Increasing productivity in assembling z-folded electrode-separator composites for lithium-ion batteries

Lithium-ion batteries (LIB) are key components of electromobility and a major cost factor of electric vehicles. With a rising demand, affordable LIB become a success-factor for electromobility. LIB have different electrode-separator-composite-designs. Assembling a z-folded composite is currently characterized through time-consuming sequential pick-and-place operations for handling discrete electrodes and folding uncoiled-strip separators, causing high manufacturing costs. To avoid time-consuming sequential handling tasks, a novel process featuring a continuous separator feeding-speed and a high-speed synchronous handling of discrete electrodes has been developed, hereby enabling for a significant decrease of cycle-times and thus reducing manufacturing costs. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of CIRP.