Utilizing the digital potential of battery manufacturing
Ultrasonics enables smart data analysis for greater safety and efficiency
Ultrasonic welding makes it possible to digitally map a physical joining process, permanently increasing the safety, efficiency, and quality of manufacturing.
Up to 150 data points per welding process: Ultrasonic welding offers exciting opportunities for the digitalization of battery production – both in manual workstations and automated systems. If the data is used correctly, both safety and efficiency can be permanently increased, and new standards can be set in quality control.
To increase the efficiency of battery manufacturing, qualified data is crucial to success. Optimization of these data points can only occur when you know exactly where rejects happen, or the specific time and energy required for individual processes. As one of the last steps in the battery production chain, the joining process is particularly important: if errors occur here, the entire cell usually has to be disposed of, resulting in high costs.
Ultrasonic welding offers optimal possibilities for measuring important data at this critical point in the manufacturing process. Each individual welding process is digitally measured and saved and can be evaluated accordingly.
The primary challenge is not about data measurement, but rather about leveraging it in a way to gain an advantage from the information.
How data acquisition works
Unlike other joining processes such as laser or induction welding, ultrasonic welding involves direct contact between the component and the welding tool. The generator activates the welding tool, the sonotrode, to vibrate at a certain frequency and amplitude. These vibrations are damped by the component during welding. To compensate for this damping, the generator makes adjustments to the power.
All these values can be visualized and saved digitally, along with many others. Despite the extremely short welding time of just a few hundred milliseconds, it is possible to track exactly what is happening to the component at any time during the process.
Up to 150 data points can be measured, saved, and evaluated for each individual ultrasonic welding process.
Added value through intelligent data usage
- Developing the ideal welding process
Initially, measuring and evaluating the data is crucial for the development of the welding process. The three central welding parameters are particularly interesting for the welding of battery cells:
– Force
