KR20220125486A - Apparatus and method for checking electrical characteristics of secondary battery - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a metering device for measuring an electrical property of a secondary battery cell. The metering device includes: a first probe coming in contact with a pouch of the secondary battery cell; and a second probe coming in contact with an electrode lead of the secondary battery cell. The first and second probes individually include a probe body and a contact part disposed on one side of the probe body to come in contact with an electrode or the pouch of the secondary battery cell. The contact part is formed of at least one of a metal mesh and a metal foam. In accordance with the present invention, the metering device can reduce a measurement fault rate and increase facility management efficiency, when measuring an electrical property of the secondary battery cell.

Description

Apparatus and method for checking electrical characteristics of secondary battery}

The present invention relates to a device and method for reading electrical characteristics of a secondary battery.

The pouch battery cell means a battery cell in which a battery cell is provided therein, and a polymer casing corresponding to the pouch surrounds the battery cell. A method of bonding a pouch case having a predetermined size to the upper and lower portions of the battery cell so that the pouch surrounds the battery cell is used.

This pouch is configured in the form of an aluminum thin film to protect the battery cell, supplement the electrochemical properties of the battery cell and improve heat dissipation, and the aluminum thin film is made of polyethylene to secure insulation between the battery cell and the outside. It is used in a form coated with an insulating material such as terephthalate (PET: PolyEthylene Terephthalate) resin or nylon resin.

When these pouches are used in a form in which the upper pouch and the lower pouch are bonded, non-stretched polypropylene (CPP: Casted PolyPropylene) or polypropylene (PP: PolyPropylene) can be used for mutual adhesion, and the outer peripheral surface to which the pouch is bonded The sealing surface has a structure of an insulating layer, an aluminum thin film layer, and an adhesive layer.

When the pouch inner structure of the pouch battery cell is damaged or burned due to external physical shock, etc., and the insulation of the pouch battery cell is destroyed, the battery cell cannot maintain a steady-state voltage, which may cause a low voltage, and cause swelling ( swelling) may occur.

Since such a problem can cause chain problems such as explosion of the battery cell, it can be fatal to the user or the equipment to be installed.

Looking at the conventional method of inspecting the insulation of such a pouch battery cell, as shown in FIG. 1 , a probe is used as a probe on the electrode 30 of the pouch battery cell 10 and the aluminum thin film layer 20 on the side of the pouch ( 40) and measuring the resistance between the contacted probe means through the detector 50 is mainly used to test the insulation.

The probe used for the insulation test is made of a metal or conductive elastic material, which is a conductive material in the part that contacts the electrode or the aluminum layer on the side of the pouch. Thus, the insulation is evaluated.

In the case where the part in contact with the electrode or the aluminum layer on the side of the pouch in the probe is made of metal, if the shape of the exposed metal layer of the pouch is not uniform due to rigidity, there is a frequent problem of poor contact. On the other hand, in order to solve this problem, a technique using a conductive elastic material as a probe has been proposed. However, in the case of repeated contact with the pouch, a fast replacement cycle is required due to frequent abrasion due to the nature of the elastic material, and the evaluation line There is a problem that periodic management is required due to the occurrence of contamination.

The present invention is to solve the above problems, and it is possible to measure electrical characteristics such as contact resistance, insulation resistance and insulation voltage and insulation defects, and when measuring electrical characteristics of a battery cell, it reduces the ratio of measurement failures and improves facility management efficiency An object of the present invention is to provide a device and method for reading electrical characteristics of a secondary battery that can increase the

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a meter reading device for measuring an electrical characteristic value of a secondary battery cell, the meter reading device comprising: a first probe in contact with a pouch of the secondary battery cell; and a second probe in contact with the electrode lead of the secondary battery cell, wherein the first and second probes are disposed on a probe body and one surface of the probe body, respectively, and contact portions contacting the electrode or pouch of the secondary battery cell Including, wherein the contact portion is provided with a meter reading device formed of at least one of a metal mesh (mesh) and a metal foam (foam).

The probe body may be a polyhedral block in which the contact surface with which the electrode or pouch aluminum layer of the secondary battery cell contacts is any one of a V-shape, a U-shape, an oblique shape, or a tongs shape.

The contact portion of the first probe may contact the metal layer in the pouch.

The metal mesh may have a thickness of 5 μm or more and 3 mm or less.

The probe body may include at least one selected from the group consisting of nickel, copper, stainless steel, aluminum, or an alloy thereof.

The metal mesh or metal foam may include at least one selected from the group consisting of nickel, copper, stainless steel, aluminum, or alloys thereof.

The probe body and the contact surface may be integrally formed of metal foam.

The probe body and the contact portion may be spaced apart from each other.

The shape of the contact part may be changed to at least one of a grid shape, a twisted shape, a hexagonal shape, and an oval shape.

One or more probes in contact with the pouch aluminum layer of the secondary battery cell may be included.

A plurality of first probes may contact the pouch on the same side of the pouch.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a meter reading method for measuring at least one of a contact resistance, an insulation resistance, and an insulation voltage of a secondary battery cell using the meter reading device.

According to the present invention, electrical properties such as contact resistance, insulation resistance and insulation voltage and insulation defects can be measured, and when measuring the above electrical properties of a secondary battery cell, the measurement failure rate can be reduced and facility management efficiency can be increased. have,

1 schematically shows a method for measuring electrical characteristics of a conventional secondary battery cell.
FIG. 2 schematically shows a device for reading electrical characteristics of a secondary battery according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 schematically shows a first probe according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 schematically shows a first probe according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to various examples. However, the embodiments of the present invention may be modified in various other forms, and the scope of the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described below.

2 schematically shows a device for reading electrical characteristics of a secondary battery according to the present invention, and the present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to FIG. 2 .

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a meter reading device for measuring an electrical characteristic value of a secondary battery cell (10), the meter reading device comprising: a first probe (60) in contact with a pouch of the secondary battery cell; and a second probe 80 in contact with the electrode of the secondary battery cell, wherein the first and second probes are respectively disposed on the probe body and on one surface of the probe body to contact the electrode or pouch of the secondary battery cell. and a contact portion, wherein the contact portion is formed of at least one of a metal mesh (mesh) and a metal foam (foam).

The meter reading device for measuring the electrical characteristic value of the secondary battery cell 10 according to the present invention may include the detector 100 . The detector 100 may be a conventional device used to measure the electrical characteristic value of the secondary battery cell 10 , for example, the detector 100 may include a voltage input unit, a screen display unit, a determination unit, and a reference value setting. includes wealth.

The voltage input unit is in electrical contact with the electrode of the secondary battery cell 10 and the aluminum layer of the pouch 20 of the secondary battery cell 10 , and is in contact with the aluminum layer of the pouch 20 of the secondary battery cell 10 . A contacted probe is an electrically connected component.

When an electrical characteristic value between the electrode and the aluminum layer of the pouch 20 by the probe is input to the detector of the present invention through the voltage input unit, the input electrical characteristic value is transmitted to the measurement unit, and the measurement unit receives the input The electrical characteristic value is measured, and the value of resistance, current, or voltage is output as an output value to the predetermined screen display means.

In addition, the determination unit derives a reference value for resistance, current, or voltage for the insulation test of the secondary battery cell 10 from the reference value setting unit, compares the reference value with the measured value transmitted from the measurement unit with each other to compare the secondary battery cell The insulation of (10) is judged, and the judgment result is output to the predetermined screen display means.

The reference value setting unit may store a database for the reference value in an internal memory means, etc., and includes a user interface means to receive, change, or set a reference value from a user according to the specification of the test subject or the test environment, etc. Can be configured have.

On the other hand, the meter reading device for measuring the electrical characteristic value of the secondary battery cell 10 according to the present invention includes a first probe 60 in contact with the pouch of the secondary battery cell; and a second probe 80 in contact with the electrode of the secondary battery cell, wherein the first and second probes are disposed on the probe body and one surface of the probe body to contact the electrode or pouch of the secondary battery cell. Including, the contact portion may be formed of at least one of a metal mesh (mesh) and a metal foam (foam).

3 schematically shows the shape of a first probe according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 3 , the first probe 320 includes a probe body 300 , and an electrode of a secondary battery cell; A metal mesh or a metal foam 340 may be formed on the contacting surface.

The probe body 300 is preferably made of a material having electrical conductivity, and is not particularly limited, for example, at least one selected from the group consisting of nickel, copper, stainless steel, aluminum, or alloys thereof. may include.

On the other hand, the pouch film may have a multi-layer structure including, for example, an inner resin layer, a metal layer, and an outer resin layer, and more specifically, polyethylene (PE) that has thermal adhesion and serves as a sealing agent. , an inner resin layer composed of an adhesive layer made of polyolefin such as casted polypropylene (cPP) or polypropylene (PP) or a copolymer thereof, a substrate that maintains mechanical strength, and a barrier layer for moisture and oxygen An aluminum layer that is a metal layer that acts as a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin, polyethylene naphthalate (PEN), nylon (Nylon) resin or liquid crystal polymer to protect the battery cell from external impact. A functional polymer film such as liquid crystal polymer (LCP) may form the outer resin layer. In the present invention, the contact portion of the first probe may contact the metal layer in the pouch.

In addition, the probe body 300 has a V-shape, U shape, so that the contact surface can be more firmly fixed in terms of preventing contact failure of the electrode or pouch aluminum layer of the secondary battery cell and securing the reliability of the detected electrical characteristics. It may be a block of a polyhedron having any one of a shape, an oblique shape, or a tongs shape, but is not limited to the above shape.

On the other hand, as described above, in the related art, the contact surface of the probe in contact with the electrode or the aluminum layer is not elastic and is made of only rigid metal. there was However, in the probe according to the present invention, a metal mesh or metal foam 340 is formed on the contact surface in contact with the electrode of the secondary battery cell or the aluminum layer of the pouch, and accordingly, when the shape of the aluminum layer of the pouch is not constant Also, by changing the shape of the metal mesh or the metal foam, it is possible to smoothly maintain contact with the aluminum layer. Accordingly, it is possible to prevent contact defects that may occur due to the shape of the aluminum layer, and when a metal foam and a metal mesh are used, since the contact area with the aluminum layer is increased, the contact failure problem can be further improved. there is an effect

In addition, when finishing using a conductive rubber material for the contact surface, there is a disadvantage that the replacement cycle is fast due to frequent abrasion due to the characteristics of the elastic material. It has the advantage of significantly increasing the lifespan compared to the case of use.

On the other hand, the metal forming the metal mesh or the metal foam is also preferably made of a material having electrical conductivity, and is not particularly limited, for example, a group consisting of nickel, copper, stainless steel, aluminum, or an alloy thereof. It may include one or more selected from.

When a metal mesh is included, the metal mesh may have a thickness of 5 μm or more and 3 mm or less. If it is less than 5 μm, a problem of excessively weak durability may occur, and if it exceeds 3 mm, electrical characteristic results may be somewhat inaccurate.

In addition, the cross-sections of the metal foam and the metal mesh formed in the contact portion may have various shapes in terms of increasing the contact area, and these shapes are not specifically limited. For example, it may be formed in various shapes such as a grid type, a twisted shape, a hexagonal shape, an oval shape, and the like.

Meanwhile, the probe body and the contact portion may be disposed to be spaced apart from each other. Accordingly, according to the shape of the pouch, through the shape change of the metal mesh or metal foam, it is possible to provide a contact that can conduct electricity with the metal layer of the pouch, that is, the aluminum layer. , can secure flexibility. In this case, the contact portion may be fixed to the probe body in various ways, for example, by welding, bolting, or bonding using a conductive paste. In addition, when the probe body and the contact portion are disposed to be spaced apart, the material of the probe body is not limited as long as it is a material having a certain rigidity, such as plastic, as well as a metal such as nickel, copper, stainless steel, aluminum, or an alloy thereof. can be used

4 schematically shows a first probe according to another embodiment of the present invention. According to another embodiment of the present invention, a probe body and a contact surface are integrally formed of a metal foam. That is, the probe body 200 of the probe 220 may be made of metal foam.

Since the probe body 200 is formed of a metal foam having flexibility as well as conductivity, as described above, through a shape change of the metal foam, it is possible to smoothly maintain contact with the aluminum layer, and by the shape of the aluminum layer It is possible to prevent a contact defect that may occur, and since the contact area with the aluminum layer increases when the metal foam is used, there is an effect that can further improve the contact defect problem.

On the other hand, the second probe 80 is in contact with the electrode lead 30 of the secondary battery cell, depending on the electrical characteristics to be measured, may be in contact with the positive lead or the negative lead. For example, when measuring insulation resistance, the second probe 80 may be in contact with the positive lead. The second probe 80 may be formed of the same shape and material as the above-described first probe 60 , but the electrode lead has a relatively low probability of contact failure compared to the pouch aluminum layer, so a commonly used metal material A block of, or a conductive elastic material can also be applied.

There may be one or more first probes 60 in contact with the pouch of the secondary battery cell 10 . Also, the plurality of first probes may be in contact with the pouch on the same surface of the pouch. As will be described later, if the first probe 60 in contact with the pouch of the secondary battery cell 10 is one or more, preferably, two or more inspection devices are used, without adding special equipment or adding a process, the secondary Not only the contact resistance of the battery cell 10 , but also the insulation resistance and the insulation voltage of the secondary battery cell 10 can be easily measured.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a meter reading method for measuring electrical characteristics of the secondary battery cell 10, specifically, at least one of contact resistance, insulation resistance, and insulation voltage using the above-described meter reading device.

More specifically, after the probe is brought into contact with the aluminum layer and/or electrode of the pouch 20 of the secondary battery cell 10, an electrical characteristic value between the contacted meter reading means is measured, and the electrical characteristic value is the resistance, current or It is composed of one or more voltages, and insulation is usually represented by insulation resistance, so it is desirable to measure the resistance value.

Thereafter, in order to increase the reliability of the insulation test and to implement the automation function more effectively, it is more preferable to compare the measured electrical characteristic value with a reference value to include the process of determining the insulation of the pouch secondary battery cell 10 . do.

That is, an electric circuit is formed between the inspection means to measure electrical characteristic values between the contacted probes, and the measured electrical characteristic value is compared with a reference value to determine the insulation of the pouch secondary battery cell 10 . By electrically connecting the probe to the device, the reliable measurement and determination process as described above is performed.

On the other hand, the electrical characteristic value may be composed of one or more of resistance, current, or voltage, and the reference value data for resistance, current or voltage that can determine insulation is stored in a database in advance, and the measured value is received Insulation can be determined by comparing with the reference value data.

For example, if the pouch battery cell to be inspected is of good quality, the resistance of the pouch secondary battery cell 10 is ideally infinite, so the reference value for the resistance for judging the insulation is set to a fairly large value of several hundred MΩ or more, , If an electrical characteristic value for current or voltage is used, a current value or voltage value that can represent insulation may be set as a reference value.

In particular, the meter reading method according to the present invention can continuously measure contact resistance, insulation resistance and insulation voltage through a simple operation.

Specifically, the contact resistance is determined by the steps of: connecting the first probe in contact with the aluminum layer of the pouch 20 of the secondary battery cell 10 to the high voltage unit of the detector; and connecting the second probe contacting the pouch aluminum layer 20 of the secondary battery cell 10 with the low voltage unit of the detector, and measuring the contact resistance of the secondary battery cell 10 .

In addition, after the step of measuring the contact resistance of the secondary battery cell, taking out the second probe connected to the low voltage part of the detector, maintaining it as it is or additionally connecting to the high voltage part of the detector; and connecting the third probe in contact with the electrode of the secondary battery cell to the low voltage part of the detector, and measuring the insulation resistance and insulation voltage of the secondary battery cell; by performing a contact resistance, insulation resistance and insulation voltage continuously can be measured with

In addition, after measuring the contact resistance of the secondary battery cell, taking out the first probe and the second probe, connecting to a low voltage part of the detector, and connecting a third probe to the high voltage part to measure the insulation voltage; A method of performing , can also be implemented.

That is, according to the present invention, there is an advantage that the electrical characteristics of the secondary battery cell can be measured in a simpler way in various aspects, and the reliability thereof can also be guaranteed.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and various modifications and variations are possible within the scope without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention described in the claims. It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art.

10: secondary battery cell
20: pouch
40, 60, 70, 80, 90: probe
50, 100: detector
200, 300: probe body
220, 320: probe
340: metal foam or metal mesh

Claims (12)

A meter reading device for measuring electrical characteristic values of secondary battery cells, comprising:
The meter reading device may include: a first probe in contact with the pouch of the secondary battery cell; and
Including; a second probe in contact with the electrode lead of the secondary battery cell;
The first and second probes each include a probe body and a contact portion disposed on one surface of the probe body to contact an electrode or a pouch of a secondary battery cell,
The contact unit is formed of at least one of a metal mesh (mesh) and a metal foam (foam).
According to claim 1,
The probe body is a polyhedral block in which the contact surface with which the electrode or pouch aluminum layer of the secondary battery cell contacts is any one of a V-shape, a U-shape, an oblique shape, or a tongs shape.
According to claim 1,
The contact portion of the first probe is in contact with the metal layer in the pouch.
According to claim 1,
The metal mesh has a thickness of 5 μm or more and 3 mm or less.
According to claim 1,
The probe body includes at least one selected from the group consisting of nickel, copper, stainless steel, aluminum, and alloys thereof.
According to claim 1,
The metal mesh or metal foam includes at least one selected from the group consisting of nickel, copper, stainless steel, aluminum, and alloys thereof.
According to claim 1,
The probe body and the contact surface are integrally made of metal foam.
According to claim 1,
The probe body and the contact portion are spaced apart from each other.
According to claim 1,
A meter reading device in which the shape of the contact portion is transformed into at least one of a grid type, a twisted shape, a hexagonal shape, and an oval shape.
According to claim 1,
A meter reading device comprising at least one first probe in contact with the pouch of the secondary battery cell.
11. The method of claim 10,
A meter reading device in which a plurality of first probes are in contact with the pouch on the same surface of the pouch.
A meter reading method for measuring at least one of contact resistance, insulation resistance, and insulation voltage of a secondary battery cell using the meter reading device according to any one of claims 1 to 11.

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