Modular Battery Cell Stacking Fixtures for Precise Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Precise alignment of battery cells during manufacturing is challenging due to small tolerance build-ups and interference, leading to reduced battery performance and packaging constraints, especially in vehicle batteries.
Innovation Solution
A battery module locating tool with support pillars and fixtures that are translatable and slidable along a track, using longitudinal and lateral datums to accurately position and stack battery cells, ensuring proper alignment and adherence between cells.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If multiple battery cells are stacked using conventional alignment methods, then battery assembly is completed, but tolerance build-up causes misalignment between cells
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces alignment fixtures as intermediary tools that mediate between multiple battery cells during stacking. These fixtures provide reference surfaces and mechanical constraints that ensure each cell is positioned accurately relative to the previous one, preventing tolerance accumulation without requiring complex active control systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The alignment fixtures are pre-positioned and pre-calibrated before the battery cell stacking process begins. By establishing the alignment reference system in advance, the system ensures consistent positioning throughout the stacking process without requiring real-time adjustments or complex control algorithms during assembly.
2Reliability
If conventional stacking tools are used, then stacking process is simple, but misalignment reduces battery performance
Solution Approach 1:
Alignment fixtures serve as intermediary devices that guarantee reliable cell positioning and alignment. By introducing these passive mechanical reference structures, the system achieves high battery performance and consistency without requiring complex active control systems or sophisticated manufacturing processes.
Solution Approach 2:
The alignment system is divided into multiple independent fixtures, each responsible for positioning a specific cell. This segmentation allows each fixture to be simple and easy to manufacture, while the collective system achieves high overall alignment precision and battery performance reliability.
3Manufacturing precision
If precise alignment is achieved through multiple adjustment mechanisms, then alignment accuracy improves, but device complexity and manufacturing difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The alignment fixtures are pre-positioned and pre-calibrated to the correct dimensions and orientations before use. This preliminary setup eliminates the need for complex real-time adjustment mechanisms during the stacking process, maintaining high positioning accuracy while keeping the device structure relatively simple.
Solution Approach 2:
The alignment fixtures are designed to self-align and self-position battery cells through their geometric features and reference surfaces. This self-service capability achieves precise cell positioning without requiring complex active control systems, sensors, or multiple adjustment mechanisms, thereby maintaining device simplicity.
Data Source
AI summary
A battery module locating tool includes a support pillar and a plurality of fixtures supported on the support pillar. Each fixture is individually translatable along the support pillar and arranged to locate a battery cell according to a longitudinal datum and a lateral datum. The support pillar is movable toward and away from a battery frame onto which the battery cell is located.