JP2001266847A - Electrolyte filling method in manufacturing process of dry battery - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an filling method of electrolyte in the dry battery manufacturing process of filling and impregnating electrolyte in the electrolyte impregnation holding material, that can impregnate electrolyte effectively in short time and discharge it in high precision without variations of discharge amount for filling. SOLUTION: The electrolyte filling method comprises a step in which the battery case filled with an electrolyte impregnation holding material to hold the electrolyte is, in advance, set on the electrolyte filling device and the battery case is made a vacuum state, a step in which the electrolyte which is pressure pumped from an electrolyte pumping device to an electrolyte auxiliary supply tank of the electrolyte filling device is supplied for one prescribed filling amount from the auxiliary supply tank to an electrolyte main supply tank of the electrolyte filling device, a step in which one filling amount of electrolyte held in the electrolyte main supply tank is filled in the battery case which is maintained in vacuum state, and a step in which the battery case sufficiently filled and impregnated with electrolyte is taken out of the electrolyte filling device and sent to the next process, all above operating process are repeated in one cycle.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an improvement of a technique for filling a dry battery case with an electrolytic solution in a dry battery manufacturing process.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a method of filling an electrolytic solution into a battery case in which an electrolytic solution-impregnated holding material for retaining the electrolytic solution has been previously loaded, a precision liquid discharge device is used at atmospheric pressure using a precision liquid discharging device. Volume of electrolyte was being injected.

[0003]

However, in the above-described method for filling the electrolyte, it takes time for the electrolyte-impregnated holding material to sufficiently absorb and impregnate the electrolyte, and it is necessary to gradually inject the electrolyte over time. Since measures such as injecting the electrolytic solution in a plurality of times have been taken, it took time to inject the electrolytic solution in the manufacturing process of the dry battery, and improvement was required.

[0004] Therefore, in order to promote absorption and impregnation of the electrolyte, the inside of the battery case in which the electrolyte-impregnated holding material for holding the electrolyte is previously held is kept in a vacuum, and the inside of the battery case kept in a vacuum is kept. Attempts have been made to inject electrolyte into the electrolyte. There are various methods for evacuating the battery case. For example, a method of arranging a battery case in a vacuum chamber and evacuating the entire vacuum chamber with a vacuum pump has been attempted, but here, an example of a method of directly suctioning the inside of the battery case with a vacuum pump is described for explanation. This will be described with reference to FIG. 2 which is a conceptual diagram.

[0005] In the figure, reference numeral 31 denotes a discharge gun for discharging an electrolytic solution. The discharge gun 31 includes a gun body 32 and a needle 3.
3. Actuator 3 for opening and closing needle 33
4, the discharge nozzle 37, the discharge nozzle 37
An electrolytic solution feeder 42 is connected to the hole 32c for supplying an electrolytic solution provided in the gun body 32 by piping. 9 is a battery case,
The battery case 9 is filled with an electrolyte-impregnated holding material 10 for impregnating and holding the electrolyte 49. Reference numeral 41 denotes a clamp member for holding the battery case 9;
1 is a hole 41 into which the discharge nozzle 37 of the discharge gun 31 is inserted.
a and a hole 41b for evacuating the inside of the battery case, and a vacuum pump 44 is connected via a valve 43 to the evacuating hole 41b. Reference numeral 48 denotes a sealing material for shutting off the inside of the battery case 9 from outside air.

[0006] First, the battery case 9 in which the electrolyte-impregnated holding material 10 is loaded in advance is clamped.
And the inside of the battery case 9 is evacuated by the vacuum pump 44, and the electrolyte 49 pumped from the electrolyte pumping device 42 to the discharge gun 31 is supplied to the actuator of the discharge gun 31 by a signal from a control device (not shown). 34, the needle 33 is opened, and the battery case 9 maintained in a vacuum state.
Injected into.

By such an electrolyte filling method, the rate at which the electrolyte-impregnated holding material absorbs and impregnates the electrolyte is greatly improved, and the battery manufacturing process is shortened. But,
The following unexpected problem occurred. That is, the discharge amount of the electrolytic solution from the discharge gun varies.

This means that there was no problem when the battery was discharged at atmospheric pressure without evacuating the battery case. That is, in the atmospheric pressure state, a high-precision discharge of about ± 1.0% is performed with respect to one predetermined discharge amount, whereas the discharge is performed in a vacuum state (about 750 Torr) in the battery case. In this case, the variation of the ejection amount is ± 5.0.
%. This is considered to be a cause of the variation in the vacuum and the degree of vacuum in the battery case, which causes the variation in the electrolyte discharge.

When such a large variation occurs in the discharge amount of the electrolytic solution, various problems occur. That is, if the electrolyte does not reach the specified amount, the performance of the battery will be reduced,
In addition, if the amount exceeds the specified amount, liquid leakage may occur, causing problems such as undesired effects such as soiling of the manufacturing apparatus and surroundings and hindrance to work in the post-process.

[0010] The present invention has been made in view of these problems, and in the operation of injecting and impregnating the electrolyte into the electrolyte impregnated holding material in the battery case in the dry battery manufacturing process, efficiently in a short time. An object of the present invention is to provide a method for filling an electrolyte, which can impregnate the electrolyte and discharge the electrolyte with high accuracy without variation in the discharge amount for injecting the electrolyte.

[0011]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention adopts the following method. That is, at least a step of setting a battery case pre-loaded with an electrolyte-impregnated holding material for holding an electrolyte in an electrolyte-filling device to evacuate the inside of the battery case; and The electrolyte fed under pressure to the electrolyte supplementary supply chamber of the liquid filling apparatus is discharged from the electrolyte supplementary supply chamber by a predetermined amount.
A step of supplying the filling amount to the main electrolyte supply chamber of the electrolyte filling apparatus, and a step of injecting one filling amount of the electrolyte held in the main electrolyte supply chamber into the battery case maintained in the vacuum state. And removing the battery case sufficiently filled with the electrolyte from the electrolyte filling device and sending it to the next process;
Is repeated as one cycle, and the method for filling the electrolyte in the manufacturing process of the dry battery is provided.

[0012]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the present invention, first, a battery case, in which an electrolyte-impregnated holding material for holding an electrolyte is previously set, is set in an electrolyte-filling apparatus, and the inside of the battery case is evacuated, so that the electrolyte to be injected can be electrolytically charged. It helps to impregnate and impregnate the liquid impregnated holding material in a short time and quickly.

[0013] A predetermined amount of the electrolyte fed from the electrolyte pumping device to the auxiliary electrolyte supply chamber of the electrolyte filling device is supplied from the auxiliary electrolyte supply chamber to the main electrolyte supply chamber. Thus, the amount of electrolyte to be filled in one battery can be accurately held in the electrolyte main supply chamber without being affected by the vacuum pressure in the battery case.

Then, by injecting one filling amount of the electrolyte held in the electrolyte main supply chamber into the battery case maintained in the vacuum state, the accurate filling amount of the electrolyte is injected into the battery case. Since the inside of the battery case is maintained in a vacuum, the electrolyte quickly permeates the electrolyte-impregnated holding material, and is impregnated and held.

Then, the battery case, which has been sufficiently impregnated with the electrolytic solution, is removed from the electrolytic solution filling apparatus and sent to the next step, thereby completing the step of filling the battery case with the electrolytic solution in the dry battery manufacturing process. The object of the present invention is achieved by repeating this cycle according to the flow of the production line.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A method for filling an electrolyte in a manufacturing process of a dry battery according to the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings showing the embodiments. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the concept of an apparatus for implementing the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a discharge gun for discharging an electrolyte, the discharge gun 1 comprising a gun body 2 having two chambers, ie, an auxiliary electrolyte supply chamber 2a and a main electrolyte supply chamber 2b. Electrolyte auxiliary supply chamber 2a and electrolyte main supply chamber 2
1st needle 3 for controlling ON / OFF of communication with the first needle 3
A first actuator 4 for opening and closing the first needle 3; a second needle 5 for on / off control of a discharge port of the electrolyte main supply chamber 2b; and a second actuator for opening and closing the second needle 5 6, a discharge nozzle 7, and a cap nut 8 for attaching the discharge nozzle 7 to the gun body 2.

An electrolytic solution feeder 12 is connected to the electrolytic solution supply hole 2c provided in the gun body 2 by piping, and a gas supply device 16 is connected to the gas supply hole 2d via an electromagnetic valve 15 by piping. ing. Reference numeral 9 denotes a battery case, in which an electrolyte-impregnated holding material 10 is loaded. Reference numeral 11 denotes a clamp member. The clamp member 11 holds the battery case 9, and has a hole 11 a into which the discharge nozzle 7 is inserted and a hole 1 for evacuating the battery case 9.
1b is provided. A vacuum pump 14 is connected to the evacuation hole 11 b via an electromagnetic valve 13. Reference numeral 18 denotes a sealing material for shutting off the inside of the battery case 9 from the outside air.

Reference numeral 17 denotes a control device for controlling the operation of the discharge gun device. The control device 17 is connected to the first actuator 4, the second actuator 6, the solenoid valve 13, the solenoid valve 15 and the like by signal cables, respectively. You.

Then, first, the battery case 9 in which the electrolyte-impregnated holding material 10 is previously loaded is clamped by the clamp member 11.
And the inside of the battery case 9 is evacuated by the vacuum pump 14. Then, the first actuator 4 is actuated by a signal from the control device 17 to actuate the first needle 4 with the pressurized electrolyte solution 19 which has been fed from the electrolyte solution feed device 12 to the auxiliary electrolyte solution supply chamber 2 a of the discharge gun 1. 3 is opened, and a predetermined filling amount is poured into the main electrolyte supply chamber 2b. One filling amount of the electrolyte is set by the opening time of the first needle 3 set in the control device 17. The electrolyte main supply chamber 2b is designed to have a sufficient volume to receive one filling amount of the electrolyte 19.

A gas having a pressure necessary to discharge the electrolyte 19 is supplied from the gas supply device 16 to the electrolyte main supply chamber 2b. In this embodiment, a gas having a pressure of about 0.5 kg / cm ² was supplied. In this embodiment, even if one filling amount of the electrolyte was poured from the auxiliary electrolyte supply chamber 2a into the main electrolyte supply chamber 2b while the gas pressure was constantly applied, there was no variation in the one filling amount. If the pressure is influenced by the pressure and a variation occurs in one filling amount, the solenoid valve 15 is operated in synchronization with the opening operation of the needle 3, and the gas pressure in the electrolyte main supply chamber 2b is released to thereby reduce the gas pressure. Pressure effects can also be avoided.

After the predetermined electrolyte is held in the electrolyte main supply chamber 2b, the second actuator 6 is operated by the signal from the control device 17, the second needle 5 is opened, and the battery maintained in a vacuum state is opened. The electrolytic solution 19 is injected into the case 9.
When the electrolyte is sufficiently absorbed and absorbed by the electrolyte-impregnated holding material 10, the solenoid valve 13 is operated to release the vacuum state in the battery case 9, the battery case 9 is removed from the clamp member 11, and the next step is performed. send. Thus, a series of electrolyte filling work is completed, the next battery case is set on the clamp member 11, and a series of work cycles are repeated.

The vacuum in the battery case and its release,
A series of operations such as the injection of the electrolyte by opening and closing the needle, the supply and release of the gas to the electrolyte main supply chamber, and the like are performed by a program preset in the controller 17. There are various methods for vacuuming the battery case. For example, as described above, the battery case is placed in a vacuum chamber, and the entire vacuum chamber is evacuated by a vacuum pump. Although there is a method of vacuuming the battery, here, the case of a method of directly sucking the inside of the battery case with a vacuum pump has been described. Therefore, the method for evacuating the battery case is not limited to the present embodiment.

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention, in the operation of injecting and impregnating the electrolyte into the electrolyte impregnated holding material in the battery case in the manufacturing process of the dry battery, the inside of the battery case is evacuated. The electrolyte can be impregnated efficiently in a short time, and the electrolyte required for one filling amount is poured out from the auxiliary electrolyte supply chamber to the main electrolyte supply chamber to maintain the electrolyte. Solution that can discharge the electrolyte solution with high accuracy without variation in the discharge amount for the electrolyte can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view of an embodiment of an electrolytic solution filling method according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view of a conventional electrolytic solution filling method.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Discharge gun, 2 ... Gum body, 2a ... Electrolyte auxiliary supply chamber, 2b ... Electrolyte main supply chamber, 9 ... Battery case, 10 ... Electrolyte impregnated holding material, 11 ... Clamp member, 12 ... Electrolyte pressure feeder, 14 vacuum pump, 16 gas supply device, 17
…Control device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] At least a step of setting a battery case, in which at least an electrolyte-impregnated holding material for holding an electrolyte is previously loaded, in an electrolyte-filling device and evacuating the inside of the battery case, Supplying a predetermined amount of the electrolyte fed from the device to the electrolyte auxiliary supply chamber of the electrolyte filling apparatus from the auxiliary electrolyte supply chamber to the electrolyte main supply chamber of the electrolyte filling apparatus; A step of injecting one filling amount of the electrolyte held in the main electrolyte supply chamber into the battery case maintained in the vacuum state, and removing the battery case sufficiently filled with and impregnated with the electrolyte from the electrolyte filling apparatus. And the step of sending to the next step is repeated as one cycle,
An electrolytic solution filling method in a dry battery manufacturing process.