The automated handling of electrodes is an essential process step for assembling lithium-ion battery cells and a bottleneck within the productivity. Current handling methods are characterized through pick-and-place operations. Their productivity is limited through necessary sequential setting and resetting movements. An innovative concept comprising of a suction based draw-off roll (DOR) in combination with a pair of counter rotating belt drives operating in a continuous process flow is introduced, prototypically realized and verified. Subsequent to an analysis of the requirements of an automated handling of electrodes, the concept is developed using a morphological analysis. From a stack of electrodes, the most upper one is grasped, accelerated and thereby separated from the stack and is afterwards guided into a transport system. Various test series are realized in which the process parameters, like damage-free grasping as well as the position and orientation are registered at respective points of time and evaluated. A continuous process flow pushes the existing productivity frontier in handling electrodes forward. The concept development and verification represent a first step towards a competitive manufacturing process in battery production.
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