Sponsored by Nordson Sealant Equipment

Customers rely on Nordson Sealant Equipment to deliver improvements, efficiencies, and solutions for a wide range of dispensing applications in their battery manufacturing processes. Nordson Sealant Equipment provides an industry-leading, field-proven range of automated dispensing solutions for one- and two-part materials used in battery cell bonding, battery cell power distribution, and battery pack assembly. 

Battery Cell Bonding

Battery cells are manufactured in many sizes to fit the end product, the most common shapes being cylindrical and rectangular. While the use of either shape is dependent on the battery pack design, securing the cells into their larger battery modules takes different dispensing approaches and comes with common challenges.

Cylindrical battery cells are often challenged by production speed and location accuracy; Nordson’s application and material knowledge, coupled with extensive robotic automation experience, allows it to design engineered solutions that provide the correct number of dispense heads at the flow rate and robotic speed necessary for the application needs.

Square battery cells often experience air becoming wrapped around battery cells during a fill or pour. Nordson’s programmable dispense speeds allow for mid-shot adjustments in material flow rate, which allow air to escape from the fill. Speed can be adjusted back to full speed once the material is past the point of concern, allowing necessary production speeds to be achieved.

Battery Cell Power Distribution

Nordson specializes in bonding thermal interface materials between the current circuit and the battery cell module. Applying the exact bead size can be challenging; for long bead requirements of various patterns, the length may exceed the volume of the meter and require reload, resulting in a gap or overlap in the bead. Nordson uses continuous flow meters and can also optimally size the meter to ensure reloads are not necessary before the end of the bead. Intricate bead paths can result in sharp turns where the robot slows down, causing the meter to deposit too much material. Nordson’s servo-driven meters have an auto-flow mode where the flow rate can be adjusted at the same time as the robot, allowing for even material placement along the battery cell or module.

Battery Pack Assembly

Ensuring a battery cell module provides enough power with the correct form and fit for the end product is no simple task. Typically, numerous modules are placed together to create a larger assembly of modules, also known as a pack. The shape of these packs varies greatly depending on the vehicle or the storage battery’s overall shape and are usually bonded together to reduce vibration problems or sealed to prevent corrosion issues due to moisture.

Battery packs are bonded in one of two ways: bead bonding utilizes robotics to apply a precise amount of material to the face of each module; flood methodology simplifies robotic needs by applying material to the base of the entire battery pack to bond each module in place. A large meter needs to be mounted to the robot for both methods. Nordson’s range of continuous flow meters can be used for dispense of one- or two-component epoxies.

Battery modules are sealed with a bead that encapsulates the battery pack module or by a bead placed between a top and bottom cell module. Both sealing methods require accurate bead placement to ensure assembly compression does not overflow into battery cells or outside of the pack. Nordson’s variety of nozzles are specifically designed for precision application in difficult-to-access channels or locations.

Industry partnerships

Nordson Sealant Equipment works alongside adhesive manufacturers and automation/robot suppliers to ensure our solution is uniquely engineered to the customer’s application. Our volume displacement rod metering technology permits dispensing thermal gels, or other heavily filled materials, without packing out or wearing the equipment over time. Additionally, a wide range of wetted components and seal offerings allows our dispense equipment to be compatible with battery assembly materials across the globe, with many material suppliers incorporating our technology in their own test laboratories.

As the global leaders in metering, mixing, and dispensing solutions for battery cell manufacturing applications, Nordson encourages early involvement in projects.

Please reach out to Nordson’s team of experts to improve your production capabilities and performance.

Sponsored by Nordson Sealant Equipment