Patent ID: 6965090

Claim:
A system for manufacturing batteries, each battery having a plurality of positive electrode plates and a plurality of negative electrode plates layered alternately upon one another with intervening separators therebetween, thereby constituting an electrode plate group, and a positive and a negative current collector plates respectively welded to opposite side edges of the electrode plate group using electronic beams, said system including a welding apparatus for joining the current collector plates to the electrode plate group, said system comprising: a plurality of preliminary vacuum chambers having different vacuum levels therein arranged adjacent each other such that the vacuum level is gradually increased from an upstream side to a downstream side; a processing chamber having a highest level of vacuum therein arranged adjacent one of said plurality of preliminary vacuum chambers, in which an electronic beam irradiating device is arranged so that a welding operation is performed therein; a post-processing chamber connected to the processing chamber, in which the electrode plate group, to which the current collector plates have been joined, is introduced before being taken out to the outside; and means for transferring in succession the electrode plate group with the collector plates from a preliminary vacuum chamber having a lowest vacuum level to the post-processing chamber, through the plurality of another preliminary vacuum chambers having higher vacuum levels and the processing chamber.