Laser welding and robotics provide quality and flexibility for Ultralife Batteries

Citation

(1999), "Laser welding and robotics provide quality and flexibility for Ultralife Batteries", Assembly Automation, Vol. 19 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/aa.1999.03319baf.002

Laser welding and robotics provide quality and flexibility for Ultralife Batteries

Laser welding and robotics provide quality and flexibility for Ultralife Batteries

Keywords Lasers, Robotics, Welding

Laser welding is used for minimum distortion, and maximum manufacturing flexibility in a new assembly machine, designed and built by Modular Automation for Ultralife Batteries (see Plate 1).

The new system will improve productivity by over 150 per cent and reduce wastage from approximately 5 per cent to under 0.1 per cent compared with the old manual assembly methods.

Plate 1 Ultralife batteries being assembled by a new Modular Automation system to improve productivity, achieve maximum manufacturing flexibility and avoid welding distortion

As the name suggests, the Lithium Manganese Dioxide batteries are extra long life, primarily for military and aerospace applications. They have an exceptional shelf life, can accept very high discharge rates and operate within a wide temperature range. For this reason they must be manufactured to exacting standards and quality control is paramount.

The modular automation machine assembles the battery lid to the can base, fills it with electrolyte and checks to ensure that there are no short circuits.

The process begins with two operators loading the can and placing the lid in position. The machine then trims the lid to shape, removes the debris from the work area and then checks to make sure that the height of the battery is correct and that it has not become distorted.

A Sony robot then picks the can and drops it into place on a rotary table. The machine checks that there are no short circuits, laser welds the lid to the can, then checks for shorts again.

The robot then places the sub-assembly on to a scale to check the weight then on to the electrolyte filling machine, and back to the scales to ensure that the correct amount of electrolyte has been added.

The final operation is to ink jet mark each battery with the product information and weight of fill.

Any batteries that fail any of the three integrated tests (for height, or shorts before or after welding) are segregated and rejected without further working. The entire operation runs on an eight-second cycle time.

For further information contact William Bourn at Modular Automation, Talbot Way, Small Heath Business Park, Birmingham B10 0HJ. Tel: +44 (0)121 766 7979; Fax: (0)121 766 6385.