From the manufacturing of energy storage battery cells to the assembly of battery packs, welding is a crucial process throughout the entire workflow. The conductivity, structural strength, airtightness, resistance to metal fatigue, and corrosion resistance of lithium batteries are the core standards for measuring welding quality, and the choice of welding methods and processes directly determines the battery's production cost, safety performance, and consistency.
Among numerous welding technologies, laser welding stands out with significant advantages: First, it boasts high energy density, minimal welding deformation, and a narrow heat-affected zone, precisely improving component accuracy and producing smooth, dense, and impurity-free welds without the need for additional grinding processes. Second, it enables high-precision focusing and control, easily achieving automated production when combined with robotic arms, significantly improving welding efficiency, shortening processing time, and reducing costs. Third, when welding thin plates or fine-diameter wires, it effectively avoids the remelting problem commonly encountered in arc welding. Currently, mainstream welding methods for energy storage batteries include wave soldering, ultrasonic welding, laser welding, and dissimilar metal laser welding. Among these, laser welding has become the most widely used core solution. Wave soldering is essentially a combination of ultrasonic welding and laser welding. Ultrasonic welding is simple to operate but occupies a large space and has low module assembly efficiency. While dissimilar metal laser welding has high assembly efficiency and fast production speed, it still needs to be adapted to specific scenarios. Laser welding has a greater advantage in overall adaptability and stability.
Laser welding is a new welding technology that uses an optical system to focus a high-energy-density laser beam onto an extremely small area, forming a concentrated heat source area in a very short time, melting the workpiece and forming a strong weld point or weld seam. Its non-contact welding characteristic requires no external force, minimizing product deformation. It also has a small heat-affected zone and high dimensional accuracy, combining high quality and high efficiency. It is currently in a stage of rapid development and is widely empowering the energy storage battery industry.
Energy storage batteries incorporate various metallic materials such as steel, aluminum, copper, and nickel, widely used in components like electrodes, wires, and casings. Welding both homogeneous and dissimilar materials places stringent demands on the process. Laser welding, however, possesses the core advantage of a wide range of material compatibility, easily achieving reliable connections between different materials. It is mainly divided into two categories: laser heat conduction welding and laser deep penetration welding. The key difference between the two lies in the power density of the metal surface per unit time; different metals have different critical values.
Energy storage batteries consist of individual components, battery pack modules, battery cabinets, battery storage units, PCS (Power Control System), and filtering stages, forming a complete system. In this field of laser welding, pulsed lasers, continuous lasers, and quasi-continuous lasers are the three most widely used types. Pulsed lasers, including YAG lasers and MOPA lasers, work like hammering a thumbtack in, with a single pulse width of less than 0.25 seconds, intermittent operation, and high output power, making them suitable for marking, cutting, and other applications. Continuous lasers, encompassing continuous semiconductor lasers and continuous fiber lasers, are similar to pressing a thumbtack in by hand, continuously outputting energy. Quasi-continuous lasers, represented by the QCW laser series, operate like a drilling cycle of "drilling continuously for 10 seconds, then resting for 1 second," balancing continuous operation with intermittent adjustment needs.
Quasi-continuous lasers, represented by the QCW laser series, operate like drilling in a cycle of "drilling continuously for 10 seconds, then resting for 1 second," balancing continuous operation with intermittent adjustment requirements. As a high-tech enterprise specializing in precision laser processing intelligent equipment, Fly Laser's laser welding equipment demonstrates eight core advantages in the energy storage battery field: 1. Non-contact welding minimizes internal stress in the weld reinforcement; 2. No overflow or release of harmful substances during welding, avoiding secondary pollution; 3. Excellent weld strength and airtightness, fully meeting the functional requirements of energy storage batteries; 4. Wide material compatibility, enabling various connection scenarios such as membrane materials and dissimilar materials; 5. Easy automation integration, allowing for customized synchronous laser welding solutions based on production capacity requirements, resulting in high efficiency and low internal stress; 6. Simple welding-related structural design, reducing mold development difficulty; 7. Supports digital intelligent monitoring, enabling data-driven and visualized welding process; 8. Deeply integrates with automated production lines, adapting to mass production needs, combining high-efficiency production with low energy consumption and environmental friendliness.
In lithium-ion battery PACK production lines, the efficient implementation of laser welding relies on four key technologies, and Fly Laser's solutions are deeply adapted to these technological requirements:
1. Material Transfer System: This system spans the entire process from cell loading, scanning, testing, cleaning, sorting, module stacking, welding, and inspection to unloading. It allows for flexible expansion of workstations, and the module positioning plate features a built-in size adjustment mechanism, adapting to different module specifications without manual intervention, perfectly meeting the needs of small-batch, multi-variety production.
2. Adaptive System: For different types and specifications of cells, such as pouch, prismatic, and cylindrical cells, it achieves precise positioning of the processing area through multi-axis combined linkage, unrestricted by the form of incoming materials. This ensures efficient linkage between the welding process and the overall line cycle, smoothly completing the module PACK process.
3. Vision Positioning System: Addressing the issue of large dimensional tolerances after battery module assembly, it achieves high-precision positioning of ±0.05mm through visual image capture and feedback of incoming material deviations. This provides precise assurance for cell welding surface cleaning, module marking, and busbar laser welding.
4. MES (Manufacturing Execution System): Based on an open development platform, it can quickly respond to user needs and complete customized development. It directly integrates laser welding process data packages, facilitating parameter calling and switching. Real-time query and analysis of all process parameters, data, and incoming material information can be achieved, helping to create a near-unmanned production workshop. High-efficiency production can be ensured with only manual material replenishment. The reserved industrial communication interface also supports remote monitoring and management and integration with enterprise ERP systems, truly realizing the construction of an intelligent and information-based factory.
From core component welding to intelligent upgrades of the entire production line, Fly Laser continuously empowers energy storage battery and PACK production lines with its cutting-edge laser welding technology and equipment.
#LaserWelding #EnergyStorageProductionLine #LaserWeldingEquipment #LaserWeldingMachine #AutomatedLaserEquipment #PACKProductionLine #EnergyStoragePACKProductionLine
