KR101812836B1 - Apparatus for electrolyte impregnating test in rechargeable battery and method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

[0001] The present invention relates to an apparatus for inspecting electrolyte impregnation of a secondary battery and a method thereof, and more particularly to a sensor unit for detecting whether a residue exists on a cell into which an electrolyte is injected, An impregnation failure checking unit for comparing the sensed data inputted from the sensor unit with the sensed data stored in the storage unit to identify the impregnating faulty cell; A re-inspecting unit for confirming whether or not the product is good, and the transfer of each cell performing the electrolyte injection process, the detection of the presence of residues and the confirmation of the faulty impregnated cell, the transfer of the atmospheric line of the impregnated faulty cell, And a control unit for controlling the operation of the work line of the cell judged as < RTI ID = 0.0 >
Therefore, the present invention can reduce the defective rate significantly by improving the impregnated defective cell, and automate the impregnation defect inspection, which has proceeded to the manual inspection, so that it is possible to efficiently arrange the personnel in the production process of the secondary battery.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to an apparatus for inspecting electrolyte impregnation of a secondary battery,

The present invention relates to an apparatus for inspecting electrolyte impregnation of a secondary battery and a method thereof for automating the defect rate reduction and impregnation defect inspection by the impregnated defective cell.

Generally, a rechargeable battery refers to a battery that can be used semi-permanently by charging electric current generated by an electric current supplied from an external power source to an anode and a cathode in a process of oxidizing or reducing a material.

There is a disadvantage in that primary batteries (rechargeable batteries) once consumed and discarded are not reusable and costly to recharge or recycle batteries. On the other hand, rechargeable batteries can be charged many times and use fossil fuels dramatically As well as the byproducts from the use of energy, it is attracting attention as a new energy source for improving environment-friendly and energy efficiency.

Such a secondary battery is widely applied not only to a notebook computer, a portable electronic device carrying a mobile phone, a camcorder, but also to an electric vehicle (EV) or a hybrid vehicle (HV) driven by an electric driving source.

The rechargeable battery is divided into a nickel battery, an ion battery, a lithium ion battery, a polymer battery, a lithium polymer battery, and a lithium sulfide battery depending on what is used as a charging material.

Lithium-ion batteries have recently become the mainstream of the rechargeable battery market because of the miniaturization and weight reduction of electronic equipment and the generalization of use of portable electronic devices. As a result, materials capable of inserting and removing lithium ions are used as cathode and anode And an organic electrolytic solution or a polymer electrolytic solution is charged between the anode part and the cathode part, and electrical energy is generated by oxidation and reduction reaction when lithium ions are inserted and removed from the anode part and the cathode part.

In addition, the lithium polymer battery is a step-up battery in a lithium ion battery, and generates electricity by using an electrolyte made of a polymer material of a solid or gel form between the anode and the cathode. It has the advantage of being able to make various shapes and to make the thinnest battery among the secondary batteries developed so far.

In a conventional secondary battery, an electrode and a separator are laminated to form a cell, and then the cell is inserted into a pouch made of an aluminum material. An electrolyte solution made of an organic solvent is injected into the pouch to impregnate the pores of the electrode and the separator. Manufactured by sealing the pouch.

At this time, in the production process of the above-described secondary battery, impregnation inspection is carried out to confirm whether impregnation is properly performed or not so that the electrolyte injected into the cell penetrates into the electrode and the separator. , It was impossible to select the case where impregnation did not occur. Therefore, the impregnation defect inspection is usually performed using the reverse alignment vision.

However, in the manufacturing process of the secondary battery as described above, if the electrolyte is not impregnated after the electrolyte is injected into the cell, but remains in the vicinity of the upper injection port of the cell, a post-process (for example, The reverse alignment vision does not recognize it, and it is discharged due to poor impregnation, thereby increasing the defect rate.

In other words, in the case of poor impregnation, the defective defective cell can not be improved because defective impregnation can not be obtained because the conventional reverse alignment vision is determined to be impregnation defective although it can be made good after a certain period of time.

In the related art, Patent Document 1 (Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 10-2006-0025940) discloses a technique of reducing the defective battery by irradiating a laser around the injection port to evaporate the electrolyte. Patent Document 2 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-297799) discloses detection of leakage of an electrolyte due to a crack. Patent Document 3 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1969254) discloses that a plurality of grooves are formed around the injection port to reduce defects. Patent Document 4 (Korean Patent Laid-Open No. 10-2010-0084921) discloses contents of inspecting the surface of a battery and selectively discharging good and defective products.

However, in the conventional method described in the above-mentioned prior patent documents and the like, it is recognized that there is a problem that defective due to the electrolyte remaining in the vicinity of the injection port occurs. To solve this problem, a laser is irradiated to evaporate the electrolyte , It is not possible to propose a technique for reducing defective rate by forming grooves around the injection port and reducing the defective rate by improving the impregnated defective cell.

Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2006-0025940 Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-297799 Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 1-16254 Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2010-0084921

The present invention provides a method of inspecting electrolyte impregnation of a secondary battery that can automate the defect rate deterioration and impregnation defect inspection by impregnated defective cells.

The present invention relates to a method for inspecting electrolyte impregnation of a secondary battery in which after a step of injecting an electrolytic solution into a cell, the electrolyte is not impregnated and remains on the cell, .

An apparatus for inspecting electrolyte impregnation of a secondary battery according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a sensor unit for detecting whether a residue is present on a cell into which an electrolyte is injected, a sensor unit for detecting presence or absence of residues on the cell where the electrolyte is injected, An impregnation failure checking unit for comparing the sensed data inputted from the sensor unit with the sensed data stored in the storage unit to identify the impregnating faulty cell; A re-inspecting unit for confirming whether or not the product is good, and the transfer of each cell performing the electrolyte injection process, the detection of the presence of residues and the confirmation of the faulty impregnated cell, the transfer of the atmospheric line of the impregnated faulty cell, And a control unit for controlling the movement of the work line of the cell determined as < RTI ID = 0.0 >

The apparatus for inspecting electrolyte impregnation of a secondary cell of the present invention is a device for inspecting electrolyte impregnated inspections of a secondary cell, which performs movement of each cell for performing an electrolyte injection process, moves impregnated defective cells identified by a poor impregnation confirmation unit from an operation line to an atmospheric line, And a conveyor driving unit for injecting the cells judged to be good into the operation line in the waiting line.

The apparatus for inspecting electrolyte impregnation of a secondary battery according to the present invention is characterized in that it displays a good product or impregnation defect of each cell performing the electrolyte injection process based on the control of the control unit, And a display unit for displaying various status information related to the impregnation test of each cell performing the electrolyte injection process.

Then, the re-inspecting unit performs the vision inspection when a predetermined waiting time has passed for each of the impregnated defective cells transferred to the waiting line, checks the good or defective based on the result of the vision inspection, and returns the impregnated defective cell identified as good to the working line Can be configured.

When the predetermined waiting time has elapsed for each of the impregnated defective cells transferred to the waiting line, the re-inspecting unit detects whether any residue is present on the cell through which the electrolyte is injected through the sensor unit, and confirms the good or defective based on the result of detection. The impregnated defective cell can be configured to return to the working line.

The control unit controls the re-inspecting unit to perform re-inspecting according to the preset number of re-inspections, and if the number of re-inspections performed by the re-inspecting unit exceeds the predetermined number of retesting attempts, can do.

The method of inspecting the electrolyte for impregnating an electrolyte in a secondary battery according to an embodiment of the present invention includes the steps of (1) sensing whether a residue is present on a cell to which an electrolyte is being transferred according to an electrolyte injection process, (2) ) The control unit compares the sensed data sensed by the sensor unit and the sensing data in the normal case stored in the storage unit through the impregnation failure confirmation unit to determine whether or not the cell is impregnated with a residue in the electrolyte- And (3) if it is determined in step (2) that the cell is an impregnated defective cell, the control unit transfers the impregnated defective cell from the work line to the waiting line, and (4) (5) A step of judging whether the impregnated defective cell moved to the waiting line is re-inspected through the re-inspecting unit, When the air that is impregnated with defective cell in the determination as a non-defective, the control unit may include the step of returning the cells determined to be non-defective by the assembly line.

If it is determined in step (4) that the defective impregnated cell is in good condition based on the re-inspection of the impregnated defective cell waiting in the waiting line, if the predetermined waiting time has elapsed for each impregnated defective cell waiting in the waiting line, Based on the result of the vision inspection.

If it is determined in step (4) that the defective impregnated cell is in good condition based on the re-inspection of the impregnated defective cell waiting in the waiting line, if the predetermined waiting time has elapsed for each impregnated defective cell waiting in the waiting line, It is again detected whether any residue is present on the cell, and it is judged whether or not the product is good based on the detection result.

In step (4), when it is judged that the product is good based on the re-inspection of the impregnated faulty cells in the standby line, the control unit controls the re-inspection through the re-inspection unit according to the preset number of re- If the number of times of retesting exceeds the predetermined number of times of retesting, a cell waiting in the waiting line may be determined as a final failure.

As described above, according to the apparatus for inspecting electrolyte impregnation of a secondary battery of the present invention, when the electrolyte is not impregnated after the electrolyte is injected into the cell, the cell is moved to the waiting place, After the impregnation is completed, it is automatically reintroduced into the process, so that the defective impregnated cell can be made good and the defective rate can be remarkably reduced. Also, since the impregnation defect inspection which was performed by the manual inspection can be automated, There is an effect that can be performed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a configuration of an apparatus for inspecting electrolyte impregnation of a secondary battery according to an embodiment of the present invention;
2 is a view for explaining a case where an electrolytic solution remains on a cell under production to which the present invention is applied;
3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the method for inspecting electrolyte impregnation of a secondary battery according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, an apparatus for inspecting electrolyte impregnation of a secondary battery of the present invention and a method thereof will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a view schematically showing the configuration of an apparatus for inspecting electrolyte impregnation of a secondary battery according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a view for explaining a case where an electrolyte remains on a cell under production to which the present invention is applied to be.

As shown in the drawing, the apparatus of the present invention includes a sensor unit 10, a storage unit 20, a fault impregnation unit 30, a conveyor drive unit 40, a re-inspecting unit 50, a display unit 60, ) And the like.

The sensor unit 10 detects whether there is any residue on the cell into which the electrolyte is injected, and outputs the sensed data to the controller 70. [ 2, the sensor unit 10 senses the refraction of light due to the remnants 84 that can not be injected into the cell 80 through the injection port 82, .

The storage unit 20 stores a control program related to the electrolytic solution impregnation inspection and stores sensing data in a normal case in which residues do not exist on the cell into which the electrolytic solution is injected.

The impregnation failure confirmation unit 30 compares the sensed data inputted from the sensor unit 10 with the sensed data in the normal case stored in the storage unit 20 based on the control of the control unit 70, And then outputs the result to the control unit 70. [0050] That is, the impregnation failure confirmation unit 30 confirms that the detection data by the residue of the specific cell inputted from the sensor unit 10 is within the range of the normal detection data stored in the storage unit 20, If the sensed data due to the residue of a specific cell inputted from the storage unit 20 is out of the range of the sensed data in the normal case stored in the storage unit 20,

The conveyor drive unit 40 moves each cell performing the electrolyte injection process based on the control of the control unit 70 and moves the impregnating fault cell identified by the impregnation fault verifying unit 30 from the operation line to the waiting line , And re-inspects the re-inspecting unit (50), the cell determined as good is put on the working line from the waiting line.

The re-inspecting unit (50) checks whether the impregnated faulty cell moved to the waiting line is good or not based on the control of the controller (70).

At this time, when the predetermined waiting time has elapsed for each impregnated defective cell transferred to the waiting line, the re-inspection unit 50 performs a vision inspection to check whether the impregnation is normally performed, and checks the good or defective based on the result of the vision inspection The impregnated cell identified as good can be returned to the working line.

When the predetermined waiting time has elapsed for each impregnated defective cell transferred to the waiting line, the re-inspecting unit 50 again detects whether any residue is present on the cell through which the electrolyte is injected through the sensor unit 10, By confirming good product or defect on the basis, it is possible to return the impregnated cell identified as good product to the operation line.

Based on the control of the control unit 70, the display unit 60 displays a good product or impregnation failure of each cell performing the electrolyte injection process, an electrolyte injection process including good or poor display according to the result of the re-inspection of the impregnated defective cells waiting in the waiting line On the screen, various status information related to the impurity inspection of each cell.

The control unit 70 controls the operation of each component as described above. The control unit 70 controls the conveyor conveyance of each cell that performs the electrolyte injection process through the conveyor drive unit 40, After the injection, the presence or absence of residues is detected, and the infiltration failure cell confirmation in the infiltration failure confirmation unit 30 based on the detection is controlled. Then, it controls the conveyance of the impregnated faulty cells to the waiting line through the conveyor driving unit 40, controls the re-inspection of the faulty impregnated cells located in the waiting line through the re-inspecting unit 50, And controls the conveyance to the work line through the conveyor driving unit 40. [

If the number of retesting performed by the re-inspecting unit 50 exceeds the preset number of times, the control unit 70 waits for a predetermined number of retries The cell waiting on the line is determined as the final bad.

Next, an embodiment of a method of inspecting electrolyte impregnation of a secondary battery according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the method for inspecting electrolyte impregnation of a secondary battery according to an embodiment of the present invention.

First, the sensor unit 10 detects whether there is any residue on the cell to which the electrolytic solution is being transferred through the conveyor or the like according to the electrolyte injection process, and outputs the sensed data to the control unit 70 (S10).

Then, the control unit 70 compares the sensed data sensed by the sensor unit 10 with the sensed data stored in the storage unit 20 through the impregnation failure confirmation unit 30 (S20).

Based on the comparison result, it is confirmed whether or not the sensed data due to the residue of the specific cell inputted from the sensor unit 10 is within or out of the normal sensed data stored in the storage unit 20, It is determined whether or not the cell is a faulty impregnated cell in which remnants are present on the cell (S30).

If it is determined in step S30 that the cell is an impregnated defective cell, the controller 70 transfers the impregnated defective cell from the current operation line to the standby line (S40). For example, the control unit 70 discharges a cell determined as a faulty impregnated cell through a conveyor driving unit 40 from a current operation line and transfers it to a standby place. (Here, the movement of each cell performing the electrolyte injection process) And the movement of the operation line in the waiting line of the cell determined to be good according to the result of the re-examination through step S60 to be described later can also be performed through the conveyor driving unit 40)

After transferring the impregnated defective cell to the waiting line, the controller 70 determines whether a predetermined waiting time has elapsed (S50). That is, whether or not the cell judged as a faulty impregnation has become a time to be able to be made good, and this time is generally set based on empirical data.

If it is determined in step S50 that the predetermined waiting time has elapsed, the control unit 70 resets the impregnated fault cell moved to the waiting line through the re-inspection unit 50 (S60), and determines whether the product is good based on the re-inspection result S70).

At this time, when it is judged whether the goods are good or not based on the re-inspection of the impregnated defective cells waiting in the waiting line through the steps S60 and S70, the control unit 70 controls the re-inspection unit 50), it is possible to judge whether the defective cell is defective or not based on the result of the vision inspection.

In addition to the rechecking method based on the vision inspection, the control unit 70 also controls the reinspection unit 70 when the predetermined waiting time has elapsed for each impregnation failure cell in the standby line, through the sensor unit 10, It is possible to judge whether the residue is good or not based on the detection result.

If it is determined in step S70 that the impregnated defective cell waiting in the waiting line is a good product, the controller 70 returns the determined cell to the working line (S80).

However, if it is determined in step S70 that the impregnation failure cell in the standby line is defective, the control unit 70 determines whether the number of times of performing the retest is exceeded (S90) If the number of times of the retesting performed in the waiting line exceeds the preset number of times, the cell waiting in the waiting line is determined as the final failure and the impurity inspection is terminated. That is, the controller 70 controls the reinspection of the faulty impregnated cells through the reinspection unit 50 according to the preset number of times of the reinspection.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to improve defective-impregnated cells, thereby reducing the defective rate and automating the impregnation defect inspection, thereby realizing the efficient arrangement of the labor for producing secondary batteries.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications may be made to the invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the following claims And changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

10: Sensor unit
20:
30: impregnation defect confirmation part
40: Conveyor drive part
50: re-inspecting section
60:
70:
80: cell
82: inlet
84: Residue

Claims (10)

A sensor unit for detecting whether any residue is present on the cell into which the electrolyte is injected,
A storage unit for storing sensed data in a normal case in which no residue is present on the cell into which the electrolyte is injected,
An impregnation failure checking unit for comparing the sensed data inputted from the sensor unit with the sensed data in the normal case stored in the storage unit to confirm the impregnated fault cell,
A reinspection unit for confirming whether the impregnated defective cell moved to the waiting line is good,
The transfer of each cell performing the electrolyte injection process, the detection of the presence of residues and the confirmation of the faulty impregnated cell, the transfer of the atmospheric line of the faulty impregnated cell, the retest of the faulty impregnated cell, A control unit
Lt; / RTI >
The impregnated faulty cell identified by the faulty impregnation unit is moved from the working line to the waiting line and the cell judged as good by the re-inspection is moved from the waiting line to the working line Further comprising a conveyor drive unit for inputting,
The re-
When the preset waiting time has elapsed for each of the impregnated defective cells transferred to the waiting line, the defective inspection is performed, and the defective defective cell identified as good is returned to the operation line by confirming the defective product or defect based on the vision inspection result,
Wherein the preset waiting time is a time at which the cell determined as impregnating failure can be made good. delete The method according to claim 1,
The impregnation failure indication of each cell performing the electrolyte injection process on the basis of the control of the control unit, the impregnation failure process of each cell performing the electrolyte injection process including the good or defective indication according to the result of the re- Further comprising a display unit for displaying various status information related to the inspection. delete delete The method according to claim 1,
Wherein,
Wherein the control unit controls the re-inspecting unit to perform re-inspecting of the re-inspecting unit according to a preset number of re-inspecting operations, wherein when the number of re-inspections performed by the re-inspecting unit exceeds a predetermined number of retesting attempts, An apparatus for inspecting electrolyte impregnation of a battery. (1) The sensor unit detects whether there is any residue on the cell to which the electrolytic solution being transferred is injected according to the electrolyte injection process,
(2) The control unit compares the sensed data sensed by the sensor unit with the sensing data in the normal case stored in the storage unit through the impregnation failure confirmation unit, and determines whether or not the cell is impregnated with a remnant on the electrolyte- , ≪ / RTI >
(3) If it is determined in step (2) that the impregnated cell is a faulty impregnated cell, the control unit transfers the impregnated fault cell from the operation line to the waiting line,
(4) The control unit causes the re-inspecting unit to re-inspect the faulty impregnated cell moved to the waiting line after a predetermined waiting time has elapsed, and judges whether the product is good based on the result of the re-
(5) If it is determined in step (4) that the impregnated defective cell waiting in the waiting line is good, the control unit returns the cell determined to be good to the working line
Lt; / RTI >
When it is determined whether the product is good or not based on the re-inspection of the impregnated defective cell waiting in the waiting line in the step (4)
When a predetermined waiting time has elapsed for each impregnated defective cell waiting in the waiting line, the re-inspection unit performs a vision inspection of the impregnated defective cell, determines whether or not it is good based on the result of the vision inspection,
Wherein the predetermined waiting time is a time at which the cell determined as impregnating failure can be made good. delete delete 8. The method of claim 7,
When it is determined whether the product is good or not based on the re-inspection of the impregnated defective cell waiting in the waiting line in the step (4)
The control unit controls the re-inspecting unit through the re-inspecting unit according to the preset number of re-inspections, and when the number of re-inspections performed by the re-inspecting unit exceeds the predetermined number of re-inspections, Of the secondary battery.

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