Investigation of Physical Phenomena and Cutting Efficiency for Laser Cutting on Anode for Li-Ion Batteries

Lithium-ion batteries have a higher energy density than other secondary batteries. Among the lithium-ion battery manufacturing process, electrode cutting is one of the most important processes since poor cut quality leads to performance degradation, separator protrusion, and local electric stress concentration. This may, eventually, lead to malfunction of lithium-ion batteries or explosion. The current mechanical cutting technology uses a contact process and this may lead to process instability. Furthermore, there are additional costs if the tools and cell design are changed. To solve these issues, laser cutting has been used. Conventional dependent parameters have limitations in investigating and explaining many physical phenomena during the laser cutting of electrodes. Therefore, this study proposes specific widths such as melting, top, and kerf width. Moreover, the relationship between laser parameters and multiphysical phenomena with the proposed widths are investigated. Five types of classification with regard to physical phenomena are presented and explained with SEM images. Cutting efficiency is estimated with the proposed widths. The proposed specific cutting widths, five types of geometrical classification, and cutting efficiency can be used as standardized parameters to evaluate the cutting quality.