Battery Electrode Web Laser Delineation for Fast 3D Cell Manufacturing
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Solution Overview
Problem
The production of three-dimensional secondary batteries faces manufacturing and cost challenges, with existing techniques often resulting in increased defects, reduced capacity, and shorter longevity when attempting to speed up the process.
Innovation Solution
A process for delineating a population of electrode structures in a web using laser machining and cutting techniques, which allows for the formation of alignment features and weakened tear patterns to facilitate efficient separation of electrode structures without releasing them from the web.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If precision manufacturing techniques are used to produce three-dimensional secondary batteries, then battery cycle life and longevity are improved, but productivity decreases and manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The electrode web is divided into multiple individual electrode structures through laser machining and cutting, creating weakened tear patterns that allow precise separation. This segmentation enables high-speed manufacturing while maintaining the precision required for battery longevity, as each electrode structure can be individually formed with controlled dimensions and positioning.
Solution Approach 2:
Alignment features are formed in advance during the laser machining process to facilitate subsequent positioning and assembly operations. The weakened tear patterns are pre-created along designated separation lines, allowing electrodes to be cleanly separated without additional cutting operations, thereby increasing productivity while maintaining precision.
2Productivity
If manufacturing speed is increased to improve productivity, then production time decreases, but the number of defects increases and battery capacity is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
Traditional mechanical cutting methods are replaced with laser machining technology, which enables high-speed processing without mechanical contact. The laser creates precise weakened tear patterns and alignment features without the vibration, tool wear, and mechanical stress that cause defects in conventional cutting, thereby maintaining high productivity while reducing defect rates.
Solution Approach 2:
The laser machining process parameters (power, speed, pulse duration) are optimized to create controlled weakened zones rather than complete cuts. This parameter control allows the material to be separated cleanly along predetermined lines without generating excessive heat, melting, or structural damage that would create defects and reduce battery capacity.
3Ease of manufacture
If traditional cutting methods are used to separate electrode structures, then manufacturing process is simple, but manufacturing precision and alignment accuracy are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The laser machining system performs multiple functions in a single integrated process: it creates the electrode patterns, forms alignment features, and establishes weakened tear patterns for separation. This multi-functionality maintains process simplicity by eliminating the need for separate cutting, alignment marking, and separation steps, while achieving high manufacturing precision through digital control and consistent laser parameters.
Solution Approach 2:
The weakened tear patterns act as intermediaries between the laser machining process and the final electrode separation. These patterns create controlled stress concentration zones that guide the tearing process, ensuring that electrodes separate cleanly along precise predetermined lines without requiring additional mechanical cutting operations, thereby maintaining both simplicity and precision.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach improves the speed of electrode component manufacture for three-dimensional secondary batteries while maintaining or enhancing battery capacity and longevity, and reducing defects during the manufacturing process.
Implementation Method 1
laser machining the web in at least the cross-web direction to delineate members of the population of electrode structure in the web
Data Source
AI summary
A process for delineating a population of electrode structures in a web includes laser ablating the web to form ablations in the web, each ablation being formed by removing a portion of an electrochemically active layer to thereby expose a portion of an electrically conductive layer. The process includes forming alignment features in the web that are formed at predetermined locations on the web. The process also includes laser machining the web to form weakened tear patterns in the web that delineate members of the electrode structure population, each of the delineated members being individually bounded, at least in part, by a member of the weakened tear patterns that is adapted to facilitate separation of delineated members, individually, from the web by an application of a force, the alignment features being used to aid in the formation of the weakened tear patterns.