How Rollon actuators helped a Korean multinational corporation automate its battery cell manufacturing process

Accuracy, stiffness, compactness, lubrication. These were the challenges Rollon, together with an OEM partner, faced in helping a leading Korean battery, electronics and semiconductor manufacturer automate its battery cell production lines.

A company providing turnkey automation solutions for various industries needed to automate the battery production line of a well-known Korean multinational company within the electronics and semiconductor industry.

The Challenge

In particular, the Korean company was dissatisfied with the actuators employed to guarantee movement between the workstations of the battery cell construction process because they had lubrication problems. Ineffective lubrication results in the interruption or slowdown of production lines, with inevitable negative effects on cycle time and efficiency, yield and productivity parameters. Not a small problem, considering the high production rate.

The OEM contacted Rollon to solve the lubrication problem and equip the process with a compact, precise linear motion solution that would guarantee repeatability as well as cleanliness. In fact, the proposed solution had to solve the issues related to lubrication while guaranteeing other process parameters that are necessary for continuous, quality production: accuracy in positioning, stiffness and compactness, the latter being essential precisely because of the size of the lines, the number of stations and the very small strokes. Finally, it had to neither contaminate the environment nor suffer contamination from the environment itself.

The Solution

Rollon’s choice turned to the TH Precision System – ball screw driven linear actuators with recirculating ball guides, ground raceways, and preloaded carriages, based on anodized aluminium extrusion (a factor that prevents oxidation) that is self-supporting and very light. For this specific case, a solution with 2 or 4 sliders with recirculating balls was chosen.

Precision System TH

The solution proved to be a winner, starting with the lubrication issue. The TH actuator, in fact, features a centralised and optimised lubrication system to prolong the actuator’s lifetime, preserving the carriages and guide rails from small contaminants. It is a solution used in production environments where accuracy must be combined with the absence of impurities, such as in automotive, assembly processes, and water and laser cutting operations on machining centres.

In addition to managing impurities, the Precision System TH offered the required performance thanks to the accuracy guaranteed by the ball screw system – down to 5 µm – even with high dynamics, and frequent motion reversals on very small strokes (50-100 mm).

The solution proposed by Rollon – which involved the supply of more than 100 TH actuators at different times – automated the pick-and-place activities on different workstations: from unrolling the lithium sheet, measuring the battery elements, cutting, checking the sheet thickness, to the final insertion into the battery housings.

It is precisely the full satisfaction of the end customer and Rollon’s OEM partner that has enabled such a wide-ranging supply, supported by local service.

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