Automated Plate Cutting and Stacking for Battery Grid Production
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing plants for producing plates for electric storage batteries, especially those of reduced size, face challenges in maintaining plate alignment and requiring manual handling, leading to high production costs and inconsistent quality.
Innovation Solution
A plant and process that automatically cuts and stacks continuous lead strips into groups of separate plates, using conveyor belts and cutting machines to maintain alignment and facilitate automated handling, ensuring consistent plate size and quality.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If manual handling is used for small plates, then flexibility is maintained, but production costs increase and quality consistency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical handling with an automated mechanical system consisting of conveyor belts and cutting machines. The continuous strip is automatically transported, cut into individual plates, and stacked in groups without manual intervention, thereby reducing production costs while maintaining alignment consistency through precise mechanical control.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-service automation where the continuous strip processing line automatically performs cutting, stacking, and grouping operations. The plant operates autonomously to produce plates of reduced size, eliminating the need for manual handling while ensuring consistent quality through programmed control mechanisms.
2Productivity
If automated handling is implemented for small plates, then production cost decreases, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a multi-functional processing line that handles multiple operations (transport, cutting, stacking, grouping) within a single integrated system. The same continuous strip processing infrastructure used for larger plates is adapted to handle reduced-size plates, avoiding the need for separate automated systems and thereby limiting the increase in device complexity while maintaining high productivity.
3Productivity
If continuous strip processing is used, then productivity is high, but plate alignment is difficult to maintain for small plates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic control of the cutting and stacking processes to maintain alignment. The cutting machine and stacking mechanism are synchronized with the continuous strip movement, allowing real-time adjustments to ensure that even reduced-size plates are cut and positioned with precise alignment while maintaining high production output.
Data Source
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AI summary
Plant for making plates for electric storage batteries, which comprises: means for spreading a paste of active material on grids of a continuous strip, obtaining a continuous succession of plates joined together; cutting means for separating the continuous strip into sections of at least two or more transversely side-by-side plates and storage means comprising a first movable actuator susceptible of packing, in groups against an abutment element, the plate sections which advance on a conveyor belt. The plant also comprises a cutting station, which is provided with at least one cutting tool advantageously made with rotary blades and with at least one handling device provided with a pick-up gripper susceptible of moving, in a repetitive manner, the groups of plate sections packed on the abutment against the cutting tool in order to separate the groups of plate sections into groups of separate plates.