WO2021194293A1

WO2021194293A1 - Battery cell sealing device for degassing process

Info

Publication number: WO2021194293A1
Application number: PCT/KR2021/003751
Authority: WO
Inventors: 정종홍; 김상진
Original assignee: 주식회사 클레버
Priority date: 2020-03-26
Filing date: 2021-03-26
Publication date: 2021-09-30
Also published as: KR20210120922A

Abstract

Disclosed is a battery cell sealing device for a degassing process, the battery cell sealing device comprising: a process chamber unit into which a battery cell is conveyed; a battery cell mounting unit to which the battery cell conveyed into the process chamber unit is mounted, and which moves the battery cell to a sealing position for a sealing process; and a battery cell sealing unit for performing the sealing process on a sealing portion of the battery cell moved by means of the battery cell mounting unit, and in which a first sealing bar in contact with one side of the sealing portion is provided so as to be fixed, and a second sealing bar in contact with the other side of the sealing portion is provided so as to be slidable. The sealing portion is sealed by a heat fusion method by moving the battery cell mounting unit and the second sealing bar so that the first and second sealing bars are face-to-face with each other and the sealing portion of the battery cell is interposed therebetween.

Description

Battery cell sealing device for degas process

The present invention (Disclosure) relates to a battery cell sealing apparatus for a degas process, and specifically, a battery cell sealing part is placed between a fixed sealing bar and a movable sealing bar, and sealing of the battery cell using a sliding type sealing bar The sealing bar of the sliding type seals the sealing part through uniform pressurization and heating in the entire area through the main cylinder and the sub-cylinders on both sides, thereby preventing electrolyte leakage inside the battery cell in advance. It relates to a battery cell sealing apparatus for a degas process capable of improving cell quality.

Herein, background information related to the present invention is provided, which does not necessarily imply prior art (This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art).

Lithium secondary batteries can be divided into cylindrical battery cells, prismatic battery cells, pouch-type battery cells, etc. according to their shape, and can be stacked with high integration according to the above requirements, have high energy density per weight, and are inexpensive and easy to deform. Pouch-type battery cells are attracting a lot of attention.

In general, a pouch-type secondary battery is a pouch-type battery case consisting of a laminate structure of a resin layer, a metal layer, and a heat-sealing layer, in a state in which an electrode assembly consisting of a positive electrode, a negative electrode, and a separator interposed therebetween is mounted. An aging process including a formation process and a degas process for removing gas generated during the activation process are performed, and the sealing part formed along the outer circumferential surface of the case is sealed and manufactured do.

Here, in the degassing process, the gas outlet is pierced to a part of the sealing part of the battery cell located inside the process chamber, and then the process chamber is depressurized to create a vacuum state and internal gas is discharged through the pierced gas outlet. and then the sealing part of the battery cell is sealed. Through this sealing process, leakage of the electrolyte filled in the battery cell can be prevented.

However, even if the sealing part of the battery cell is sealed through the conventional sealing process, since it is difficult to control the entire sealing part to a constant sealing thickness, the sealing quality may be deteriorated and the aluminum layer may be damaged due to damage to the insulating layer inside the pouch. Because (Al) is exposed to the electrolyte, the lifespan characteristics of the battery cell are deteriorated, and the subsequent processes of the battery cell (eg, cutting process, folding process, etc.) acting as a factor.

The present invention (Disclosure) is different from the conventional method of sealing the sealing part of the battery cell by fixing the sealing part of the battery cell and transferring the pair of sealing bars to face each other, fixing one sealing bar and the other sealing bar and the battery cell. By transferring the sealing part to seal the sealing part of the battery cell, the pressing force applied to the sealing part of the battery cell for sealing can be more uniformly maintained, and the sealed thickness of the sealing part of the battery cell can be made uniform. An object of the present invention is to provide a battery cell sealing device.

The present invention (Disclosure) consists of a movable sealing bar with a main cylinder and sub-cylinders on both sides, thereby sealing the sealing part through uniform pressure and heating in the entire area, thereby preventing leakage of electrolyte inside the battery cell in advance. In addition, an object of the present invention is to provide a battery cell sealing device for a degas process capable of improving battery cell quality.

And, according to the present invention (Disclosure), by performing a sealing process for a plurality of battery cells using a plurality of fixed sealing bars provided in the center of the process chamber and a plurality of sliding sealing bars provided on both sides of the process chamber, the battery cells An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for sealing a battery cell for a degas process capable of improving productivity for the sealing process.

In addition, in the present invention (Disclosure), by tilting the sliding sealing bar to the required thickness using the main cylinder and the sub-cylinder to perform the sealing process for the sealing part of the battery cell, the battery cell quality can be improved as well as the battery An object of the present invention is to provide a battery cell sealing apparatus for a degas process that can further improve cell manufacturing yield and productivity.

Herein, a general summary of the present invention is provided, which should not be construed as limiting the scope of the present invention (This section provides a general summary of the disclosure and is not a comprehensive disclosure of its full scope or all of its features).

In order to solve the above problems, a battery cell sealing apparatus for a degas process according to any one of various aspects describing the present invention includes: a process chamber part into which the battery cells are transferred; a battery cell seating part on which the battery cells transferred to the inside of the process chamber are seated, and for moving the battery cells to a sealing position for a sealing process; The sealing process is performed on the sealing part of the battery cell that is moved through the battery cell seating part, but the first sealing bar in contact with one side of the sealing part is fixedly provided, and the second sealing bar in contact with the other side of the sealing part is A battery cell sealing that is provided in a sliding manner and seals the sealing part in a heat-sealing manner by moving the battery cell seating part and the second sealing bar so that the first and second sealing bars face each other with the sealing part of the battery cell therebetween. includes;

In the battery cell sealing apparatus for a degas process according to the present invention, the battery cell mounting part includes: a holder on which the battery cell is mounted and fixed; and a movable cylinder for moving the fixing member to the sealing position.

In the battery cell sealing apparatus for a degas process according to the present invention, the battery cell sealing part includes the first sealing bar and the second sealing bar, and is coupled to the second sealing bar to move the second sealing bar. of the main cylinder and the sub-cylinders on both sides, but by providing a tilting sphere in the coupling portion with the main cylinder, it can be tilted through the control of the sub-cylinders on both sides.

In the battery cell sealing apparatus for a degas process according to the present invention, the process chamber unit includes: a process chamber in which the sealing process is performed; a support base for supporting the process chamber; and a cable bear for transporting the battery cell into the process chamber.

In the battery cell sealing apparatus for a degas process according to the present invention, a pumping unit communicating with a vacuum pump through the process chamber and the pressure reducing line to reduce the pressure to a vacuum state; A pressure control valve that opens and closes for internal pressure reduction is provided, and a pressure reduction bypass line bypassing the pressure control valve is provided, and the pressure reduction bypass line is configured such that the internal pressure of the process chamber reduces the loss of the internal electrolyte of the battery cell. A gas amount control valve may be provided to form a pressure-reducing pressure curve to prevent it.

In the battery cell sealing apparatus for a degas process according to the present invention, the reduced pressure curve may be provided such that the current pressure is the highest pressure and the vacuum pressure is the lowest pressure in the form of a trigonometric graph.

According to the present invention, the position of one of the pair of sealing bars for sealing the sealing part of the battery cell is fixed, and the other one is configured as a sliding type sealing bar and transferred to the side of the fixed sealing bar together with the sealing part of the battery cell and pressurized. And by sealing using heat, it is possible to more easily implement a uniform sealing thickness of the battery cell sealing part.

According to the present invention, the sliding sealing bar seals the sealing part through uniform pressure and heating in the entire area through the main cylinder and the sub-cylinders on both sides, thereby preventing leakage of electrolyte inside the battery cell in advance. Cell quality can be improved.

According to the present invention, by performing a sealing process for a plurality of battery cells using a plurality of fixed sealing bars provided in the central portion of the process chamber and a plurality of sliding sealing bars provided on both sides of the process chamber, the battery cell sealing process productivity can be improved.

According to the present invention, by performing a sealing process on the sealing part of the battery cell by tilting the sliding sealing bar to the required thickness using the main cylinder and the sub cylinder, the battery cell quality can be improved as well as the battery cell manufacturing yield and Productivity can be further improved.

1 is a view illustrating a battery cell sealing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 to 4 are views for explaining a sealing process of the battery cell sealing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a view for explaining vacuum decompression in the battery cell sealing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

6 to 8 are views illustrating a battery cell sealing device according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, an embodiment in which the battery cell sealing device according to the present invention is implemented will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

However, the intrinsic technical idea of the present invention cannot be said to be limited by the embodiments described below, and the following by those skilled in the art based on the intrinsic technical idea of the present invention It is revealed that the range that can be easily suggested as a method of substitution or change of the embodiment described in is included.

In addition, since the terms used below are selected for convenience of explanation, in grasping the intrinsic technical idea of the present invention, they are not limited to the dictionary meaning and are appropriately interpreted as meanings consistent with the technical spirit of the present invention. it should be

1 is a diagram illustrating a battery cell sealing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 2 to 4 are diagrams for explaining a sealing process of the battery cell sealing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

1 to 4 , the battery cell sealing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a process chamber part 110 , a pumping part 120 , a battery cell seating part 130 , and a battery cell sealing part 140 . and the like.

The process chamber part 110 is to which the battery cell 10 is transferred therein, and may include a process chamber 111 , a support base 113 , a cable bear 115 , and the like.

Here, the process chamber 111 performs a sealing process for the battery cell 10 , the support base 113 supports the process chamber 111 , and the cable bear 115 processes the battery cell 10 . It may be transferred to the inside of the chamber 111 .

For example, when the battery cell 10 is seated on an upper side of the support base 113 to perform a sealing process (or a degas process and a sealing process) inside the process chamber 111 , the support base 113 . The battery cell 10 seated therein can be transferred into the process chamber 111 through the cable bear 115 installed on the upper part of the .

Such a battery cell 10 may be seated on the battery cell receiving unit 130 , and may be transferred into the process chamber 111 using the cable bear 115 in a state where it is seated and fixed on the battery cell receiving unit 130 . can

The pumping unit 120 communicates with the vacuum pump 121 through the process chamber 111 and a pressure reducing line (PRL) to reduce the pressure to a vacuum state, and a vacuum pump 121 and a pressure control valve 122. , a gas amount control valve 123 , a first opening/closing valve 124 , and a second opening/closing valve 125 .

Here, the pressure reducing line (PRL) is provided with a pressure control valve 122 that opens and closes for internal pressure reduction of the process chamber 111, and a pressure reducing bypass line that bypasses the pressure control valve 122 (PRBL: pressure reducing bypass) line) may be provided.

The pressure reduction bypass line (PRBL) may be provided with a gas amount control valve 123 such that the internal pressure of the process chamber 111 forms a pressure reduction pressure curve for preventing the loss of the internal electrolyte of the battery cell 10 , and the pressure reduction The pressure curve can be expressed in the form of a trigonometric graph in which the current pressure is the highest pressure and the vacuum pressure is the lowest pressure.

On the other hand, the first opening/closing valve 124 may selectively adjust the opening and closing of the pressure reducing line PRL provided with the pressure control valve 122 , and the second opening/closing valve 125 may be provided with the gas quantity control valve 123 . Opening and closing of the bypass line PRBL can be selectively adjusted.

The battery cell mounting part 130 is a battery cell 10 transferred to the inside of the process chamber part 110 is seated, and moves the battery cell 10 for a sealing process, and at least one may be provided, Each of these may include a fixing base 131 , a movable cylinder 133 , and the like.

Here, the holder 131 may seat and fix the battery cell 10 , and the movable cylinder 133 may move the holder 131 to the sealing position of the battery cell 10 .

For example, when the battery cell 10 is seated on the holder 131 positioned on the upper side of the support base 113 of the process chamber 110 , after fixing the battery cell 10 through the holder 131 , , the holder 131 on which the battery cell 10 is fixed may be transferred to the inside of the process chamber 111 through the cable bearer 115 .

Then, when the holder 131 on which the battery cell 10 is seated and fixed is transferred to the inside of the process chamber 111 , the process chamber 111 is decompressed in a vacuum state through the pumping unit 120 , and is reduced in a vacuum state. If so, the fixing base 131 is moved to the sealing position through the operation of the moving cylinder 133 , and the sealing portion of the battery cell 10 through the battery cell sealing unit 140 is sealed in a heat-sealing (ie, pressurizing and heating) method. It can be (sealed).

The battery cell sealing part 140 performs a sealing process for the sealing part of the battery cell 10 that is moved through the battery cell seating part 130 , but the first sealing bar 141 in contact with one side of the sealing part is fixed. The second sealing bar 142 in contact with the other side of the sealing part is provided in a sliding manner, and the battery cell seating part 130 and the second sealing bar 142 are moved to the sealing position to seal the sealing part in a heat-sealing manner. To do this, at least one may be provided, which may include a first sealing bar 141, a second sealing bar 142, a main cylinder 143, a sub-cylinder 144, a tilting ball 145, and the like, respectively. can

Here, the first sealing bar 141 is provided in a fixed type and may be provided with a heating wire therein, and the second sealing bar 142 is provided in a sliding manner, and may have a heating wire therein, and the second sealing bar 142 is provided in a sliding manner. It may be provided with a central main cylinder 143 and the sub-cylinders 144 on both sides that are coupled to the sealing bar 142 to move.

The battery cell 10 is sealed through the battery cell seating part 130 so that the first sealing bar 141 is in contact with one side of the sealing part using the central main cylinder 143 and the sub-cylinders 144 on both sides. The main cylinder 143 and the sub-cylinder 144 may be operated so that the second sealing bar 142 is in contact with the other side of the sealing part of the battery cell 10 that is moved to the sealing position while moving to the sealing position. When the first sealing bar 141 and the second sealing bar 142 are moved to the sealing position, the interval may be adjusted to have a range of 270±10 μm.

On the other hand, the second sealing bar 142 may be tilted by adjusting the sub-cylinders 144 on both sides by providing a tilting hole 145 at a coupling portion with the main cylinder 143 , and the sealing of the battery cell 10 . By adjusting the operation interval of the sub-cylinders 144 on both sides in the longitudinal direction of the second sealing bar 142 that is moved so that a uniform pressing force can be applied to the entire sub-length direction, the left and right balances are achieved through the tilting sphere 145 It is possible to provide a uniform pressing force and heating force (ie, heat-sealing strength) to the entire area in the longitudinal direction of the sealing part of the battery cell 10 .

When the operation of the pumping unit 120 for depressurizing the process chamber 111 to a vacuum state in the battery cell sealing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention as described above will be described in detail, the battery cell 10 is mounted on the battery cell. It may be seated on the part 130 and transferred to the inside of the process chamber 111 .

In addition, the process chamber 111 may communicate with the vacuum pump 121 through the decompression line P.R.L in order to reduce the pressure to a vacuum state. Here, since the battery cell 10 performs a sealing process on the sealing part after the degas process, the battery cell 10 may form a gas outlet in a part of the sealing part so as to communicate with the inside of the process chamber 111 . have.

Here, a pressure control valve 122 , a gas volume control valve 123 , a first on/off valve 124 , a second on/off valve 125 , etc. may be provided on the pressure reducing line PRL, and the vacuum pump 121 . to start the pumping operation and open the first on/off valve 124 to pump the internal gas of the vacuum chamber 111 connected to the decompression line (PRL) according to the input pressure value through the pressure control valve 122. have.

At the same time, when the second opening/closing valve 125 is opened and the gas quantity control valve 123 is initially pumped, the trigonometric graph reformation as shown in FIG. After a rapid descending curve is shown, the valve opening amount is adjusted by adjusting the input voltage so as to form a reduced pressure curve corresponding to the slow descending curve). You can pump until

After that, the gas amount control valve 123 is adjusted to correspond to other trigonometric graph reformations (for example, a gentle upward curve is shown in the beginning, a steep upward curve is shown in the middle period, and then a gentle upward curve is again shown in the latter period) The valve opening amount can be adjusted by adjusting the input voltage to form a pressure-reducing pressure curve.

By stably adjusting this pressure reduction according to the reduced pressure curve, loss of the electrolyte that may be discharged together with the gas discharged due to the reduced pressure of the battery cell 10 can be prevented in advance.

The gas amount control valve 123 as described above includes a diaphragm valve whose open amount is adjusted to adjust the pressure reduction gas amount according to the piezo valve that is deformed according to the input voltage, thereby adjusting the pressure reduction gas amount to form a pressure reduction pressure curve. can

Meanwhile, FIGS. 6 to 8 are views illustrating a battery cell sealing apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.

6 to 8 , the battery cell sealing apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention is similar to the configuration of the battery cell sealing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention, so a detailed description thereof will be omitted, and only the differences will be omitted. to explain

In another embodiment of the present invention, there is shown an apparatus for sealing four battery cells 10 at the same time, the first sealing bar 141 in the central part of the process chamber 111 is fixedly provided to support both directions, The second sealing bars 142 on both sides may be coupled to the main cylinder 143 and the sub-cylinder 144, respectively, and may be provided to move from both sides to the center.

In addition, moving cylinders 133 may be provided on both sides of the battery cell seating part 130 so that the fixing rod 131 moves from both sides to the central part, respectively, in the longitudinal direction of the sealing part of each battery cell 10 . By adjusting the operating intervals of both sub-cylinders 144 in the longitudinal direction of the second sealing bars 142 that are respectively moved so that a uniform pressing force can be applied to the entire region, the left and right balance is achieved through each tilting hole 145 . Accordingly, it is possible to provide a uniform pressing force and heating force (ie, heat-sealing strength) to the entire area in the longitudinal direction of the sealing part of the battery cell 10 .

As described above, in a state in which a fixed first sealing bar 141 is disposed in the center of the process chamber 111 and a slidingly movable second sealing bar 142 is disposed on both sides of the battery cell seating part 130 . Each of the fixing rods 133 of the can be moved to a sealing position in which one side of the sealing part of each battery cell 10 is in contact with the first sealing bar 141 through the operation of each movable cylinder 133 provided on both sides. .

At the same time, the second sealing bar 142 provided on both sides is connected to the other side of the sealing part of each battery cell 10 through the operation of the main cylinder 143 and the sub-cylinder 144 respectively provided corresponding thereto. By moving each of the sealing positions in contact with the battery cell 10, the first sealing bar 141 of the fixed type and the second sealing bar 142 of the sliding type moving to the sealing position of the central portion, respectively, are heat-sealed (i.e., , pressurization and heating) method can be sealed (sealed).

As described above, the battery cell sealing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention may be variously configured to perform a sealing process on one or more battery cells.

Therefore, the present invention seals the sealing part of the battery cell using a sliding sealing bar, and by sealing the sealing part through uniform pressure and heating in the entire area through the main cylinder and the sub-cylinders on both sides, electrolyte leakage inside the battery cell can be prevented in advance, and battery cell quality can be improved.

In addition, the present invention performs a sealing process on a plurality of battery cells using a plurality of fixed sealing bars provided in the central part of the process chamber and a plurality of sliding sealing bars provided on both sides of the process chamber, whereby the battery cell sealing process is productivity can be improved.

In addition, the present invention performs a sealing process on the sealing part of the battery cell by tilting the sliding sealing bar to the required thickness using the main cylinder and the sub cylinder, thereby improving battery cell quality as well as improving the battery cell manufacturing yield and Productivity can be further improved.

Claims

a process chamber into which the battery cells are transferred;

a battery cell seating part on which the battery cells transferred to the inside of the process chamber are seated, and for moving the battery cells to a sealing position for a sealing process;

The sealing process is performed on the sealing part of the battery cell that is moved through the battery cell seating part, but the first sealing bar in contact with one side of the sealing part is fixedly provided, and the second sealing bar in contact with the other side of the sealing part is A battery cell sealing that is provided in a sliding manner and seals the sealing part in a heat-sealing manner by moving the battery cell seating part and the second sealing bar so that the first and second sealing bars face each other with the sealing part of the battery cell therebetween. A battery cell sealing device for a degas process comprising a;
The method of claim 1,

The battery cell mounting portion,

a holder on which the battery cell is seated and fixed; And Degas process battery cell sealing device comprising a; and a moving cylinder for moving the fixing member to the sealing position.
The method of claim 1,

The battery cell sealing unit includes the first sealing bar and the second sealing bar,

It includes a central main cylinder coupled to the second sealing bar to move the second sealing bar and sub-cylinders on both sides, and a tilting hole is provided at a coupling portion with the main cylinder to tilt through the control of the sub-cylinders on both sides. A battery cell sealing device for the degas process.
4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3,

The process chamber unit,

Process chamber in which the sealing process is performed;

a support base for supporting the process chamber; and

A battery cell sealing apparatus for a degas process comprising a; cable bear for transferring the battery cell to the inside of the process chamber.
5. The method of claim 4,

A pumping unit communicating with the vacuum pump through the process chamber and the decompression line to reduce the pressure to a vacuum state; further comprising,

The pressure reduction line is provided with a pressure control valve that opens and closes for internal pressure reduction of the process chamber, and a pressure reduction bypass line bypassing the pressure control valve is provided,

The pressure reduction bypass line is a battery cell sealing device for a degas process provided with a gas amount control valve so that the internal pressure of the process chamber forms a pressure reduction pressure curve for preventing the loss of the internal electrolyte of the battery cell.
6. The method of claim 5,

The reduced pressure curve is a battery cell sealing device represented by a trigonometric graph in which the current pressure is the highest pressure and the vacuum pressure is the lowest pressure.