Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
  • H01M—PROCESSES OR MEANS, e.g. BATTERIES, FOR THE DIRECT CONVERSION OF CHEMICAL ENERGY INTO ELECTRICAL ENERGY
  • H01M10/00—Secondary cells; Manufacture thereof
  • H01M10/42—Methods or arrangements for servicing or maintenance of secondary cells or secondary half-cells
  • H01M10/4285—Testing apparatus
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
  • Y02E—REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS [GHG] EMISSIONS, RELATED TO ENERGY GENERATION, TRANSMISSION OR DISTRIBUTION
  • Y02E60/00—Enabling technologies; Technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation
  • Y02E60/10—Energy storage using batteries

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a testing device having the features of the preamble of claim 1 and a corresponding method having the features of the preamble of claim 12.
• Energy cells or energy storage cells are used for galvanic accumulators, for example in motor vehicles, other land vehicles, ships and airplanes, in which a considerable amount of energy has to be stored so that it can be called up over longer periods of time.
• energy cells have a structure made up of a large number of segments stacked to form a stack, referred to below as cell stack. These segments are formed by mono cells, for example.
• Monocells are each alternating anode sheets and cathode sheets, also known as electrodes, separated from each other by separator sheets.
• a mono cell thus typically has the layer sequence: separator - anode - separator - cathode.
• the segments are pre-cut in the manufacturing process and then placed on top of each other to form the cell stacks in the predetermined order and connected to one another by lamination.
• Devices for producing battery cells are known, for example, from WO 2016/041713 A1 and DE 10 2017 216 213 A1. It can happen that the segments are damaged during the manufacturing process. In the case of segments in the form of mono cells, for example, it can happen that the separator is damaged during production. If a mono cell with a damaged separator is used to form the cell stack, this can have a negative impact on functionality and service life.
• Energy cells can also be fuel cells or solar cells, for example, segments of which can also be damaged during production.
• test processes must be carried out taking into account the production output and the conveying speed of today's production systems. It is therefore known in principle from the prior art to provide test devices that travel with the segments in the production process and test the segments alternately. For this purpose, the test device actively contacts so-called conductor lugs, which are part of the electrodes. With such test methods, however, the performance of the machine is limited due to the discontinuous movements. Furthermore, the segments can be damaged when making contact with the conductor lugs.
• the object of the present application is to provide an improved testing device for testing segments and a corresponding method.
• the object is solved by the features of the independent claims. Further preferred embodiments of the invention can be found in the dependent claims, the figures and the associated description.
• a testing device for testing segments that are suitable for forming a cell stack for the energy cell manufacturing industry is proposed, with a conveyor device having a plurality of receiving sections for receiving and transporting one segment each, with the receiving sections being activated by a movement of the conveying device can be moved relative to a stationary part of the testing device, the receiving sections each comprising at least two contact surfaces for electrical and/or signaling contacting of a segment received in the respective receiving section.
• the segments positioned in the receiving sections can be transported by means of the conveyor device, it being possible for the segments to be checked during the transport process by means of the contact surfaces. For example, based on a measurement of the ohmic resistance between the at least two, preferably exactly two, contact surfaces, conclusions can be drawn about the system state of the respective segment. For example, if the segment is formed by a monocell as described above, then the ohmic resistance between two electrodes can decrease if the separator arranged between these electrodes is damaged. Furthermore, the contact surfaces as part of the receiving sections offer the advantage that an extremely gentle electrical contacting of the segment is made possible.
• the segment to be tested lies with a separator on a contact surface of the respective receiving section, followed by an electrode, for example an anode, a further separator and a further electrode, for example a cathode.
• an electrode for example an anode
• a further separator for example a cathode.
• the electrodes usually have the conductor lugs already mentioned at the outset, which protrude beyond the base area of the separators.
• the arrester lugs also have a very small layer thickness and are therefore extremely sensitive.
• the contact surfaces which are preferably aligned parallel to the contact surface of the receiving sections, allow the conductor lugs to be contacted in a particularly gentle manner. In order to improve the contact between the collector tabs and the contact surfaces, the contact surfaces can also protrude from the plane of the contact surface, so that the contact surfaces press against the collector tabs.
• the conveying device is preferably formed by a drum which is mounted so as to be rotatable about an axis element and on the radially outer lateral surface of which the receiving sections are arranged.
• the segments to be checked can be conveyed by means of a rotary movement, which is particularly simple and efficient.
• the conveying device can also be formed by a linear conveying system, for example by a belt system.
• the surface of the band has receiving sections with the respective contact surfaces.
• the receiving sections each include a contact surface for supporting a segment, which is electrically insulated from the contact surfaces.
• the cell stack can thus be reliably supported by the contact surface, while the conductor lugs are in contact with the contact surfaces for the purpose of electrical and/or signaling contact. In this way it can be ensured that the measurement of electrical parameters carried out via the contact surfaces is not adversely affected.
• This can preferably be implemented by the contact surface being made of an electrically non-conductive material and the contact surfaces being electrically conductive.
• the contact surfaces of the receiving sections can preferably be connected signal-wise and/or electrically to at least one measuring device. More preferably, the contact surfaces of each receiving section can be selectively connected to the at least one measuring device. In this way, a separate measuring device does not have to be provided for each receiving section, rather the contact surfaces of the receiving sections can be connected separately to the at least one measuring device
• the signaling and/or electrical connection of one or more contact surfaces of a specific receiving section with the at least one measuring device can preferably be established and/or interrupted depending on the position of the conveyor device relative to the stationary part.
• several measuring devices for measuring different parameters can also be provided, for example, which can be connected to the contact surfaces of a receiving section in succession or in parallel.
• the at least one measuring device is preferably part of the stationary part. Thus, the measuring device does not have to be moved with the conveyor.
• the signaling and/or electrical connection of one or more of the contact surfaces of one of the receiving sections to the at least one measuring device can be produced by means of at least one sliding contact device.
• the sliding contact device can include, for example, contact skids and contact brushes that can be contacted with one another.
• the contact skids which can be connected to the contact brushes on the radially inner surface of the drum, can be arranged, for example, on the radially outer lateral surface of the axle element.
• the contact skids preferably do not extend over the entire circumference of the axle element, but only over a circumferential section, so that contacting of the contact surfaces of a receiving section is possible in a targeted manner for the period of time in which the respective contact brushes are in contact with the contact skids.
• a reverse arrangement of the contact skids and the contact brushes is also possible, in which the contact brushes are arranged on the radially outer lateral surface of the axle element and the contact skids on the radially inner surface of the drum.
• the signaling and/or electrical connection of one or more of the contact surfaces of a receptacle can Section with the at least one measuring device also take place through contactless transmission systems.
• a plurality of measuring devices be provided, with the signaling and/or electrical connection of the contact surfaces of two or more receiving sections each having a different measuring device being able to be established in a temporally overlapping manner. Only a limited section of the movement device is available for the measurement process. Due to the temporal overlap when connecting, for example, adjacent recording sections with different measuring devices, the measuring process can be parallelized at least partially. A longer measurement interval is thus available overall for the measurements with each of the measuring devices, as a result of which higher-quality measurement results can be generated. Due to the design of the parallel connection, a parameter is available with which the available measuring time can be set independently of the production speed.
• the receiving sections preferably each comprise a first and a second contact surface, which are arranged in the respective receiving section so as to be electrically isolated from one another. More preferably, the first and second contact surfaces are arranged in the respective receiving section in such a way that a segment positioned therein rests with its first electrode on the first contact surface and with its second electrode on the second contact surface. It has been shown that with such an arrangement of the contact surfaces, an efficient test of the respective segment can be carried out.
• the segment is preferably a monocell with the four-layer structure described at the outset.
• the disclosure content of this application should also explicitly include the proposed device together with one segment or several segments, for example in the form of the monocell, which is/are mounted in the receiving sections.
• the receiving sections each have openings which can be subjected to a negative pressure in order to hold the segments. Holding the segments, in particular the collector tabs, can be done particularly gently by means of a vacuum, because there is no need for grippers or clamps that could damage the collector tabs.
• the openings can be arranged on the contact surface and/or on the contact surfaces. Furthermore, the openings can be formed, for example, by retaining bores or by the pores of an air-permeable material.
• the object mentioned at the outset is also achieved by a method for testing segments that are intended to form a cell stack for the energy cell-producing industry, the segments being tested by the testing device according to one of the preceding claims, the segments to be tested each being in a of the receiving sections are positioned.
• the segments are checked while the conveyor is moving relative to the stationary part.
• the detection of a defective segment can then lead to eject the segment from the manufacturing process; this can be done by means of the testing device itself or by means of a separate device, for example an ejection drum.
• FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a testing device
• FIG. 4 shows a sectional view of a test device.
• FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a testing device 1 for testing segments 2, the segments 2 being suitable for forming cell stacks for the industry producing energy cells.
• Battery cells can be formed by stacking such segments 2 on top of one another to form a cell stack (not shown).
• the segment 2 shown in FIG. 1 has a four-layer structure with the layer sequence separator-electrode (for example anode)-separator-electrode (for example cathode). Segment 2 is therefore a so-called mono cell.
• the testing device 1 of FIG. 1 can be arranged, for example, between a device (not shown) for producing the segments 2 and a cell stacking device (also not shown) for forming cell stacks.
• the testing device 1 comprises a conveyor device 3 in the form of a drum, which is rotatably mounted on an axle element 8 so that it rotates about an axis of rotation 14 during operation. Furthermore, the testing device 1 comprises a plurality of measuring devices 10a, 10b, two of which are shown schematically.
• the measuring devices 10a, 10b can be set up, for example, to measure an ohmic resistance. Of course, in principle measuring devices 10a, 10b are also conceivable, with which other parameters can be measured.
• the axle element 8 and the measuring devices 10a, 10b are part of a stationary part 5 of the testing device 1, which therefore does not rotate with the conveyor device 8.
• FIG. 1 also shows that a plurality of receiving sections 4 are arranged on the radially outer lateral surface of the drum-shaped conveyor device 3 and are each set up to receive a segment 2 .
• the individual receiving sections 4 are each structurally separated from one another by a groove 15 , the grooves 15 being aligned parallel to an axis of rotation 14 of the conveying device 3 .
• the conveyor device 2 can be rotated continuously or discontinuously by means of a drive unit, not shown. Only one of the receiving sections 4 is occupied by a segment 2 in FIG. In principle, however, several of the receiving sections 4 can also be occupied by a segment 2 in parallel during operation.
• Each receiving section 4 comprises a first contact surface 6 and a second contact surface 7 with which the electrodes of the segment 2 mounted in the receiving section 4 can be contacted.
• the contact surfaces 6, 7 are arranged in such a way that they make contact with so-called conductor lugs 16, 17, which are each part of one of the electrodes of the segment 2.
• the segment 2 is in electrically conductive contact with the first contact surface 6 in the receiving section 4 by means of a first collector lug 11, which is part of an anode here.
• a second conductor tab 12 which is part of a cathode here, is in electrically conductive contact with the second contact surface 7.
• the segments 2 rest on contact surfaces 9, which in this exemplary embodiment are designed to be electrically non-conductive. So that the respective segment 2 can be held reliably and gently in the receiving section 4, openings (not shown) are provided on the contact surface 9 and the contact surfaces 6 and 7, which can be subjected to a negative pressure. Thus, the segments 2 can be gently held in the receiving section 4 due to the pressure difference that occurs in relation to the environment.
• FIG. 2 shows an axle element 8 comprising a cylindrical outer surface 19 and a flange 18 at one end, which forms a stop for the drum-shaped conveyor device 3 (cf. FIG. 1) rotatably mounted on the axle element 8 .
• the contact skids 20a, 20b as part of the sliding contact devices 13 are arranged radially on the outside on a cylindrical lateral surface 19 of the axle element 8 and that they extend over a partial section of the circumference. It can also be seen that the contact skids 20a, 20b are arranged in pairs. Although the individual contact skids 20a, 20b of a contact skid pair 23, 24 have the same length and arrangement in the circumferential direction in relation to the axis of rotation 14, they are arranged one behind the other in the direction of the axis of rotation 14. A first pair of contact runners 23 is associated with the first contact surfaces 6 and a second pair of contact runners 24 is associated with the second contact surfaces 7 .
• the two contact skids 20a of the first and second contact skid pair 23 and 24 are electrically connected to a first measuring device 10a, while the two contact skids 20b of the first and second contact skid pair 23 and 24 are electrically connected to a second measuring device 10b.
• the arrangement of the contact skids 20a and 20b in pairs allows the contact surfaces 6, 7 of adjacent receiving sections 4 to be connected to the measuring device 10a and 10b in a time-overlapping manner, that is to say connected in parallel.
• FIG. 3 shows the contact brushes 21a, 21b arranged on the radially inner surface 22 of the drum-shaped conveying device 3, which can be contacted with the contact skids 20a, 20b shown in FIG. 2, depending on the rotational position of the conveying device 3 relative to the axle element 8.
• the contact brush th 21a and 21b of adjacent receiving sections 4 have an offset in the direction of the axis of rotation 14, so that the contact brush 21a can be contacted with the contact skid 20a and the contact brush 21b with the contact skid 20b.
• the contact skids 20a, 20b of a pair of contact skids 23, 24 (cf. FIG. 2) can be contacted alternately by the corresponding contact brushes 21a and 21b of adjacent receiving sections 4.
• each of the contact surfaces 6, 7 is assigned its own contact brush 21a, 21b.
• FIG. 4 shows the testing device 1 in a sectional view with a section orthogonal to the axis of rotation 14 in the plane of the first contact surfaces 6.
• a segment 2 is mounted in a receiving section 4b, which is adjacent to the receiving section 4a.
• a contact surface 6b of the receiving section 4b is shown, against which the conductor tab 11 of the segment 2 rests in an electrically conductive manner.
• the contact surface 6b is in contact with a contact skid 20b (cf. FIG. 2), which cannot be seen in this sectional plane, and which is arranged behind the contact skid 20a shown here.
• the contact skid 20b is covered by the contact skid 20a.
• the receiving portion 4a adjacent to the receiving portion 4b comprises a contact surface 6a which, by means of the contact brush 21a, rests in an electrically conductive manner on the contact skid 20a visible in this sectional plane.
• the contact brushes 21a and 21b of adjacent receiving sections 4a and 4b thus contact different contact runners 20a and 20b of one and the same contact runner pair 23 at the same time Contact skid 20a lifted, while the contacting of the contact brush 21b with the contact skid 20b still exists for a further defined rotational movement.
• the measuring devices 10a and 10b (cf. FIGS. 1 and 2) can thus be electrically conductively connected to the contact surfaces 6, 7 of adjacent receiving sections 4a, 4b via the sliding contact devices 13 separately, but with a time overlap. Each of the measuring devices 10a, 10b is thus always only connected to the contact surfaces 6, 7 of a receiving section 4a or 4b.
• the assignment of the contact brushes 21a, 21b and contact skids 20a, 20b to the conveyor device 3 and axle element 8 can also be interchanged, so that the contact brushes 21 can also be assigned to the axle element 8 and the contact skids 20 can also be assigned to the conveyor device 3.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Manufacturing & Machinery (AREA)
• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Chemical Kinetics & Catalysis (AREA)
• Electrochemistry (AREA)
• General Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Testing Of Individual Semiconductor Devices (AREA)
• Measurement Of Resistance Or Impedance (AREA)
• Testing Electric Properties And Detecting Electric Faults (AREA)
• Secondary Cells (AREA)
• Fuel Cell (AREA)
• Reciprocating Conveyors (AREA)

Priority Applications (6)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

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Family Applications (1)

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Cited By (1)

Citations (5)

Family Cites Families (2)

• 2022
  • 2022-02-24 DE DE102022104468.8A patent/DE102022104468A1/de active Pending
• 2023
  • 2023-02-13 CA CA3249208A patent/CA3249208A1/en active Pending
  • 2023-02-13 WO PCT/EP2023/053490 patent/WO2023161062A1/de not_active Ceased
  • 2023-02-13 US US18/840,206 patent/US20250167318A1/en active Pending
  • 2023-02-13 EP EP23705501.7A patent/EP4483441A1/de active Pending
  • 2023-02-13 JP JP2024550151A patent/JP2025513095A/ja active Pending
  • 2023-02-13 CN CN202380023509.5A patent/CN118749154A/zh active Pending
  • 2023-02-13 KR KR1020247031686A patent/KR20240155285A/ko active Pending

Patent Citations (5)

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