10A, when the exposed core material 3 is set to a width as small as necessary for joining the lead hoop 9, the disk electrodes 7 and 8 The life of the disk electrodes 7, 8 was greatly extended to 1200 hours when the process of this embodiment was adopted, while the life was 72 hours.

After the above-described lead hoop 9 is joined, the core material exposed portion 24 that has not been compressed is compressed by being pressed toward the active material filling portion 22 in the width shifting compression process shown in FIG. , Makes the width extremely small. The details of the compression process will be described later. Finally,
By punching and cutting along each cutting line indicated by a dashed line in (h), an electrode plate 28 for a prismatic battery as shown in (i) and FIG. 7A is obtained. The battery electrode plate 28 includes an active material filling portion 28a, a current collector 28b compressed after the active material is removed, and a current collector 2b.
8b, and a connection lead portion 28c joined to the
The exposed core member 28d compressed in the width direction has an extremely small width that can be almost ignored.

In the punching process in (h),
The lead hoop 9 is formed into the connection lead portion 28c by punching out the lead hoop 9 using the trimming punch 10 and the trimming die 11 shown in FIG. 9C.
In the cutting process, the cutting punch 1 also shown in FIG.
3 and the cutting die 14 are used to cut to the standard dimensions for storage in the battery case.

FIGS. 2A to 2D are longitudinal sectional views sequentially showing the processing steps in the width shifting compression step of FIG. 1G. First, in the first step shown in FIG.
When the lead hoop 9 is joined to the pair of current collectors 27 in a state in which the pair of pushers 31 are retracted to the side and The sheet is fed and set at a predetermined position on the support table 30. At this time, the pair of lead hoops 9 on both sides are set so as to protrude outward by the same predetermined length from the width adjusting jig 26 including the electrode plate holder 29 and the support base 30. That is, the projecting length of the lead hoop 9 is set to be slightly smaller than the width of the core exposed portion 24.

Next, in the second stroke shown in FIG. 3B, the electrode plate retainer 29 is lowered to a predetermined position. At this time, the gap G between the lower regulating surface 29a of the electrode plate retainer 29 and the lead hoop 9 is set.
1 and the gap G2 between the interruption restricting surface 29b of the electrode plate holder 29 and the core material exposed portion 24 and the active material filled portion 22 are both 0.05
It is set within a small range of about 0.10 mm.

Subsequently, in the third step shown in FIG. 3C, the pair of pushers 31 move to the position where they contact the width-adjusting jig 26, and the pair of lead hoops 9 projecting outward.
Are respectively pushed into the width approaching jigs 26. At this time, the current collector 27 to which the lead hoop 9 is joined is
Since the mechanical strength and density are higher than that of the exposed core 24 due to the compression in the step (e), the width adjustment is performed integrally with the lead hoop 9 while compressing the exposed core 24. The tool 26 is pushed inward. Thus, the core exposed portion 24 that is not compressed in the step of FIG. 1E and remains at a high porosity (about 90%) is compressed to an extremely small width.

At this time, the pushers 31 on both sides simultaneously press the corresponding lead hoops 9 with the same force and the same distance, so that the core exposed portions 24 on both sides are automatically adjusted by the active material filling portion 22 at the center. Centered and compressed almost equally. In addition, the lead hoop 9 is connected to the electrode plate holder 2 as described above.
Since the lower regulating surface 29a has a gap of 0.05 to 0.10 mm with respect to the lower regulating surface 29a, the lower regulating surface 29a slides and moves smoothly while being prevented from being bent and deformed. On the other hand, the core exposed portion 24 is set at 0.
Since it has a gap of 05 to 0.10 mm, it is smoothly compressed while slightly expanding. Finally, in the fourth step shown in (d), the electrode plate retainer 29 moves the gap (0.05
0.10.10 mm), and presses the upwardly swelling portion of the exposed core portion 24 during compression to lower the exposed core portion 2.
4 is modified so as to be flush with the active material filling section 22.

FIG. 7A obtained through the manufacturing process of FIG.
When compared with the battery electrode plate 17 according to the conventional manufacturing process shown in FIG. 2B, the battery electrode plate 28 of the present embodiment has the active material filling portion 28a having a very small width by compressing the core exposed portion 28d. Since a large volume can be set in advance in consideration of the possible amount, the amount of the active material is considerably increased, and accordingly, the capacity of the battery can be increased.

The specific measured values are as follows: the electrode plate width (horizontal dimension in FIG. 7) is 15 mm, and the electrode plate length (vertical dimension in FIG. 7) is 31 m.
m, an electrode plate 2 having a thickness of 0.8 mm
In obtaining the electrodes 8 and 17, the width (the vertical dimension in FIG. 7) of the core exposed portion 3 was 1.5 mm in the conventional electrode plate 17,
In the electrode plate 28 having undergone the manufacturing process of the embodiment, the width of the exposed core material 28d is 0.5 mm. Thus, in the electrode plate 28 obtained through the manufacturing process of the above-described embodiment, the length (longitudinal dimension) of the active material filling portion 28a is increased by 1 mm, and the amount of the active material is larger than that of the conventional electrode plate 17. About 3%.
In addition, the lead hoop 9 is attached to the current collecting portion 28b by compressing a portion of a required width of the core exposed portion 24 having a sufficiently large width.
Is bonded by the seam welding method, and then the exposed core member 24 is compressed, so that seizure and continuous spark during seam welding can be reliably prevented.

Also, in the manufacturing process of FIG. 1, since the width-adjusting compression process is only interposed in a series of continuous processes,
It is possible to obtain the electrode plate 28 having high dimensional accuracy, particularly, the length of the electrode plate, without lowering the productivity. This high dimensional accuracy can be obtained because of the displacement between the core 21 and the press roll (not shown) during the press working in the step of FIG. 1C, and the lead hoop 9 in the step of FIG. Is shifted to the width W1 when the lead hoop 9 is joined to the current collecting portion 27, and the core material 21 is formed in the same step (f).
About ± 0.
Although a dimensional variation of 3 mm occurs, the outer ends of the pair of lead hoops 9 coincide with the outer end surfaces of the pair of lead hoops 9 by the pushers 31 in the width shifting compression process of FIG. This is because the width W2 after the width shifting compression step can be suppressed to a dimensional variation of ± 0.05 mm.

In the conventional battery electrode plate 17 manufactured through the manufacturing process shown in FIG. 9, it is difficult to remove the active material while controlling the width of the active material accurately. The width and the width of the active material exposed portion 3 tended to vary, and accordingly, the weight of the active material in the active material filling portion 2 varied. For this reason, when composing the stacked electrode group, a complicated process of selecting the weight of the manufactured battery electrode plate 17 and combining and stacking battery electrode plates 17 having substantially the same weight is required.

On the other hand, in the battery electrode plate 28 obtained in the first embodiment, in the step of FIG. 1A, the active material is uniformly filled in the entire core material 21 having no irregularities. In the width-adjusting compression step of (g), the core exposed portions 24 on both sides are compressed by the active material filling portion 22 in a state where they are self-centered, so that the bonding position of the lead hoop 9 varies. As described above, the width W2 after the width shifting compression process is suppressed to a dimensional variation of ± 0.05 mm, and the center portion of the width W2 is cut and divided into two, and then cut into a specified size. Therefore, the obtained electrode plate 28 has a great advantage that the variation in the amount of the active material is extremely small, and the conventional weight sorting process can be reduced.

In the manufacturing process of FIG. 1, prior to the joining of the lead hoop 9, the portion of the core exposed portion 24 having a predetermined width d required for joining the lead hoop in the step (e) is used. Although the current collector 27 is formed by compression, the step (e) may be omitted. In this case, (f)
In the step (d), the lead hoop 9 is directly welded and joined to a predetermined portion of the core exposed portion 24 formed in the step (d), but as described with reference to FIG. This is because, at the time of welding, the portion of the core exposed portion 24 where the lead hoop 9 is welded is compressed simultaneously with welding by the pair of disk electrodes 7 and 8 to form the current collector 27.

Also, in the width shifting compression step of FIG.
After finishing the machining steps of FIGS. 2A to 2D, FIG.
The processing steps shown in (e) to (f) may be provided. In FIG. 3, the electrode plate retainer 29 has an active material filled portion 22 in which the lead hoop 9 is joined to the current collecting portion 27 at a later stage than the portion shown in FIG. The lower-stage regulating surface 29c having a width longer than the lower-stage regulating surface 29a shown in FIG. 2 and the middle stage in FIG. A middle regulating surface 29d having a width shorter than the regulating surface 29b is provided. The lower regulation surface 29c
Is set to a large width extending to a position corresponding to the inner end of the lead hoop 9 pushed inward in the process of FIG.

Since the support base 30 and the electrode plate holder 29 shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 are integrally formed, the respective steps shown in FIGS. 3 (e) to 3 (h) and the steps shown in FIGS. 2 (a) to 2 (d) are performed. The process indicates the same corresponding operation state. This FIG.
If each step of (h) is provided, as shown in (e), FIG.
After each of the steps described above, even if a protruding portion 24a upward of the leaping hoop 9 is formed on a part of the core material exposed portion 24, the protruding portion 24a is
When the electrode plate presser 29 further descends to a position where it comes into contact with the lead hoop 9 in the process (h) after being pressed onto the inner end surface of the lead hoop 9 by the lower regulating surface 29c when the lower portion 9 is lowered, It is pushed back inside and a small part is spread thinly on the lead hoop 9. Thereby, the remaining exposed core material 24 can be reliably shaped into a required shape.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing, in order, manufacturing steps which embody the method for manufacturing a battery electrode plate according to the second embodiment of the present invention. This embodiment also exemplifies a case in which a stacked electrode group is formed to manufacture a battery electrode plate used for a prismatic battery, and the steps (a) to (f) are shown in FIG.
Therefore, the description is omitted. In the step (g), the core exposed portion 24 is punched and cut along each cutting line indicated by a one-dot chain line in a state where the core exposed portion 24 is not compressed in the width direction. It is divided into electrode plate element bodies 32 which become individual electrode plates.

The above-mentioned electrode plate body 32 has an active material filled portion 28 similar to the battery electrode plate 28 obtained in the first embodiment.
a, a current collecting portion 28b, and a connection lead portion 28c, so that the same reference numerals are assigned to clarify the relationship with the electrode plate 28 and facilitate understanding. 2
Only 4 remains without compression. Therefore, in the step (i), each of the electrode plate base bodies 32 is subjected to a width shifting compression process on each of the exposed core members 24 so as to be formed into the exposed core members 28d having an extremely small width.
The battery electrode plate 28 is the same as in the first embodiment.
In the process of FIG. 4, there is no problem even if the process of (e) is deleted, as described in the process of FIG. 1.

FIGS. 5A to 5D are longitudinal sectional views sequentially showing the processing steps in the width-adjusting compression step of FIG. 4I. Width adjustment jig 33 used in this width adjustment compression process
Is a support table 34 having a stopper wall 37 at one end.
And a single lower regulating surface 38a and a pair of middle regulating surfaces 38b
And an electrode plate holder 38 having First, in the first step shown in FIG. 6A, a predetermined number of electrode plate bodies 32 are fed to the near side in the drawing in a state where the electrode plate retainer 38 is moved upward and the pusher 31 is retracted to the side. The active material-filled portions 28 a are set at predetermined positions on the support table 34 with the end surfaces of the active material filled portions 28 a abutting against the stopper wall portions 37.
At this time, the lead hoop 9 projects outward from the support table 34 by a predetermined length.

Next, in the second stroke shown in FIG. 5B, the electrode plate holder 38 descends to a predetermined position. At this time, similarly to the first embodiment, the lower plate regulating surface 38a
The gap between the lead hoop 9 and the gap between the interruption restricting surface 38b of the electrode plate retainer 38 and the exposed core material 24 is 0.05 to 0.
It is set in the range of 10 mm.

Subsequently, in the third step shown in FIG. 9C, the pusher 31 moves to a position where it contacts the width-adjusting jig 33, and moves the lead hoop 9 projecting outward to the width-adjusting jig 33. Push in. At this time, the current collecting portion 27 to which the lead hoop 9 is joined has a higher mechanical strength and density than the core exposed portion 24 by being compressed in the step of FIG. The core exposed portion 24 is pressed into the inside of the width approaching jig 33 integrally with the lead hoop 9 while being compressed. As a result, the core exposed portion 24 which is not compressed in the step of FIG. 1E and remains at a high porosity (about 90%) is compressed, and the core exposed portion 2 having an extremely small width is compressed.
8d. At this time, the lead hoop 9 is 0.05 to 0.10 m with respect to the lower regulating surface 38a of the electrode plate retainer 38 as described above.
Since it has a gap of m, it slides and moves smoothly while being prevented from bending and deforming to the lower regulating surface 38a.
On the other hand, since the core material exposed portion 28d has a gap of 0.05 to 0.10 mm with respect to the middle regulating surface 38b of the electrode plate retainer 38,
Smoothly compressed while slightly swelling.

Finally, in the fourth step shown in (d), the electrode plate retainer 38 is lowered by the above-mentioned gap (0.05 to 0.10 mm) to expand upward in the core exposed portion 28d during compression. The protruding portion is pressurized so that the core material exposed portion 28 d is
Modify to be flush with a. Thus, a battery electrode plate 28 similar to that of the first embodiment is completed. In this electrode plate 28, the electrode plate holder 38 moves upward and the pusher 31
Are taken out after being respectively retracted to the side, and thereafter, the same processing operation as described above is repeated. Therefore, the manufacturing method according to the second embodiment is different from the manufacturing method according to the first embodiment only in that only a part of the steps is replaced, and the same effect as that described in the first embodiment can be reliably obtained. And the same battery electrode plate 28 as in the first embodiment can be obtained.

Incidentally, in the width shifting compression step of FIG.
After finishing the machining steps of FIGS. 5A to 5D, FIG.
It is more preferable that the processing steps corresponding to the processing steps shown in (e) to (f) be performed to shape the shape of the core exposed portion 28d.

In the first and second embodiments, the production of the electrode plate 28 for the prismatic battery has been described. However, the production method of the present invention is not limited to the production of the electrode plate for the spiral electrode group used for the cylindrical battery. It can also be applied to manufacturing. For example, FIG.
After the respective steps (a) to (e), the current collectors 2 on both sides
8A is obtained by seam welding a lead hoop 9 having the same width as that of FIG. 7 and cutting the active material filled portion 22 into two parts by cutting along a cutting line indicated by a two-dot chain line in FIG. The shape is as shown in FIG. Next, the core material exposed portion 24 is compressed to an extremely small width using a width-adjusting jig substantially similar to the width-adjusting jig 33 in FIG. 5, and then cut to a predetermined length. An electrode plate 39 for a cylindrical battery as shown in FIG. 8B can be obtained. After the lead hoop 9 is seam-welded, the core exposed portion 24 is preliminarily compressed by using a width-adjusting jig similar to the width-adjusting jig 26 shown in FIG. 2, and then cut. Of course, it may be done.

In the electrode plate 39 for the spiral electrode group of the cylindrical battery, the volume of the active material filled portion 22 can be set to be as large as possible by compressing the core exposed portion 24 to have an extremely small width. In addition, a higher capacity can be achieved when a battery is configured with an increase in the amount of active material. In addition, the electrode plate 39 compresses the core exposed portion 24 to an extremely small width, thereby significantly reducing variations in the electrode plate width and obtaining high dimensional accuracy. Is uniformly filled with the active material and cut into prescribed dimensions after the required steps, so that the variation in the amount of the active material is extremely reduced.

FIG. 6 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a part of a manufacturing process which embodies a method for manufacturing a battery electrode plate according to a third embodiment of the present invention. This embodiment exemplifies a case in which a stacked electrode group is formed to manufacture a battery electrode plate used for a prismatic battery, and through the same steps as those shown in FIGS. Is formed. Next,
As shown in FIG. 6A, the number of electrode plate bodies 32 and the number of the negative electrode plates 41 necessary for constituting the stacked electrode group are overlapped with a separator 40 interposed therebetween. In a stacked state, it is placed on the support table 43 of the width-adjusting jig 42, and is clamped and fixed by a pair of electrode plate holders 44 from both sides.

Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 6B, each connection lead portion 28c of each electrode plate body 32 is pressed downward by the pusher 31 which moves toward the width shifting jig 42 side. As a result, the core exposed portion 24 is compressed by receiving the pressing force from the connection lead portion 28c via the current collecting portion 28b and reduced to an extremely small width, similarly to the above embodiments. Thus, the electrode plate body 32 is formed into the required shape of the positive electrode plate 28, and at the same time, the positive electrode plate 2
8 and the negative electrode plate 41 have a separator 40 therebetween.
The electrode group 47 for the prismatic battery, which is laminated with interposing, is completed. Therefore, this electrode group 47 can be stored in a battery case for a prismatic battery as it is,
The productivity of the prismatic battery can be improved.

It should be noted that, instead of the width shifting jig 42, FIG.
The electrode plate body 32, the negative electrode plate 41, and the separator 40 in the laminated state of (a) are directly inserted into the battery case, and in this state, each connection lead is pushed by the pusher 31 as shown in FIG. The core exposed portion 24 can be compressed by pressing the portion 28c. In this case, the productivity of the prismatic battery can be further improved.

In manufacturing the electrode plate 39 for a cylindrical battery in FIG. 8, the same manufacturing steps as in FIG. 6 can be used. 8A is cut into a predetermined electrode plate length (length in the left-right direction in the figure) to form an electrode plate body. The electrode plate body on the positive electrode side and the electrode plate body on the negative electrode side are cut off. The electrode plate and the electrode plate are spirally wound in a state of being overlapped with a separator interposed therebetween, and inserted into a width adjusting jig or a cylindrical battery case in the wound state. Thereafter, if the lead hoop and the current collector are pressed by the pusher to compress the core exposed portion, an electrode group for a cylindrical battery can be formed simultaneously with the formation of the positive electrode plate 39.

[0058]

As described above, according to the method for manufacturing a battery electrode plate of the present invention, the active material-filled portion is preliminarily formed in consideration of the possibility that the exposed portion of the core material is compressed to a very small width in a later step. Since the volume can be set to be large, the amount of the active material is considerably increased. In addition, the core exposed part is compressed after the lead hoop is welded to the current collector that has compressed the required width part of the core exposed part, which has been made sufficiently large, so that the seizure during welding and continuous The generation of sparks can be reliably prevented, and the life of electrodes used for welding can be extended. Further, since only the compression process is interposed in a series of continuous manufacturing processes, the productivity is not reduced. In addition, dimensional variations due to misalignment of the lead hoop when the lead hoop is joined,
Since the correction can be made when the width of the exposed portion of the core material is reduced in the width shifting compression process, high dimensional accuracy can be obtained.

Further, according to the battery electrode plate of the present invention, the amount of active material can be increased by the amount that the width of the exposed portion of the core can be reduced by compression, so that the capacity of the battery can be increased. Can be.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIGS. 1A to 1I are perspective views sequentially showing manufacturing steps which embody a method for manufacturing a battery electrode plate according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

2 (a) to 2 (d) are longitudinal sectional views sequentially showing a first half of a processing step in a width-adjusting compression step of FIG. 1 (g).

3 (e) to 3 (h) are longitudinal sectional views sequentially showing the latter half of a processing step in the width shifting compression step of FIG. 1 (g).

FIGS. 4A to 4I are perspective views sequentially showing manufacturing steps which embody a method for manufacturing a battery electrode plate according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

5 (a) to 5 (d) are longitudinal sectional views sequentially showing a processing step in a width shifting compression step of FIG. 4 (i).

FIGS. 6 (a) and (b) are longitudinal sectional views showing a part of manufacturing steps embodying a method for manufacturing a battery electrode plate according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7A is a perspective view showing a battery electrode plate manufactured by the above manufacturing method, and FIG. 7B is a perspective view of a battery electrode plate according to a conventional manufacturing method shown for comparison.

8A is a perspective view of a manufacturing process when the manufacturing method of the present invention is applied to an electrode plate for a cylindrical battery, and FIG. 8B is a perspective view of a completed electrode plate.

FIGS. 9 (a), (a2), (b), and (c) are perspective views showing a manufacturing process according to a conventional method for manufacturing a battery electrode plate in the order of steps.

FIGS. 10A and 10B are cross-sectional views of one process for describing a problem caused by the manufacturing method.

[Explanation of symbols]

 9 Lead hoop 21 Core material 22 Active material filling part 24 Core material exposed part 26, 33, 42 Width adjustment jig 27 Current collector part 28, 39 Battery electrode plate (positive electrode plate) 29, 38, 44 Electrode plate holder 29a-29d, 38a, 38b Regulatory surface 30, 34, 43 Support 32 Electrode plate body 40 Separator 41 Negative electrode plate

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Yoshiyuki Tada 1006 Kazuma Kadoma, Kazuma, Osaka Prefecture Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. F-term (reference) BA17 DA04 FA02 FA05 FA06 GA03 GA04 GA07 GA12 GA23 GA27 GA30 HA12

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An active material filling step of filling an entirety of a porous thin plate-shaped core material with an active material, and ultrasonic vibration along an edge of an active material filled portion filled with the active material. An active material removing step of forming a strip-shaped core material exposed portion from which the active material has been removed along the active material filling portion, and providing a lead hoop at a predetermined position along a peripheral portion of the core material exposed portion. A lead hoop joining step of joining the parts by welding, and a width approaching compression step of compressing the part where the lead hoop is not joined in the exposed part of the core toward the active material filling part to make the part a minimum width, A step of cutting the active material filling portion and the lead hoop into prescribed dimensions and dividing into individual battery electrode plates. 2. An active material filling step of filling the entirety of a porous thin core material with an active material; and ultrasonic vibration along an edge of the active material filled portion filled with the active material. An active material removing step of forming a strip-shaped core material exposed portion from which the active material has been removed along the active material filling portion, and providing a lead hoop at a predetermined position along a peripheral portion of the core material exposed portion. Joining step by welding, a cutting step of cutting the active material filled portion, the exposed core material and the lead hoop into prescribed dimensions and dividing into individual electrode plate bodies, And compressing a portion of the core material exposed portion where the lead hoop is not bonded to the active material filling portion to an extremely small width while pressing the portion toward the active material filling portion. Characterized by having Method for manufacturing a battery electrode plate which. 3. The width-adjusting jig in the width-adjusting compression step in a state where the positive electrode side or the negative electrode side electrode plate body and the negative electrode side or the positive electrode side electrode plate are overlapped with a separator interposed therebetween. After being fixed to the inside of the battery case or the inside of the battery case, the portion of the electrode plate body where the lead hoop of the exposed core material is not joined is compressed toward an extremely small width while being pressed toward the active material filling portion. A method for producing the electrode plate for a battery according to claim 2. 4. A lead hoop is joined by welding to a predetermined portion along a peripheral portion of the exposed core material formed through the active material removing step, and the lead hoop of the exposed core material is welded. The joining portion is compressed before or at the time of joining to form a current collecting portion, and in the width shifting compression process, by applying a pressing force applied to the lead hoop to the remaining exposed core material through the current collecting portion, 4. The method for manufacturing an electrode plate for a battery according to claim 1, wherein the exposed portion of the core material is compressed by being pressed toward the active material filling portion. 5. In the width-adjusting compression step, the active material-filled portion is placed on a support base in such a manner that a predetermined length of the lead hoop is projected outward, and is projected in two stages in holding the electrode plate. In a state where the two regulating surfaces are opposed to the lead hoop and the active material filling portion and the core material exposed portion with a small gap, a protruding portion of the lead hoop from the support base is pushed toward the support base. 5. The method for manufacturing an electrode plate for a battery according to claim 4, wherein the electrode plate retainer is moved closer to the support base by the gap. 6. An electrode plate for a battery manufactured through a manufacturing process according to the manufacturing method according to claim 1.