KR101031186B1 - Test Device for Secondary Battery Pack - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention is a device for checking whether the battery is in poor contact with the external impact, and comprises a flat upper surface on which the sample is mounted, and a lower surface on which one or more protrusions ('first protrusions') are formed. Mounting jig configured to move with; And a conveyor belt positioned below the mounting jig and having one or more protrusions ('second projections') formed on an outer surface of the mounting jig in which the first protrusion is formed, and rotating by a motor. It is configured to include, the test device, characterized in that the second projection which moves in the horizontal direction during the drive of the conveyor belt repeatedly hits the first projection to apply a continuous impact in the vertical direction to the mounting jig To provide.

Therefore, it is possible to simulate an environment similar to the actual use environment of the battery within a short time in a room such as a laboratory without actually reproducing the environment in which the battery is used, so that defects present in the battery can be easily detected. Therefore, it is possible to prevent failures due to poor contact of the battery, which may occur after shipment of the product, thereby ensuring the stability of the battery.

Description

Test Device for Battery Pack {Test Device for Secondary Battery Pack}

The present invention relates to a device for checking whether a battery is in poor contact with an external impact. More specifically, the present invention comprises a flat upper surface on which a sample is mounted and a lower surface on which a first protrusion is formed, and can move up and down. A mounting jig configured to be; And a conveyor belt positioned below the mounting jig and having a second protrusion formed on an outer surface of the mounting jig in which the first protrusion is formed and rotating by a motor. In the driving of the conveyor belt, a second projection moving in the horizontal direction repeatedly hits the first projection and provides a test apparatus characterized by continuously applying a continuous impact on the mounting jig in a vertical direction.

As technology development and demand for mobile devices increase, the demand for secondary batteries as a source of energy is rapidly increasing.

In general, as the light weight and high functionality of portable wireless devices such as a video camera, a mobile phone, a notebook computer, and the like progress, many researches have been conducted on the secondary battery used as the driving power source. Such secondary batteries include, for example, nickel cadmium batteries, nickel hydrogen batteries, nickel zinc batteries, and lithium secondary batteries. Among them, lithium secondary batteries have been widely used in the field of advanced electronic devices because of their advantages of small size and large capacity, high operating voltage, and high energy density per unit weight.

The secondary battery may be used in the form of a single battery cell, or in the form of a battery pack in which a plurality of unit cells are electrically connected, depending on the type of external device in which the secondary battery is used. For example, a small device such as a mobile phone can operate for a predetermined time with the output and capacity of one battery cell, whereas a notebook computer, a portable DVD, a personal computer, an electric vehicle, and a hybrid electric vehicle Medium or large devices such as the like require the use of a battery pack including a plurality of battery cells due to problems of output and capacity.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION A battery pack is generally used in a form in which a battery cell and a protective circuit board are embedded in a pack case. Herein, the battery cell accommodates an electrode assembly composed of a positive electrode, a negative electrode, and a separator in a can made of aluminum, an aluminum alloy, stainless steel, or the like, or is housed in a pouch case of a laminate sheet including a resin layer and a metal layer. It is composed of sealed structure after injecting electrolyte solution.

The protective circuit board controls the charging and discharging of the secondary battery, and prevents ignition or explosion due to overcharge and overdischarge due to an abnormality of the secondary battery itself. The protective circuit board is usually connected to the positive electrode and the negative electrode of the battery cell by a plate-like conductor such as a metal plate.

In a typical secondary battery, the protective circuit board is coupled to a battery cell in a state of being molded with a molding resin, or has a structure in which the battery cell and the protective circuit board are embedded together in an outer case.

As the application fields of secondary batteries are diversified, in recent years, the use of medium and large battery packs such as electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles has also increased. Since these medium and large battery packs are often used in harsh conditions than in small battery packs, the physical properties of secondary batteries required in the medium and large battery packs are higher. For example, since battery packs such as electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles are used in uneven driving environments such as unpaved roads, vibrations or external shocks are often applied to components constituting the battery pack.

At this time, if there is a poor contact, such as a connector, a wire and a welding part in the battery pack, the contact state is released by such an external impact, so that it may not function as a battery or the battery performance may be deteriorated. In some cases, the battery may be ignited or exploded seriously because it may not work properly.

Therefore, conventionally, the battery pack including the secondary battery detects the presence of a poor contact, such as a contact, and pulls directly on the uneven road as a method for confirming the durability or safety of the battery while vibrating or a large impact on the battery pack And the like was used. However, such a method takes a long time to inspect or confirm, consumes a lot of manpower by work performed outside the laboratory, and cannot diversify the conditions such as vibration and external shock applied to a battery pack including a secondary battery. There are many problems.

Therefore, there is a high need for a test apparatus that can solve the above problems and check the presence or absence of poor contact of the battery pack in a simple and easy manner.

The present invention aims to solve the problems of the prior art as described above and the technical problems that have been requested from the past.

Specifically, an object of the present invention is to provide a test environment similar to the actual use environment of a battery, such as an uneven road (airway), for a test for checking whether the battery is in poor contact with vibration or external impact applied to the battery. It is to provide a test apparatus that can easily determine whether or not the contact of the battery according to the intended test conditions.

Test apparatus according to the present invention for achieving this object is a device for confirming whether or not the contact of the battery against external impact,

A mounting jig having a flat upper surface on which the sample is mounted, and a lower surface on which one or more protrusions ('first protrusions') are formed, and configured to move up and down; And

A conveyor belt positioned below the mounting jig and having one or more protrusions ('second protrusions') formed on an outer surface of the mounting jig in which the first protrusion is formed, and rotating by a motor;

Consists of including

The second projection which moves in the horizontal direction during the driving of the conveyor belt repeatedly hits the first projection, and is configured as a test apparatus characterized by applying a continuous impact in the vertical direction to the mounting jig.

Therefore, since the test apparatus according to the present invention can exert an external impact similar to that applied in the actual use environment of the sample, unlike the conventional test whether the battery is defective in the real environment, the test apparatus can be used easily in a lab. Contact failure zones and the like present in the battery pack can be confirmed. Moreover, the test apparatus according to the present invention can vary the conditions such as external shock by adjusting the speed, number of projections, arrangement or shape of the motor, so that the specific and precise setting of the environment of use of the battery can be made. The advantage is that the test conditions can be easily controlled.

The test apparatus according to the present invention has a structure in which a first protrusion is formed on a lower surface of a mounting jig and a second protrusion is formed on an outer surface of the conveyor belt corresponding to the bottom surface of the mounting jig as defined above. . As the conveyor belt rotates, the second protrusion repeatedly hits the first protrusion, thereby continuously applying a vertical impact to the mounting jig. Thus, the sample mounted on the upper surface of the mounting jig can be impacted.

In more detail, the mounting jig and the conveyor belt are formed with a first projection and a second projection, respectively, and when they are staggered, the mounting jig is in a downward state by gravity applied to the mounting jig, and the conveyor belt has a motor. When the first projection and the second projection come into contact with each other while rotating, the mounting jig moves upward to approximately the height of the projection. Accordingly, the continuous rotation of the conveyor belt causes the protrusions to repeatedly move the mounting jig up and down while repeating the staggered state and the contact state, so that an impact is applied to the sample mounted on the upper surface of the mounting jig.

In one preferred example, the first protrusion or the second protrusion may have a structure consisting of a plurality of protrusions formed at predetermined intervals. Preferably, the protrusions constituting the first protrusion and the protrusions constituting the second protrusion may be arranged at approximately the same interval. By varying the number, arrangement, size, shape, etc. of the protrusions, the degree of impact applied to the sample mounted on the mounting jig can be adjusted, so that various experimental environments can be set.

The shape of the protrusion is not particularly limited, so that the horizontal movement of the second protrusion with respect to the first protrusion may be facilitated by the rotation of the conveyor belt, that is, the friction force during horizontal movement may be minimized while causing the vertical movement by the contact method. It may be preferably formed of a curved surface, more preferably hemispherical shape.

If the size of the protrusion is too large, the contact area of the first protrusion and the second protrusion becomes too large, and abrasion due to friction may easily occur, resulting in a problem of low operation reliability. It is undesirable because it is difficult to induce and precise control over the magnitude of the impact is not easy. Therefore, in consideration of this, the size and number of the projections can be properly adjusted according to the test conditions.

In the present invention, the mounting jig is configured to move up and down. Such a mounting jig may be configured to have a structure in which one side or both ends of the mounting jig are supported by an axis ('support axis') in a state that can be varied in a vertical direction (up and down direction).

As described above, the upward movement of the mounting jig is achieved by a physical force caused by contacting the first protrusion formed on the mounting jig while the conveyor belt is driven. In this state, when the conveyor belt is further rotated, the mounting jig is moved downward while the contact state of the second protrusion and the first protrusion is released. The downward restoring force of the mounting jig may be provided by, for example, gravity, or may be provided using a separate elastic member.

In one preferred example, the mounting jig may be configured such that one or both ends of the mounting jig are supported by a support shaft and a tension spring is mounted on the support shaft below the mounting jig to provide an elastic downward restoring force. have. Accordingly, the tensioning spring expanded by the upward movement of the mounting jig is contracted by the restoring force, and the mounting jig moves downward together.

In another preferred example, it may be configured that the compression spring is mounted on the support shaft on the mounting jig to provide a resilient downward restoring force. That is, the compression spring compressed by the upward movement of the mounting jig expands by the restoring force and moves the mounting jig located below the downwardly.

The compression spring or tension spring is mounted on the support shaft, the support shaft itself may be in the form of such a spring, the spring may be mounted on the outer surface of the support shaft made of a variable material. On the other hand, since the mounting jig itself is made of a material having a predetermined variability, downward restoring force may be induced by gravity.

The sample is mounted on the flat upper surface of the mounting jig. Therefore, it is preferable that the mounting jig is made of a material or a thickness capable of stably mounting the sample while easily transmitting an impact to the sample. In some cases, the upper surface of the mounting jig may further include a fixing member for stably mounting the sample to the mounting jig. This is to prevent this, by the vertical movement of the mounting jig, the control of the test conditions may not be easy and the continuous operation of the test apparatus may be difficult as the position of the sample is changed.

On the other hand, the conveyor belt is provided with a rotational driving force by the motor. At this time, by changing the rotational speed of the motor it is possible to control the moving speed of the second projection of the conveyor belt, the vertical movement of the mounting jig due to the contact with the first projection and the degree of impact applied to the sample. Various conditions can be set corresponding to the actual use environment of the sample. In addition, although there may be one conveyor belt per mounting jig | tool, it may consist of two or more according to a desired impact application condition.

The sample mounted on the mounting jig in the test apparatus of the present invention is a battery as defined above, and in one preferred embodiment, the sample is a form in which a lithium secondary battery cell having a lithium secondary battery as a unit cell is embedded in a pack case. It may be a secondary battery pack of. By mounting such a secondary battery pack in a test apparatus according to the present invention and operating the apparatus, it is possible to ensure the safety of the battery pack by detecting defects such as connectors, wires, and welds of each component constituting the battery pack before shipment. have. It can also be used to test the safety of battery packs of new design.

The present invention also provides a method for checking whether a battery is poor in contact with an external impact by using a test apparatus having the above specific structure.

That is, the test method for the poor contact of the battery according to the present invention,

(a) mounting a battery on an upper surface of the mounting jig;

(b) rotating the conveyor belt to apply a continuous impact in a vertical direction to the battery on the mounting jig; And

(c) stopping the rotation of the conveyor belt, refering the battery from the mounting jig, and checking the electrical connection state;

It is configured to include.

This inspection method can easily check the contact of the battery even in the laboratory environment by a simple process, can reduce the time and cost required for the test, and can be experimented in a variety of environment composition through the setting of the conditions of the device, More accurate detection is possible compared to the experiment in the actual environment as before.

That is, in the test apparatus according to the present invention, when the conveyor belt is rotated by mounting a battery on a top surface of the mounting jig and driving the motor, the first and second protrusions facing each other are repeatedly contacted and released. While a continuous shock is applied to the mounting jig, and thus the mounting jig moves in the vertical direction, the continuous shock is also applied to the battery. At this time, by varying the rotational speed of the motor, the number, size, and the like of the protrusions can be controlled such as the strength of the impact applied to the battery.

The impact strength applied to the battery may vary according to the requirements of the actual battery use environment, and is not particularly limited. Preferably, the contact state may be released from the defective contact portion of the battery in which the defective contact is present. Can be. In addition, the application time of the impact may also vary depending on the test conditions. Finally, the battery is removed from the mounting jig to check the state of electrical damage caused by the impact applied, the defect is checked, and the battery with good electrical connection is extracted, thereby ensuring the safety of the battery when the battery is used in a poor environment. To ensure the presence of poor contact before shipment, the safety of the newly designed battery structure can be checked before mass production.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the present invention is not limited by the scope of the present invention.

1 schematically illustrates a test apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 schematically illustrates a state in which the test apparatus according to FIG. 1 is operating.

First, referring to FIG. 1, the test apparatus 100 includes a mounting jig 300 for mounting a battery sample 200 on an upper surface thereof, and a conveyor belt 400 positioned under the mounting jig 300 and driven by a motor 420. And the support shaft 500 which elastically fixes the mounting jig 300 from the impact applied and induces the movement of the mounting jig 300.

On the outer surface of the conveyor jig 400 corresponding to the lower surface of the mounting jig 300 and the lower surface of the mounting jig, a first projection 310 and a second projection 410 each formed of a plurality of projections are formed. As for the shape of the protrusion which comprises the 1st protrusion part 310 and the 2nd protrusion part 410, at least the edge part thereof is substantially hemispherical.

When the protrusions constituting the first protrusion 310 and the protrusions constituting the second protrusion 410 collide with each other, that is, when switched to a contact state, the mounted sample 200 may be impacted. So that they are staggered from one another.

When the conveyor belt 400 is rotated by the power provided from the rotating motor 420, the second protrusion 410 formed on the outer surface of the conveyor belt 400 is moved, so as to repeatedly hit the first protrusion 310. do. Through this, the continuous impact is applied to the mounting jig 300 in the vertical direction, and ultimately, the impact is applied to the sample 200 mounted on the mounting jig 300. This state can be confirmed in more detail in FIG.

That is, as shown in FIG. 2, the mounting jig 300 moves upward while the second protrusion 410 contacts the first protrusion 310 by the rotation of the conveyor belt 400. In this case, the mounting jig ( The compression spring 510 mounted on the support shaft 500 on the upper portion of the 300 is to be compressed. When the conveyor belt 400 is continuously rotated again, as shown in FIG. 1, when the first protrusion 310 and the second protrusion 410 are staggered, the compression spring 510 is restored to its original state and the mounting jig 300 is moved. Move down. In this figure, but shown by way of example the compression spring is mounted, but is not limited thereto. For example, a tension spring (not shown) is mounted on the lower support shaft 500 of the mounting jig 300, and the spring tensioned by the upward movement of the mounting jig 300 is contracted by the restoring force, thereby mounting the mounting jig ( The mounting jig 300 may be moved downward, or the support shaft 500 may be made of a variable material to move the mounting jig 300 downward by gravity.

Through the test apparatus 100, the battery pack 200 is placed in a situation similar to that generated in an actual use environment in which an external shock is applied, thereby connecting to the connector, wire, or welding part constituting each part of the battery pack 200. A defective battery pack, such as a defective one, will not work properly due to an impact. Accordingly, a product having a problem such as poor connection can be detected within a short time by an easy method before shipment of the battery pack.

Although described with reference to the drawings according to an embodiment of the present invention, those of ordinary skill in the art will be able to perform various applications and modifications within the scope of the present invention based on the above contents.

As described above, the test apparatus according to the present invention can simulate the same environment within a short time even in a laboratory without actually reproducing the harsh environment in which the battery is used, thereby facilitating a battery pack in which defects such as poor contact between batteries exist. It can be detected. Therefore, by shipping in a state in which a defect exists, it is possible to prevent failures that may occur during use and to confirm the safety of the newly designed battery structure in advance.

1 is a schematic diagram of a test apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram during operation of the test apparatus according to FIG. 1. FIG.

Claims (9)

Apparatus for checking the contact of the battery against external impact, A mounting jig having a flat upper surface on which the sample is mounted, and a lower surface on which one or more protrusions ('first protrusions') are formed, and configured to move up and down; And A conveyor belt positioned below the mounting jig and having one or more protrusions ('second protrusions') formed on an outer surface of the mounting jig in which the first protrusion is formed, and rotating by a motor; To Consists of what is included, And a second projection moving in the horizontal direction during the driving of the conveyor belt repeatedly strikes the first projection and applies a continuous impact to the mounting jig in a vertical direction. The test apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first protrusion or the second protrusion comprises a plurality of protrusions formed at predetermined intervals. The test apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the protrusion has a hemispherical shape. The test apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the mounting jig is supported by a shaft ('support shaft') at one or both ends of the mounting jig in a state in which the mounting jig can be changed in the vertical direction. The test apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the mounting jig is provided with downward restoring force by gravity. The test apparatus according to claim 4, wherein a tension spring is mounted on the support shaft below the mounting jig to provide an elastic downward restoring force. The test apparatus according to claim 4, wherein a compression spring is mounted on the support shaft above the mounting jig to provide an elastic downward restoring force. The test apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the battery is a secondary battery pack in which a lithium secondary battery cell is embedded in a pack case. A method for checking whether a battery is in poor contact with an external shock by using the test apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 8, (a) mounting a battery on an upper surface of the mounting jig; (b) rotating the conveyor belt to apply a continuous impact in a vertical direction to the battery on the mounting jig; And (c) stopping the rotation of the conveyor belt, refering the battery from the mounting jig, and checking the electrical connection state; Method consisting of including.

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