Cylindrical Cell Winding Heads for Continuous High-Speed Production
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing manufacturing machines for cylindrical lithium-ion batteries struggle to achieve high production speeds while maintaining the quality of the final product, often operating at limited speeds to ensure quality.
Innovation Solution
The manufacturing machine employs a plurality of winding heads with holding devices that rotate to create a spiral winding of composite material, including conductor and separator bands. A feeding unit moves the composite material at a constant speed, and a cutting device creates a new free end of the composite material, allowing a second winding head to start winding immediately, optimizing the winding process.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If the drum rotates with an intermittent (stepped) law of motion to ensure quality, then manufacturing precision is improved, but productivity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The drum is configured to rotate continuously without intermittent stops, allowing the winding heads to continuously process composite material. This eliminates the cyclic alternation between motion and standstill steps in prior art, enabling high-speed production while maintaining quality through continuous operation and constant tension control.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically coordinates multiple winding heads at different positions on the drum, with each head processing material at optimal parameters. The drum's continuous rotation combined with multiple winding heads allows different zones to operate at different stages of the winding process simultaneously, achieving high speed without sacrificing precision.
2Productivity
If multiple winding heads process material simultaneously, then productivity is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the winding process into multiple parallel operations using several winding heads mounted at different positions on the drum. Each winding head independently processes composite material, creating multiple cells simultaneously. This segmentation of the manufacturing process into parallel identical units increases productivity while keeping each individual processing station relatively simple.
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple winding heads perform the same winding function simultaneously at different positions on the drum. Each winding head is a universal unit capable of independently winding composite material into a cell, allowing the system to produce multiple cells in parallel without requiring fundamentally different processing mechanisms for each position.
3Productivity
If the cutting device creates a new free end during winding, then productivity is improved, but manufacturing precision may deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The cutting device is positioned and synchronized to cut the composite material at precisely the right moment during the winding process. By performing the cut at the optimal point when the winding head is at a specific position, the system ensures that the new free end is created at a location that does not compromise the quality of the winding, while enabling continuous production without waiting for complete cell formation.
Data Source
AI summary
Manufacturing machine (9) and method for manufacturing a cylindrical electrochemical cell (2) consisting of a spiral winding of a composite material (8) comprising at least two conductor bands (4, 6) and at least two separator bands (5, 7) overlapping one another. They are provided: a plurality of winding heads (13), each of which supports a holding device (14) which is configured to grab an end of the composite material (8) and to rotate on itself around a first rotation axis (15) so as to obtain a spiral winding of the composite material (8); a drum (11) which supports the winding heads (13) and is rotatably mounted to rotate with a continuous law of motion about a second rotation axis (12) so as to move the winding heads (13) along a processing path (P2); a feeding unit (10) configured to feed the composite material (8) to the winding heads (13); and a cutting device (28) which is configured to cut the composite material (8) and thereby create a new free end of the composite material (8) while the composite material (8) is still being wound by a first winding head (13). A second winding head (13), which follows the first winding head (13) along the processing path (P2), is configured to grab the new free end of the composite material (8) and start the winding of the composite material (8) while first winding head (13) is still completing the winding of its own composite material (8).