WO2013062173A1

WO2013062173A1 - Apparatus and method for cutting electrode foils

Info

Publication number: WO2013062173A1
Application number: PCT/KR2011/009501
Authority: WO
Inventors: 한유희; 권구철
Original assignee: 아이피지 포토닉스 코리아(주); 주식회사 케이랩
Priority date: 2011-10-24
Filing date: 2011-12-09
Publication date: 2013-05-02
Also published as: JP2014534077A; KR101128871B1; CN103947014B; JP5918375B2; CN103947014A

Abstract

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for cutting electrode foils. The apparatus and method for cutting electrode foils includes: a rotating body disposed vertically spaced by a predetermined distance so as to be parallel to a working table; a rotating shaft disposed at the center of the rotating body and driven by a first driver to rotate the rotating body at a predetermined speed; and a scanner disposed at the end of one side of the rotating body to emit a laser beam onto an object to be processed according to the rate of change in speed based on the rotation angle and rotating speed of the rotating body and the processing size of the object to be processed.

Description

Electrode foil cutting device and method

The present invention relates to a cutting apparatus and method, and more particularly to an electrode foil cutting apparatus and method.

Increasing interest in electric vehicles and intensifying competition in development around the world are expected to lead to significant growth in related industries, especially in the rechargeable battery market.

Electric vehicles are developing into a hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) and an electric vehicle (EV), starting with a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV). In addition, development of a battery as a power source is a major concern of the electric vehicle market, and battery makers are struggling to preempt new technologies.

With this realistic background, research and development of new processes for mass production of batteries is an important opportunity for the secondary battery industry as it is an opportunity to increase market share due to a drop in production cost.

In particular, the cutting of the electrodes embedded in the Li-Ion Battery cells is a very important process that can have a significant impact on the battery's lifetime and performance. It is a process that requires shortening of time.

The electrode is coated with an electrode active material capable of collecting current, which may be generated as dust during cutting and contaminate the cutting surface. In addition, a portion of the electrode is stretched by the cutting blade and may remain as a burr. The most important part of the electrode cutting process is that these burrs and dusts should not be present on the cutting surface, and burrs and dusts can be important to manage, as they can shorten the life of the battery and short circuit inside the electrodes.

Currently, a technique using mechanical punching is used for the electrode foil cutting process. Such mechanical cutting has the advantage of short process time, but in terms of cutting quality, burrs and dust can be generated. In addition, the cutting quality may be uneven due to wear of the cutting blade, so the blade should be replaced and managed periodically, thus increasing the process cost.

In order to overcome the limitations of mechanical cutting, various technologies are being studied, and among them, research on cutting technology using laser is being actively conducted. However, the biggest problem to be overcome by laser cutting technology is a method that can significantly shorten the process time compared to mechanical cutting. For a laser cutting process to be meaningful compared to mechanical cutting, speeds of at least 60 m / min must be guaranteed. In view of the demand for secondary batteries in the future, it is necessary to develop process technology suitable for mass production systems.

As a technique using a laser, there is a gas assisted cutting method using a general cutting head. However, there is no significant gain in process time due to the drive of the mechanical stage.

Another example of a laser application cutting method is a remote cutting method using a scanner. This is a non-contact method, and there is no concern about uneven processing quality due to mechanical wear, and it is an advantage over the conventional method because it can use the fast driving, which is an advantage of the scanner.

However, when the scanner is driven at high speed, the straight line section can guarantee a certain quality, but in the corner section such as the corner of the rectangle, the higher the speed, the worse the quality. This is a fatal weakness in cutting time. In addition, since the scanner is fixed, the working field of the scanner is large, and a long focal lens should be used to cut the size of the large cross-sectional area. This results in an increase in beam spot size, higher laser power and, consequently, higher system cost.

1 is a view for explaining the working area of the scanner when a fixed scanner is used.

The secondary battery electrode foil is generally made into a rectangle (a * b).

Since the fixed scanner scans the beam with the same length not only on the horizontal axis but also on the vertical axis, the working area a * a 12 is determined according to the length of the object, that is, the long side a of the electrode foil 10. Typically, the electrode foil is 300mm * 250mm in size, so the working area of a fixed scanner is 300mm * 300mm wide. Therefore, a long focus lens is inevitably required, and in the case of a long focus lens, the cross-sectional area of the beam is wide, so the laser power must be increased to compensate for this.

In order to solve this problem, a method of combining a scanner and an X-Y stage has recently been envisioned. It is a method of adding a stage device to compensate for the degradation in the corner portion of the scanner cut, but still suffers from many problems. The biggest problem is that there is a sudden change in speed as the stage passes through a straight corner, and the sudden change in speed can strain the mechanical device and it is difficult to reach the speed of 60m / min momentarily in short intervals.

Embodiments of the present invention provide an electrode foil cutting device and method that can cut at high speed while ensuring the cutting quality when cutting the object into a polygon.

Electrode foil cutting device according to an embodiment of the present invention is a rotating body which is installed spaced apart vertically spaced horizontal to the work table; A rotating shaft installed at the center of the rotating body and driven by a first driver to rotate the rotating body at a predetermined movement speed; And a scanner installed at one end of the rotating body and irradiating a laser beam to the processing site of the processing object according to a rotation rate of the rotating body, a speed of change based on a movement speed and a processing size of the processing object. Can be.

On the other hand, the electrode foil cutting method according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises a rotating body which moves at a speed specified by the rotation axis, and is spaced apart vertically specified to be horizontal to the work table; And an electrode foil cutting method using a cutting device including a scanner installed at one end of the rotating body, the method comprising: inputting processing parameters including a moving speed of the rotating body, a processing size and a shape of a processing object; Rotating the rotating body according to the moving speed and moving the scanner according to a rotational angle of the rotating body, a moving speed and a rate of change of speed based on a processing part of the object; And irradiating a laser beam from a light source and irradiating the processing object through the scanner.

According to the present invention, a polygonal, in particular rectangular electrode foil can be processed at high speed and high quality using a laser. Furthermore, excellent processing quality can be ensured at the vertex portion of the polygon, thereby improving the reliability and mass production of the electrode foil.

Furthermore, since the scanner processes the electrode foil at a position close to the machining position, it is possible to minimize the working field and the field of view of the scanner used for laser processing, thereby enabling stable operation. The object processing quality can be improved. In addition, this results in a reduction in the output of the laser, which can significantly lower the system configuration cost.

1 is a view for explaining the working area of the scanner when using a fixed scanner,

2 is a block diagram of an electrode foil cutting device according to an embodiment of the present invention,

3 is a perspective view of the rotating body and the scanner shown in FIG.

4 is a view for explaining the movement speed of the scanner in the electrode foil cutting device according to the present invention,

5 is a view for explaining the working area of the scanner in the electrode foil cutting device according to the present invention.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described an embodiment of the present invention in more detail.

2 is a block diagram of an electrode foil cutting device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2, the electrode foil cutting device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention is a control unit 101, input unit 103, output unit 105, storage unit 107, light source 109, beam It includes a transmission cable 111, a rotating shaft 113, a rotary encoder 114, a rotating body 115, a scanner 117, a beam transmission passage 119, a first driver 121 and a second driver 123. do.

The rotating body 115 is installed at a vertical distance apart from the designated distance so as to be horizontal to the work table on which the work object 200 is seated. In addition, as the rotating shaft 113 driven by the first driver 121 rotates at a specified speed (ω = Δθ / Δt = scheduled) under the control of the controller 101, the rotating body 115 may also have a specified speed ( ω = Δθ / Δt = constant), so that the circular motion is constant. At this time, the length of the rotating body 115 may be configured to correspond to the length of the longest diagonal of the diagonal after the workpiece 200 is processed into a polygon 210, but is not limited thereto. In addition, the rotating body 115 may be formed using a material that can transmit the laser beam.

In addition, the rotation angle and the speed of the rotating body 115 are transmitted to the controller 101 by the rotary encoder 114 installed on the rotating shaft 113. As will be described later, the controller 101 controls the movement speed of the scanner 117 based on the rotation angle and the speed of the rotating body 115 received from the rotary encoder 114.

For example, when the workpiece 200 is to be processed into a rectangle of 300 mm * 250 mm, the length of the rotating body 115 may be equal to or larger than the diagonal length of the 300 mm * 250 mm size rectangle.

On the other hand, the scanner 117 is installed at one end of the rotating body 115 and rotates with the rotating body 115 to irradiate the laser beam to the work object 200. The scanner 117 moves at different speeds according to the rotation angle of the rotating body 115, the movement speed, and the processing portion of the workpiece 200, and a detailed description thereof will be described later.

Through the input unit 103, processing parameters and the like may be provided, and the output unit 105 outputs a machining process and a machining result of the cutting device 100. The storage unit 107 may store various applications, control signals, data, etc. required for the cutting device 100 to operate.

When the laser beam is emitted from the light source 109 under the control of the controller 101, it is transmitted to the rotating shaft 113 through the beam transmission cable 111. The first reflection member M1 is installed at the bottom of the rotation shaft 113 to reflect the beam transmitted into the rotation shaft 113.

The laser beam reflected by the reflecting member M1 is transmitted to the second reflecting member M2 in the scanner 117, and the beam reflected by the second reflecting member M2 is collected by a condenser lens (not shown). It is then irradiated to the processing site 210 of the object 200.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the laser beam reflected by the first reflecting member M1 may be provided into the scanner 117 through the beam delivery passage 119. When the beam delivery passage 119 is configured, the laser beam may be protected from external influences.

In addition, a device for supplying power to each component such as the rotating shaft 113, the scanner 117, and the control unit 101 may be further provided, and in particular, the supply of power to the rotating shaft 113 may include a slip ring. (slip ring) can be made.

3 is a perspective view of the rotating body and the scanner shown in FIG. 2.

As shown in FIG. 3, the rotating body 115 may be configured to have a substantially disk shape, but is not limited thereto.

The inside of the rotating shaft 113 is empty, and at the bottom thereof, a first reflecting member M1 is installed to reflect the laser beam entering the rotating shaft.

The laser beam reflected by the first reflecting member M1 enters the scanner 117 through the beam delivery passage 119, and is reflected back by the second reflecting member M2 of the scanner 117 to be the object 200. Can be investigated.

Furthermore, in another embodiment of the present invention, the communication cable connection passage 125 for exchanging signals between the controller 101, the rotary encoder 114, and the first driver 121 may be further provided inside the rotary shaft 113. The controller 101 may be installed at the other end of the rotating body 115. Reference numeral 127 denotes a communication cable connection path between the second driver 123 for driving the scanner 117 and the controller 101.

When the control unit 101 is installed at the other end of the rotating body 115, since the control unit 101 rotates together with the rotating body 115, there is no relative motion between the rotating body 115 and the control unit 101. In addition, a cable required for signal exchange between the rotary encoder 114 / first driver 121 and the control unit 101 or the scanner 117 / second driver 123 and the control unit 101 is connected to the cable connection passage 125, Extending through 127, there is no need to connect a cable with the rotary encoder 114 or scanner 117 from the outside to provide a simple and robust cutting device.

In addition, when the scanner 117 is installed at one end of the rotating body 115 and the control unit 101 is installed at the other end of the rotating body 115, the weight balance of both sides of the rotating body 115 can be achieved, thereby further improving processing reliability. .

As described above, the scanner 117 moves at different speeds according to the rotation angle of the rotating body 115, the movement speed, and the machining portion of the workpiece 200. Hereinafter, the workpiece 200 is moved to the a * b size. The case where it processes into a rectangle is demonstrated to an example.

4 is a view for explaining the movement speed of the scanner in the electrode foil cutting device according to the present invention.

Under the control of the controller 101, the rotation shaft 113 is driven by the first driver 121, thereby causing the rotor 115 to perform a constant velocity circular motion at a speed of ω = Δθ / Δt (see 300). .

When the object is to be processed into the same shape as the reference numeral 400 of FIG. 4, that is, a * b size rectangle, the beam reflected from the scanner 117 should irradiate the beam along the trajectory 400.

Since the rotating body 115 performs the constant velocity circular motion at the speed of? = Δθ / Δt, the movement speed of the scanner 117 is controlled to move at a different speed depending on the movement speed of the rotating body and the machining portion.

In FIG. 4, the rate of change in the X direction and the rate of change of the Y component have completely different aspects, and the rotational speed of the scanner should be determined to reflect the rate of change.

When the rotating body 115 moves at a speed of ω = Δθ / Δt and r = √ (a * a / 4 + b * b / 4), X = r * cos (ωt), and thus the time of the X component The rate of change, that is, speed, has a proportional characteristic as shown in [Equation 1].

[Equation 1]

dX / dt = -rω * sin (ωt)

Similarly, when r = √ (a * a / 4 + b * b / 4), since Y = r * sin (ωt), the rate of change of the Y component over time, that is, the velocity is proportional to Equation 2 Has characteristics.

[Equation 2]

dY / dt = rω * cos (ωt)

That is, the scanner 117 may operate while changing to the aspect of the speed as shown in Equation 1 and Equation 2, in which case the object can be processed into a shape as shown in 400 of FIG.

In the cutting process using a laser, the output of the laser is determined by the spot size (diameter) of the beam at the focal position of the lens. The spot size of the beam becomes smaller as the focal length becomes shorter.

For example, when comparing a lens having a focal length of 100 mm and a lens having a 300 mm, the spot size of the beam is three times larger for a 300 mm lens than a lens having a 100 mm, but the cross-sectional area is increased nine times. In this case, the power of the laser must be increased by 9 times in order to have the same power density. In other words, the shorter the focal length, the smaller the beam spot, and the smaller the spot when the same output density (Power Intensity [W / cm ² ]) is required, the lower the required laser power.

In the cutting device 100 according to the present invention, since the rotating body 115 rotates and the scanner 117 rotates and moves together to irradiate the laser beam, the working area may be significantly narrowed.

As shown in FIG. 5, when processing the long side (a) side 1/2 of the object, the rotating body 115 rotates the section S1, and the scanner 117 at this time the section S2. Exercise in the work area.

Compared with the cutting device using the fixed scanner shown in FIG. 1, it turns out that a working area is remarkably small.

The narrow working area of the scanner 117 means that a short focal length lens can be used, which in turn can lower the power of the laser and thus lower the system configuration cost.

As described above, the present invention is based on a remote cutting method using a scanner, and a cutting device is constructed by combining a rotating body in which a scanner is mounted and a constant circular motion. The scanner rotates at the same time as the rotating body rotates, and the scanner moves in a separate speed aspect to cut the object (electrode foil) into a desired shape.

Therefore, the working area of the scanner is small, and the object can be processed at high speed and high quality in a polygonal shape even with a low laser output.

Furthermore, if the control unit is installed on the other side of the rotating body, there is no relative movement between the control unit and the rotating body, there is no need to connect a cable for controlling the rotating body and the scanner from the outside, and the weight balance of both the rotating bodies can be maintained. Therefore, it is possible to provide a simple, solid and reliable cutting device. As a result, the electrode foil can be processed at high speed with high reliability only by turning on the resin beam emitted from the light source after operating the rotating body and the scanner.

When the electrode foil is to be cut using the electrode foil cutting device, the processing parameters are first input through the input unit 103. The processing parameters may be, for example, the rotational speed of the rotating body, the processing size and shape of the object, the laser output, and the like.

The controller 101 drives the first driver 121 by referring to the machining parameter to rotate the rotor 115, and at a speed change rate determined according to the rotation angle / speed of the rotor 115 and the position of the scanner. The scanner 117 is moved by driving the second driver 123. In addition, the laser beam is emitted from the light source 109 to be provided into the rotating shaft 113.

Accordingly, the rotating body 115 starts the constant velocity circular motion at the designated speed (θ = ωt), and the second reflecting member M2 of the scanner 117 is in accordance with the processing parameters and the speed of the rotating body 115. Exercise with a velocity profile according to equations (1) and (2).

The laser beam reflected from the first reflecting member M1 at the bottom of the rotating shaft 113 will be reflected by the second reflecting member M2 of the scanner 117 and then irradiated onto the object. At this time, since the scanner 117 reflects the laser beam while rotating at the speed aspect of Equations 1 and 2 while rotating together with the rotor 115, the object may be processed into a * b size rectangle.

Those skilled in the art to which the present invention described above belongs will understand that the present invention can be implemented in other specific forms without changing the technical spirit or essential features. Therefore, the above-described embodiments are to be understood as illustrative in all respects and not as restrictive. The scope of the present invention is shown by the following claims rather than the detailed description, and all changes or modifications derived from the meaning and scope of the claims and their equivalents should be construed as being included in the scope of the present invention. do.

Claims

A rotating body installed at a distance vertically spaced apart from the work table;

A rotating shaft installed at the center of the rotating body and driven by a first driver to rotate the rotating body at a predetermined movement speed; And

A scanner installed at one end of the rotating body to irradiate a laser beam to the processing site of the processing object in accordance with a rate of change of the rotational body based on the rotation angle, the movement speed, and the processing size of the processing object;

Electrode foil cutting device comprising a.
The method of claim 1,

It is installed on the rotating shaft, the electrode foil cutting device further comprises a rotary encoder for transmitting the rotation angle and the movement speed of the rotating body to the control unit.
The method of claim 2,

The control unit is an electrode foil cutting device is provided at the other end of the rotary shaft.
The method of claim 3, wherein

And a communication cable connection passage for exchanging a signal between the controller and the rotary encoder, wherein the communication cable connection passage extends through the inside of the rotating body to the rotary encoder.
The method of claim 3, wherein

The electrode foil cutting device installed on the rotating body, further comprising a communication cable connection passage for exchanging signals between the scanner and the control unit.
The method of claim 1,

Further comprising a reflective member formed at the bottom in the rotation axis,

And the laser beam is irradiated from the light source to the scanner through the reflective member.
The method of claim 6,

And a beam delivery passage for delivering the laser beam reflected by the reflective member to the scanner.
The method of claim 6,

Electrode foil cutting device further comprises a communication cable connection passage installed in the rotating shaft.
The method of claim 1,

The rotating shaft is an electrode foil cutting device for controlling the rotating body to a constant velocity circular motion.
The method of claim 9,

The object is processed into a rectangle,

And the scanner moves at a speed determined by a rotation angle, a movement speed, and a position of the long side of the scanner over time when the long side of the object is processed.
The method of claim 9,

The object is processed into a rectangle,

And the scanner moves at a speed determined by a rotation angle of the rotating body, a movement speed, and a position of the short side of the scanner over time when the short side of the object is processed.
A rotating body which moves at a speed specified by the rotating shaft and is spaced apart from each other at a predetermined distance to be horizontal with a work table; And an electrode foil cutting method using a cutting device including a scanner installed at one end of the rotating body.

Inputting a processing parameter including the movement speed of the rotating body, the processing size and shape of the object to be processed;

Rotating the rotating body according to the moving speed and moving the scanner according to a rotational angle of the rotating body, a moving speed and a rate of change of speed based on a processing part of the object; And

Irradiating a laser beam from a light source and irradiating the processing object through the scanner;

Electrode foil cutting method comprising a.
The method of claim 12,

The moving of the scanner may further include determining a moving speed of the scanner based on a rotation angle and a moving speed of the rotating body received from the rotary encoder installed on the rotating shaft.
The method of claim 13,

And the movement speed is a speed for controlling the rotating body to have a constant velocity circular motion.
The method of claim 14,

The object is processed into a rectangle,

The electrode foil cutting method of moving the said scanner at the speed determined by the rotation angle, the movement speed, and the position of the long side of the said scanner with time at the time of processing the long side of the said object.
The method of claim 14,

The object is processed into a rectangle,

The electrode foil cutting method of moving the said scanner at the speed determined by the rotation angle, the movement speed, and the position of the short side of the said scanner with time at the time of processing the short side of the said object.