Abstract:
Disclosed is a pole sheet laser cutting machine. It comprises a base frame component, a laser cutting device, a cutting manipulator component for driving the laser cutting device, a control system, and at least one sheet feeding assembly; the sheet feeding assembly comprises a material grabbing manipulator component, a fixed length feeding component and a material releasing component, with both the cutting manipulator component and the material grabbing manipulator component being mounted on the base frame component, the fixed length feeding component being arranged between the material grabbing manipulator component and the material releasing component, and the control system being connected to the cutting manipulator component, the material grabbing manipulator component and the fixed length feeding component. The present invention achieves the sheet making process for lithium ion batteries or super capacitors by applying laser technology, which is able to overcome the problems that existed in the prior art through applying a traditional cutting process so that the pole sheets were easily deformed and the burrs were relatively large, etc., and at the same time, the quality of the sheet making process and hence the rate of acceptable products are improved through the control of the control system.

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application claims the benefit of PCT application Serial Number PCT/CN2011/081514, filed on Oct. 28, 2011, which claimed the benefit of CN application Serial Number 201110040779.6, filed on Feb. 18, 2011, each of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in the respective entirety of each. 
     
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    The present application relates to the field of batteries, and in particular, to a pole sheet laser cutting machine. 
       RELATED ART 
       [0003]    During production of lithium-ion batteries and super capacitors, the manufacturing process of the pole sheet is very critical, and during the current manufacturing of the pole sheet, devices such as die cutting machines, gold die cutting machines, and rotary cutting machines are generally used to achieve pole sheet cutting; however, the pole sheet is made of smaller-thickness aluminum foils and copper foils, which easily wrinkles or deforms the pole sheet during manufacturing of the pole sheet through the cutting devices, thereby resulting in that flatness of the cut pole sheet does not meet the requirements and the pole sheet is scrapped. Moreover, both of two sides of the pole sheet have a coating layer, and the pole sheet has larger burrs and is easily powdered out after the manufacturing through the cutting devices, resulting in that the manufacturing process has a low qualification rate and many waste products, and causing the problems of low manufacturing efficiency and waste of materials, which seriously affects the large-scale production of the lithium-ion batteries and super capacitors. 
         [0004]    Therefore, it is urgent to improve the existing pole sheet manufacturing device. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Technical Problem 
       [0005]    A main technical problem to be solved by the present application is to provide a pole sheet laser cutting machine that avoids the pole sheet from being wrinkled or deformed in the manufacturing process and improves the process quality. 
       Technical Solution 
       [0006]    To solve the above technical problem, the present application provides a pole sheet laser cutting machine, including a pedestal component, a laser cutter, a cutting manipulator component for driving the laser cutter, a control system, and at least one sheet feeding assembly; the sheet feeding assembly includes a gripping manipulator component, a fixed-length feeding component and a discharging component, the cutting manipulator component and the gripping manipulator component are installed on the pedestal component, the fixed-length feeding component is disposed between the gripping manipulator component and the discharging component, the control system is connected with the cutting manipulator component, the gripping manipulator component and the fixed-length feeding component. 
         [0007]    Further, the gripping manipulator component includes a push rod and a front gripping mechanism for gripping the front portion of the pole sheet, the fixed-length feeding component includes a middle gripping mechanism for gripping the middle portion of the pole sheet and a feeding mechanism for driving the middle gripping mechanism to move back and forth, the front gripping mechanism is installed at a front end of the push rod, and the middle gripping mechanism is installed at a back end of the push rod. 
         [0008]    A negative pressure source is further included, where the gripping manipulator component further includes a suction mechanism, the suction mechanism including a suction head and an adsorption board with suction holes, the suction head being disposed below the adsorption board and connecting the negative pressure source; the front gripping mechanism includes two groups of collets respectively disposed at two sides of the adsorption board, and a control cylinder driving the collets. 
         [0009]    Preferably, the feeding mechanism includes servo drive means and position detecting means; where the servo drive means includes a servo motor driving the middle gripping mechanism to move back and forth and a fixed-length feeding base plate, the middle gripping mechanism is located above the fixed-length feeding base plate, the position detecting means includes multiple photoelectric sensors disposed on the top of the fixed-length feeding base plate, and a sensor chip disposed at the bottom of the middle gripping mechanism; the photoelectric sensors and the servo drive means are connected with the control system. 
         [0010]    Preferably, the fixed-length feeding component further includes a fixed-length feeding rectification mechanism, the fixed-length feeding rectification mechanism being installed at a back end of the push rod and following up the middle gripping mechanism. 
         [0011]    Preferably, the discharging component further includes a discharging rectification mechanism. 
         [0012]    Preferably, the sheet feeding assembly further includes a reclaiming manipulator component and a feeding box component, where the reclaiming manipulator component has a suction side, the reclaiming manipulator component and the feeding box component are installed on the pedestal component, and the reclaiming manipulator component is connected with the control system. 
         [0013]    The feeding box component includes a box, a movable board for supporting the cut pole sheet, an ejection part for driving the movable board, and a full material sensor, where the movable board is located at the bottom of the box, the full material sensor is disposed at a mouth portion of the box, and the ejection part and the full material sensor are connected with the control system. 
         [0014]    Further, the suction side is further provided with a distribution cylinder. 
         [0015]    In an embodiment, two sheet feeding assemblies exist, where the two sheet feeding assemblies are correspondingly disposed at two sides of the pedestal component to form a double-station pole sheet laser cutting machine. 
       Beneficial Effect 
       [0016]    The present application has the following beneficial effects: the present application uses laser technologies to achieve the manufacturing process of lithium-ion batteries or super capacitors, makes full use of the excellent characteristics of the laser such as the laser has good monochromaticity and a small divergence angle, and is capable of being focused into a high-power spot at the focal point of the lens, and uses a dedicated laser head and control software as well as a fully automatic manipulator to cut the pole sheet, which could overcome the problems in the prior art that the pole sheet is easily deformed and has larger burrs due to the traditional cutting craft, improves the quality of the manufacturing process, and ensures the product quality of the lithium-ion batteries and super capacitors. With the action of the control system, the dimension error of the pole sheet is reduced, and the pole sheet has characteristics of high accuracy, fast speed, small burrs and being less powered out, thereby improving the yield. 
         [0017]    Further, the present application uses the control system to achieve fully automatic control over the discharging, sheet feeding, cutting and reclaiming and rectification during the discharging and sheet feeding, which not only increases the manufacturing efficiency but also improves the machining precision and reduces the rejection rate. 
         [0018]    The present application further provides a double-station laser cutting machine, so that the laser cutter cuts a double-station pole sheet by turns, which significantly increases the manufacturing efficiency. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0019]      FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a pole sheet laser cutting machine according to an embodiment of the present application; 
           [0020]      FIG. 2  is a front view of the pole sheet laser cutting machine in  FIG. 1 ; 
           [0021]      FIG. 3  is a top view of the pole sheet laser cutting machine in  FIG. 1 ;  FIG. 4  is a flow chart of cutting of the pole sheet laser cutting machine in  FIG. 1 ; and 
           [0022]      FIG. 5  is a control schematic view of the pole sheet laser cutting machine in  FIG. 1 . 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS 
       [0023]    The present application is further described below in detail with reference to specific embodiments and accompanying drawings. 
         [0024]    Referring to  FIG. 1  to  FIG. 3 , the pole sheet laser cutting machine in this embodiment includes a pedestal component  1 , a laser cutter  8 , a cutting manipulator component  3  for driving the laser cutter  8  to move so as to cut a pole sheet  13 , a control system, and at least one sheet feeding assembly. The sheet feeding assembly is used to move the pole sheet  13  to be cut to a cutting platform  7  above the pedestal component  1  so as to be cut into certain sizes and shapes. According to specific requirements, a single-station laser cutter includes one sheet feeding assembly, a double-station laser cutting machine or a multi-station laser cutting machine may include two or more sheet feeding assemblies, and each station may achieve single-width cutting or double-width cutting. The sheet feeding assembly specifically includes a gripping manipulator component  6 , a fixed-length feeding component  2  and a discharging component  12 , the cutting manipulator component  3  and the gripping manipulator component  6  are installed on the pedestal component  1 , the fixed-length feeding component  2  is disposed between the gripping manipulator component  6  and the discharging component  12 . The discharging component  12  includes a discharging roller, which first fixes a coil onto an inflatable shaft of the discharging roller during discharging, and during the fully automatic pole sheet cutting, the pole sheet  13 , under the action of the servo motor, is transported to the fixed-length feeding component  2  through multiple guide rollers and a tension caching mechanism; the gripping manipulator component  6  grips the head of the pole sheet  13 , and the fixed-length feeding component  2  grips the middle portion of the pole sheet and uses the servo driving means for stroke control, so as to ensure that the pole sheet  13  having a certain length is moved to the cutting platform  7  each time. The control system is connected with the cutting manipulator component  3 , the gripping manipulator component  6 , the fixed-length feeding component  2 , the discharging component  12  and other components, for correspondingly controlling respective components according to the process. 
         [0025]    The present application uses laser technologies to achieve the manufacturing process of lithium-ion batteries or super capacitors, makes full use of the excellent characteristics of the laser such as the laser has good monochromaticity and a small divergence angle, and is capable of being focused into a high-power spot at the focal point of the lens, and uses a dedicated laser head and control software as well as a fully automatic manipulator to cut the pole sheet  13 , which could overcome the problems in the prior art that the pole sheet  13  is easily deformed and has larger burrs due to the traditional cutting craft, thereby improving uniformity of electrical cores made by the pole sheet  13 , and ensuring the product quality of the lithium-ion batteries and super capacitors. With the action of the control system, the fixed-length feeding component  2  and the gripping manipulator component  6  are coordinated to transport the pole sheet having a certain length to the cutting platform  7  each time, so that the dimension error of the pole sheet is reduced, and the pole sheet has characteristics of high accuracy, fast speed, small burrs and being powered out less, thereby improving the yield. 
         [0026]    In this embodiment, the gripping manipulator component  6  includes a push rod  61  and a front gripping mechanism for gripping a front portion of the pole sheet  13 , the fixed-length feeding component  2  includes a middle gripping mechanism for gripping a middle portion of the pole sheet  13  and a feeding mechanism for driving the middle gripping mechanism to move back and forth. The front gripping mechanism is installed at a front end of the push rod  61 , and the middle gripping mechanism is installed at a back end of the push rod  61 . During the sheet feeding, the feeding mechanism drives the middle gripping mechanism to move forward a certain distance, so that the push rod  61  drives the front gripping mechanism to move forward a certain distance to complete one-time feeding; upon completion of the feeding, the cutting manipulator component  3  drives the laser cutter  8  to cut paths according to a preset pattern, to cut the pole sheet  13  on the cutting platform  7 , and after the cutting ends, the feeding mechanism re-drives the middle gripping mechanism, the push rod  61  and the front gripping mechanism to reset so as to facilitate next feeding. 
         [0027]    To facilitate the cutting, the pole sheet laser cutting machine in this embodiment further includes a negative pressure source for adsorbing the pole sheet  13  to avoid movement of the pole sheet  13 , and the gripping manipulator component  6  further includes a substrate and a suction mechanism. The substrate is installed at the top of the pedestal component  1 , mainly used to form support for the push rod  61 , the front gripping mechanism and the suction mechanism, the suction mechanism includes a suction head and an adsorption board fixed above the substrate, and the adsorption board has multiple suction holes which are capable of adsorbing the pole sheet  13  transported by the front gripping mechanism. Multiple suction heads at the bottom of the adsorption board provide adsorption force for the adsorption board, and the suction heads are quick connectors which connect the negative pressure source. Preferably, the negative pressure source is a fan component  10  disposed at the bottom of the pedestal component  1 , capable of adsorbing the thinner pole sheet  13  under the action of strong wind to avoid position offset of the pole sheet  13 . 
         [0028]    The front gripping mechanism is fixed at a front end of the push rod  61  through a connection plate and a connection bracket; in an embodiment, the front gripping mechanism mainly includes a control cylinder and two groups of collets respectively disposed at two sides of the adsorption board. The control cylinder includes a rising control cylinder and a back-off control cylinder, each group of collets include grippers and upper clamps and lower clamps driven by the grippers, the grippers are connected with a pusher of the rising control cylinder, the rising control cylinder is connected with a pusher of the back-off control cylinder, and the back-off control cylinder and the substrate form a shifting pair. The rising control cylinder and the back-off control cylinder are preferably slide cylinders working in with guide rails, the rising control cylinder is connected with the back-off control cylinder through a fixed plate and a cylinder mount, and the back-off control cylinder is connected with a linear sliding pair on the pedestal component through a cylinder block. The grippers may be parallel open-closed grippers, and connect the pusher of the rising control cylinder through a gripper mounting plate. When gripping the pole sheet  13 , two pairs of upper clamps and lower clamps respectively grip the front portion of the pole sheet  13  under the driving of the grippers, the grippers rise under the action of upward driving of the rising control cylinder to lift the head of the pole sheet  13 , after the push rod moves forward to complete transport of the pole sheet  13 , the rising control cylinder drives the collets to fall and reset, the collets loosen the head of the pole sheet  13 , and finally, the back-off control cylinder drives the rising control cylinder to retreat toward two sides away from the pole sheet  13 . 
         [0029]    Upon completion of cutting of the pole sheet  13 , a waste discharging mechanism may also be used to automatically discharge remaining wastes, so as to increase the manufacturing efficiency; the waste discharging mechanism has various forms, for example, a waste tray rack with a sucker, which adsorbs wastes under the driving of the cylinder and then throws off the wastes, or adsorbs wastes and then overturns the waste tray rack to make the wasters automatically fall. 
         [0030]    The feeding mechanism in the fixed-length feeding component  2  includes servo drive means and position detecting means for controlling stroke of the servo drive means. Specifically, the servo drive means includes a fixed-length feeding base plate  21 , a guide rail mounting plate and a servo motor driving the middle gripping mechanism to move back and forth, where the guide rail mounting plate is fixed above the fixed-length feeding base plate  21 , and its upper surface is provided with a guide rail forming a guide rail pair with the middle gripping mechanism, to make the middle gripping mechanism locate above the fixed-length feeding base plate  21 . The serve motor is fixed onto the the fixed-length feeding base plate, for driving the middle gripping mechanism to grip the pole sheet  13  to move back and forth within a certain stroke range along the guide rail, and stroke and position of the specific back-and-forth movement are controlled by the control system. The position detecting means is used for detecting and ensuring that the feeding mechanism maintains fixed-length feeding in front and back directions, which includes multiple photoelectric sensors disposed on the top of the fixed-length feeding base plate, and a sensor chip disposed at the bottom of the middle gripping mechanism, where the photoelectric sensors could interact with the sensor chip so as to detect the movement position of the middle gripping mechanism, to facilitate the control system to control the feeding length of the pole sheet. For example, three photoelectric sensors exist, respectively disposed at a front end, a middle portion and a back end of the fixed-length feeding base plate  21 , all installed on the fixed-length feeding base plate  21  through a sensor mounting rail to facilitate movement, the photoelectric sensors  21  at the front and back ends are used for detecting front and back limit positions of the sensor chip, the photoelectric sensor at the middle portion is used for detecting system zeroing, and the photoelectric sensors may input detection results into the control system so as to accurately control the movement stroke of the servo motor. 
         [0031]    In order to avoid position offset of the pole sheet  13  in left and right directions during the feeding, the fixed-length feeding component  2  further includes a fixed-length feeding rectification mechanism, the fixed-length feeding rectification mechanism being installed at a back end of the push rod  61  and following up the middle gripping mechanism. In an embodiment, the fixed-length feeding rectification mechanism includes a feeding slide plate, a rectification supporting plate, an edge-searching opposite-type sensor, and a rectification driving device driving the rectification supporting plate to move left and right; the feeding slide plate is fixed at a back end of the push rod  61 , the rectification supporting plate is movably installed above the feeding slide plate, the middle gripping mechanism is fixed onto the rectification supporting plate, the edge-searching opposite-type sensor is disposed at a side of the feeding slide plate, and the rectification driving device and the edge-searching opposite-type sensor are connected with the control system. The edge-searching opposite-type sensor includes a transmitter and a receiver located above and below the pole sheet, capable of detecting edges of the pole sheet  13  and outputting signals to the control system, so that the control system could control the rectification driving device to accurately control the position of the rectification supporting plate. The rectification driving device may be a servo motor which is fixed on the feeding slide plate and can drive the rectification supporting plate to slide left and right through a coupling and a ball screw pair so as to achieve left and right rectification of the pole sheet  13 . 
         [0032]    The middle gripping mechanism is wholly installed on the rectification supporting plate, and can use an upper rubberized plate and a lower rubberized plate to clamp the middle portion of the pole sheet under the driving of a gripping cylinder; preferably, a silica gel is affixed to surfaces of the two rubberized plates to ensure that the pole sheet is not damaged when being gripped. 
         [0033]    Preferably, in order to avoid position offset of the pole sheet  13  in left and right directions during the feeding, the discharging component  12  may further include a discharging rectification mechanism, and the discharging rectification mechanism has a structure similar to that of the fixed-length feeding rectification mechanism, which mainly detects edges of the pole sheet  13  through the edge-searching opposite-type sensor and ensure feeding precision through the rectification driving device under the action of the control system, to achieve first automatic rectification before the sheet feeding. 
         [0034]    Further, the sheet feeding assembly in this embodiment also achieves automatic feeding upon completion of cutting of the pole sheet  13 , and specifically, the sheet feeding assembly further includes a reclaiming manipulator component  4  and a feeding box component  11 , where the reclaiming manipulator component  4  has a suction side  5 , the suction side  5  provides adsorption force through the negative pressure source and can adsorb the pole sheet whose cutting is completed under the driving of the reclaiming manipulator component  4  and moves the pole sheet to the feeding box component  11 , if it is a double-width cutting, a distribution cylinder of the suction side  5  may be used to distribute the pole sheet  13  and then place the pole sheet into the feeding box component  11 . The reclaiming manipulator component  4  and the feeding box component  11  are installed on the pedestal component  1 , and the reclaiming manipulator component  4  is connected with the control system to accept its control. Preferably, the feeding box component includes a box, a movable board for supporting the cut pole sheet  13 , an ejection part for driving the movable board to move up and down, and a full material sensor, where the movable board is located at the bottom of the box, the full material sensor may be a photoelectric sensor and is disposed at a mouth portion of the box, and the ejection part and the full material sensor are connected with the control system. The ejection part may be a lifting motor connected with the control system, and each time the suction side places one sheet of the cut pole sheet  13  into the box, the lifting motor drives the movable board to drop a constant height, so that the feeding box component  11  of the pole sheet could automatically load. After detecting that the feeding box component  11  is full, the full material sensor immediately outputs a signal to the control system, to prompt the operator to change the feeding box component  11 . 
         [0035]    As shown in  FIG. 1 , the pole sheet laser cutting machine in this embodiment has two sheet feeding assemblies, where the two sheet feeding assemblies are correspondingly disposed at two sides of the pedestal component  1  to form a double-station pole sheet laser cutting machine having a left station and a right station, a left/right discharging component feeds materials to a double-station cutting platform from two ends through a left/right fixed-length feeding component, and the laser cutter  8  may, under the control of the control system, perform high-speed cutting on the pole sheet  13  gripped by a left/right gripping manipulator component  6 , so that the utilization rate of the laser cutter  8  is doubled, thereby further increasing the manufacturing efficiency on the basis of achieving the fully automatic laser cutting. 
         [0036]    As shown in  FIG. 4 , the cutting flow of the double-station pole sheet laser cutting machine is as follows. 
         [0037]    Step 1: a left/right discharging component transports the pole sheet provided by the coil, and uses the discharging rectification mechanism to perform left and right rectification; 
         [0038]    Step 2: the fixed-length feeding component grips the middle portion of the pole sheet to send a fixed-length, left and right rectification is performed by using the fixed-length feeding rectification mechanism, and meanwhile, a left/right gripping manipulator component uses a collet to grip the head of the pole sheet for feeding; 
         [0039]    Step 3: start the fan component to provide a vacuum source, and fix a pole sheet to be cut onto the adsorption board; 
         [0040]    Step 4: the cutting manipulator component drives the laser cutter to move, and prepares to dynamically cut the pole sheet; 
         [0041]    Step 5: the laser cutter uses control software to cut the pole sheet by turns on left and right stations; 
         [0042]    Step 6: upon completion of double-station cutting, a left/right reclaiming manipulator component drives a left/right suction side to begin left-and-right-station reclaiming by turns; 
         [0043]    Step 7: the left/right suction side adsorbs the pole sheet whose cutting is completed to a corresponding left/right feeding box component, and in the process, the ejection part drives the movable board at the bottom of the box to drop a certain height so as to accommodate more pole sheets; and 
         [0044]    Step 8: when detecting that the left/right feeding box component is full of pole sheets, the full material sensor sends information to the control system to prompt the operator. 
         [0045]    As shown in  FIG. 5 , the control system of the double-station pole sheet laser cutting machine according to an embodiment of the present application generally is a single chip microcomputer or a PLC (programmable logic controller) or other devices, which may interact with the operator through a touch screen, a keyboard, a PLC controller, or an industrial personal computer. The control system is preset with a program for controlling the manufacturing process, and during the discharging, the control system can use an edge-searching opposite-type sensor to detect the edges of the pole sheet, so as to perform first left and right rectification on the pole sheet in the left/right discharging component through the discharging rectification mechanism; during the feeding, the control system drives the fixed-length feeding component through servo driving means to transport the pole sheet to the double-station cutting platform, and uses the edge-searching opposite-type sensor to re-detect the edges of the pole sheet, so as to perform second left and right rectification on the pole sheet through the fixed-length feeding rectification mechanism; during the cutting, the left/right reclaiming manipulator component uses the adsorption board connecting the fan component to fix the pole sheet, the control system uses a servo driver to control the cutting manipulator component, to make it drive a laser controller to move on the double-station cutting platform, and the control system further provides cutting electronic documents to the laser controller, so as to make the laser head to cut the pole sheet according to a preset cutting path; upon completion of the cutting, the left/right reclaiming manipulator component uses the left/right suction side to adsorb the cut pole sheet to the corresponding left/right feeding box component. 
         [0046]    The above are further detailed descriptions about the present application in combination with specific embodiments, but it cannot be concluded that specific implementation of the present application is merely limited to such descriptions. Persons of ordinary skill in the art also can made simple deductions or replacements without departing from the concept of the present application, which should be regarded as falling within the protection scope of the present application.