JPH0737561A - Sealant coating device for sealed batteries - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Object] An object of the present invention is to appropriately and automatically apply a sealant to the inner wall of a battery case when sealing a sealed battery. In an apparatus for applying a sealant to the inner wall of a battery case 1 which is a hermetically sealed portion, the XY-axis moving table 23 is installed in the XY-axis moving tables and the axis drive sources 12 and 18 for moving the XY-axis moving table 23 in the XY-axis directions. The rotary drive source 24 and rotary mechanisms 25 to 28 that are mounted orthogonally to the XY-axis moving table and that are rotated by the rotary drive force of the rotary drive source.
A nozzle 30 that is hung at the tip of the rotating mechanism and emits a sealant supplied through the inside of the rotating mechanism toward the inner wall of the battery case, and after setting this nozzle on the inner wall of the battery container that is a sealed portion, Nozzle attitude control means 33 for controlling movement in the XY directions along the shape of the inner wall of the battery case, and for controlling 90 ° rotation of the nozzle by using a rotary drive source and a rotating mechanism at the time of transition to the inner wall of the next side of the battery container inner wall. And a sealant applying device for a sealed battery provided with.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sealant application device for a sealed battery, for example, which applies a sealing solvent to a prismatic sealed battery prior to the sealing by caulking, and more particularly to a sealant applied to the inner wall of the sealed battery. The present invention relates to a sealant applying device for a sealed battery having a technique of automatically applying

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in the process of assembling a small prismatic sealed battery or the like, as shown in FIG. 4, after housing the battery components inside the battery case 1, a sealing lid 3 with an electrode 2 is placed on the upper part of the battery case 1. After that, it is sealed by caulking. Reference numeral 4 is an electrode piece of a battery connected to the electrode 2. By the way, such a prismatic sealed battery has a problem that a pressure change occurs in the battery case when the battery is charged and discharged, and the electrolytic solution sometimes leaks from the sealed portion of the sealing lid 3.

Therefore, conventionally, before the sealing lid 3 is covered on the upper portion of the battery case 1, a sealing agent 5 for sealing is applied to the inner wall portion of the battery case 1 which is the sealing portion of the sealing cover 3, and then the sealing cover 3 is sealed. It is done to cover and crimp. At this time,
Since the area of the opening in the upper part of the battery case 1 is small, the sealant 5 is applied by hand only with a brush.

[0004]

However, since the application of the sealant as described above is a manual operation, there is a problem in work efficiency and cost, and in the case of producing a large number of prismatic sealed batteries. Work efficiency is poor,
There were many variations in quality, and automation was difficult due to the small area of the opening above the battery case 1.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and is a seal for appropriately and automatically applying a sealant to an inner wall which is a sealed portion of a battery case when a sealed battery is sealed by caulking. An object of the present invention is to provide a battery sealant application device.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the invention corresponding to the claims is to apply a sealant to the inner wall of the battery case to be a hermetically sealed part prior to covering the upper part of the battery case with a sealing lid with an electrode. In the device, X-Y axis movement table
An X-Y axis drive source that moves in the -Y axis direction, and this X-Y
A rotary drive source installed on the axis moving table;
A rotation mechanism that is mounted orthogonally to the Y-axis moving table and that rotates by receiving the rotation driving force from the rotation driving source, and is hung from the tip of this rotation mechanism and supplied from the outside through the inside of the rotation mechanism. A nozzle capable of ejecting the sealing agent to the inner wall of the battery case, and the nozzle is set on the inner wall of the battery container which is a sealed portion of the upper part of the battery container, and then the X-shape is applied along the inner wall shape of the battery container. Nozzle posture for controlling the movement of the Y-axis moving table and controlling the nozzle to rotate 90 ° by the rotation mechanism via the rotation drive source when moving to the inner wall of the next side of the inner wall of the battery case. It is a sealing agent application device for a sealed battery provided with a control means.

[0007]

Therefore, in the invention corresponding to the claims, by taking the above-mentioned means, the XY axis drive source is used for the XY
After bringing the nozzle into contact with the inner wall of the battery case while moving the axis moving table in the XY directions, the sealant is applied from the nozzle tip opening to the inner wall of the battery container, which is a closed portion, while the nozzle attitude control means is used. When the nozzle is moved in the XY axis direction via the XY axis moving table according to the shape of the inner wall of the battery case, and when the nozzle moves to the inner wall of the next side of the inner wall of the battery case, the rotary drive source and the Using a rotating mechanism, the nozzle is
If it is controlled to rotate by 0 °, the sealant can be automatically applied to the entire circumference of the inner wall of the battery case.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a sealant coating device for a battery according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a positional relationship between an inner wall of a battery case and a nozzle at the time of coating the sealant, and FIG. 3 uses a nozzle. It is a figure explaining the moving path of the nozzle when applying a sealant to the inner wall of the battery case. In addition,
In these figures, the same parts as those in the prior art are designated by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

That is, the present apparatus uses the X-axis feed table 1
A screw body 13 having a predetermined length is connected to a rotating shaft of an X-axis motor 12 attached to the No. 1. And this screw body 1
3 is fitted with a ball screw 14 that moves in the X-axis direction by the rotation of the rotating shaft of the X-axis motor 12.

A Y-axis feed table 17 that is movable in the X-axis direction is mounted on the ball screw 14 via an X-axis moving base 15 that moves integrally with the ball screw 14 and a linear motion bearing 16. A Y-axis motor 18 is installed on the Y-axis feed table 17. This Y-axis motor 1
The Y axis rotary shaft 20 is rotated through a Y axis movable mechanism (for example, a pulley, a belt, etc.) 19 on the rotary axis of the Y axis 8.
The Y-axis feed table 17 is moved in the Y-axis direction or the Y-axis rotary shaft 20 directly connected to the rotary shaft of the Y-axis motor 18 is rotated to move the Y-axis feed table 17 in the Y-axis direction. .

An X-Y axis moving table 23 is placed on the Y axis feed table 17 via a placing table 21 and a linear motion bearing 22. Therefore, this X-
The Y-axis moving table 23 is configured to be movable in the required XY axis directions by driving the X-axis motor 12 and the Y-axis motor 18.

A rotary shaft motor 24 is installed on the X-Y axis moving table 23.
Is transmitted via a pulley 25, a belt 26 and a pulley 27 to a rotary head 28 rotatably attached to the XY axis moving table 23. A noise 30 for emitting the sealant is attached to the lower end of the rotary head 28 on the central axis through a nozzle adjusting screw 29. A sealant is supplied to the noise 30 from an external dispenser (not shown) through a supply pipe 31 that penetrates substantially the central axis of the rotary head 28. Further, the nozzle adjusting screw 29 has a function of adjusting the position of the nozzle 30 in the radial direction of the rotation axis.

A battery support base 41 is installed at a position directly below the nozzle 30, and the battery case 1 is held by a pair of clamp claws 42 provided on the battery support base 41. The clamp claws 42, for example, open the battery case 1 which is already being gripped at predetermined time intervals, and subsequently grip a new battery case 1 to be carried in.

The X-axis motor 12 and the Y-axis motor 1
Although not shown, the rotary shaft motor 24 and the rotary shaft motor 24 are controlled by the nozzle attitude control means 33 using a controller or the like. This nozzle attitude control means 33 may drive-control each motor 12, 18, 24 based on the output of a sensor installed at an appropriate position, or each motor 12, 1 according to a predetermined program control.
It is also possible to drive-control 8, 24. In other words, this nozzle attitude control means 33 controls the X-axis motor 12 and the Y-axis motor.
The shaft motor 18 is driven to set the nozzle 30 so as to contact the inner wall of the battery case 1, and the nozzle 30 is turned in the radial direction of the rotating shaft via the rotating shaft motor 24 and the rotating head 28. By driving the X-axis motor 12 and the Y-axis motor 15, the nozzle 30 can be controlled so as to move with a predetermined rotation locus.

As shown in FIG. 2, the opening of the tip of the nozzle 30 is formed in a curved shape so as to face the outer side, that is, the inner wall side of the battery case 1 which is the sealed portion from the viewpoint of preventing the dripping of the sealant. In addition, in order to surely attach the sealant to the inner wall of the battery case 1 which is a hermetically sealed portion, the opening surface is formed so as to be slightly tapered with respect to the wall surface of the battery case 1. Therefore, when the nozzle opening surface comes into contact with the wall surface of the battery case 1, the lower end of the nozzle opening surface has a slight gap from the inner wall of the battery case 1, and is suitable for the portion of the inner wall of the battery case 1 that requires the most sealing agent. It is possible to apply a sealant to the.

Next, the operation of the sealant applying device for the sealed battery as described above will be described. Now, by manual work,
Alternatively, when the battery case 1 is carried in to a predetermined positioning position of the clamp claw 42 by using a carry-in device (not shown), the pair of clamp claws 42, 42 perform a closing operation to grip and fix the battery case 1.
At this time, the tip portion of the nozzle 30 is in a state of standing by at the center position of the battery case 1 with the nozzle opening surface facing outward.

In this way, the nozzle 30 is attached to the battery case 1.
After positioning, the X-axis motor 12 and the Y-axis motor 118 are driven to rotate, so that the nozzle opening surface at the tip of the nozzle is moved to a position where it contacts the inner wall surface of the battery case 1, as shown in FIG. At this time, since the nozzle opening surface is machined by a constant taper portion so as to secure a clearance with respect to the inner wall surface of the battery case 1, the upper end portion of the nozzle opening surface is in point contact with the inner surface of the battery case. .

In this state, while supplying the sealing agent from the external dispenser to the nozzle 30 through the supply pipe 31, the X-axis motor 12 and the Y-axis motor 18 are appropriately driven while the X-Y axis moving table is moved in accordance with a predetermined locus. When the nozzle 23 is controlled to move, the nozzle 30 is a → b → as shown in FIG. 3 with its nozzle tip opening surface facing outward.
The sealing agent 5 is applied to the inner wall of the battery case while moving in the order of arrow c → d. At this time, the sealant 5 supplied from the tip of the nozzle is the battery case 1 and the nozzle 3.
The sealing agent can be properly applied to the inner wall of the battery case by staying in the clearance portion with 0.

Further, when the nozzle 30 always comes into point contact with the inner wall surface of the battery case during its movement path and goes around from the corner portion of the battery container 1 to the inner wall surface of the next side, the rotary shaft motor 2
Since the sealing agent 5 is applied to the inner wall surface of the battery case while changing the direction of 90 ° through the rotary head 4 and the rotary head 28 while maintaining the point contact, the sealing agent 5 can be rapidly moved in a continuous operation over the entire circumference of the inner wall of the battery case 1. It can be applied.

The sealant 5 may be applied by the nozzle 30 not only once over the entire circumference of the inner wall of the battery case 1 but also repeatedly over a plurality of times. Further, the example in which the sealant 24 is applied to the rectangular sealed battery has been described, but a round sealed battery may be applied, or a rectangular sealed battery other than that may be similarly applied. In addition, the present invention can be variously modified and implemented without departing from the scope of the invention.

[0021]

As described above, according to the present invention, the sealing agent is properly and automatically applied to the inner wall of the battery case, which is the sealed portion of the battery case, prior to sealing the sealing lid on the upper part of the battery case. Thus, it is possible to provide a sealing agent applying device for a sealed battery, which can efficiently perform the applying operation of the sealing agent.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a sealant coating device for a sealed battery according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a positional relationship between an inner wall of a battery case and a nozzle when applying a sealant.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a movement path of a nozzle when a sealant is applied to the inner wall of a battery case by using the nozzle.

FIG. 4 is an external perspective view of a conventional prismatic sealed battery.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Battery case, 3 ... Sealing lid, 5 ... Sealing agent, 11 ... X-axis table, 12 ... X-axis motor, 17 ... Y-axis table, 18 ...
Y-axis motor, 23 ... X-Y-axis moving table, 24 ... Rotating shaft motor, 28 ... Rotating head, 30 ... Nozzle, 33 ...
Nozzle attitude control means.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An apparatus for applying a sealant to an inner wall of a battery case, which is a hermetically sealed portion, prior to sealing a sealing lid with an electrode on the upper part of the battery case, wherein an XY axis moving table is moved in the XY axis direction. Let X
A Y-axis drive source, a rotary drive source installed on the XY-axis moving table, and a rotary drive source that is mounted orthogonal to the XY-axis moving table and receives a rotary drive force from the rotary drive source. A rotating mechanism that rotates by means of a nozzle, a nozzle that is hung at the tip of the rotating mechanism, and is capable of ejecting a sealant supplied from the outside through the inside of the rotating mechanism toward the inner wall of the battery case, and this nozzle. After setting the inner wall of the battery case to be a closed portion above the battery container, the XY axis moving table is controlled to move in the XY direction along the shape of the inner wall of the battery container,
A nozzle attitude control means for controlling the nozzle to be rotated by 90 ° by the rotation mechanism via the rotation drive source when the inner wall of the battery container is moved to the next inner wall of the battery case. Battery sealant application device.