NDC Announces Complete Solutions for Lithium Ion Battery Web Gauging Applications
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Irwindale, California – (www.ndc.com) – NDC announces significant new on-line measurement and control products for the manufacture of lithium ion battery (LIB) components. Due to the popularity of lithium ion batteries in our modern society, manufacturers are focusing greater attention toward the critical parts of their manufacturing processes in order to improve the cost, quality and life of their products. NDC's new measurement and control technologies are designed to help LIB manufacturers achieve new levels of quality and performance from their LIB separator film extruders, coaters and press lines.
Battery separator film production requires accurate measurement and control of thickness, weight and oil content (for wet processes) from the cast end to the winder. NDC have recently developed several unique measurement technologies with its FG710S infrared sensor that provides a comprehensive picture of total film quality. This sensor is able to measure the thickness and basis weight of clear, voided, porous and translucent films. Thickness measurement of voided films has proven difficult due to density variation through the product. NDC's patented developments use proprietary IR filters, algorithms and spectral shift of absorption curves to determine on-line thickness of micro-porous and voided films in the range of 10 to 40 microns. For a complete picture of quality, the density of the film is calculated from the infrared thickness and basis weight measurements. For the wet formed processes, the FG710S employs special infrared filter techniques to measure the oil content in PE battery film for the entire process, beginning with the wet cast film and after the first biax stretch. Finally the FG710S can be configured to measure the co-extrusion components of multi-layer film products.
Lithium ion battery coating operations represent several measurement challenges for web gauging systems due to the "patch" or "stripe" coating processes. NDC's Gap Exclusion Software measures patch coatings by excluding the uncoated areas between each coating application, while Pattern Recognition Software measures stripe coatings and automatically detects and displays the coated versus uncoated strips across the profile width.
These coating measurements have traditionally been made with either NDC's series 302 Transmission Beta gauges or series 103 gamma backscatter gauges. Now, recent developments with NDC's X-ray Transmission sensor have meant that battery coatings on both aluminum and copper substrates can be measured with this non-nuclear sensor. This sensor provides the highest resolution measurement closer to the edge of either stripe or patch coatings using an optimally-tuned X-ray measurement source beam. NDC's X-ray sensor produces accurate, continuous coat weight measurement that ignores the uncoated areas that can be used for closed loop control.
Calendering press lines help increase the power density of the finished battery by enhancing the contact between the particles to improve the transport of electrons within the battery structure. In order to produce consistent quality and product performance, this requires accurate, high-resolution thickness measurement due to the tight operating tolerances of these calendering press lines. NDC has now developed a new, cost-effective thickness measurement gauging system for battery press lines that can measure and control the calendering compression process.
NDC's experience with calendering processes has resulted in a sophisticated web gauging system that provides both high-resolution measurement and effective controls for high nip pressure operations including gap controls, delta presets and average thickness control. It combines the field-proven MiniTrak C-Frame Scanner with a non-contacting laser thickness sensor that uses a measurement technique based on laser beam distance triangulation. This platform with its small footprint is designed for easy installation on battery press lines. As a result, NDC's thickness measurement combined with its robust calender controls permit LIB calender press lines to be run to extremely tight thickness tolerances to help produce high quality products efficiently.
About NDC – NDC Infrared Engineering offers the world's most extensive range of non-contact sensors and systems for measurement of moisture, fat, and other constituents in tobacco, food and bulk products, basis weight and thickness in continuous web processes, and thickness, flatness and width in metal sheet goods.
The metals product line includes X-Ray and optical thickness gauges, laser-based flatness and width gauges, and a range of XRF sensors to measure coating thickness.
The group's range of measurement technologies for the web industry includes infrared absorption, beta transmission, gamma backscatter, X-ray backscatter and transmission, optical and laser caliper. Applications include film and sheet extrusion, paper, foil and film converting, nonwovens, and rubber sheet manufacture. Products range from fixed-point low-cost devices for QA checks, to complete on-line system solutions for continuous precision measurement and process control.
The group is the world market leader in the design and manufacture of near infrared (NIR) sensors and systems for on-line and off-line analysis and measurement. The NIR product range includes instruments for monitoring fat, moisture and protein content in food; moisture, nicotine and total reducing sugars in tobacco products; film thickness, barrier layers and coat-weight in plastics; paper and board, foils and sheet steel.
NDC Infrared Engineering is headquartered at Irwindale, CA in the USA and Maldon, UK and Alleur, Belgium in Europe. Operating companies in Germany, Italy, China, Japan and India provide local support to key world markets, and NDC Infrared Group is presented in more than 60 countries worldwide by a network of specialist distributors.
NDC Infrared Engineering is a Spectris company, an international company specializing in high value-in-use process control solutions.
Contact:
USA/Asia: Hector Marchand, NDC Infrared Engineering Inc, 5314 North Irwindale Avenue, Irwindale, CA 91706, USA Tel: +1 626 960 3300, Fax: +1 626 939 3870, Email hmarchand@ndc.com or Europe, Africa, Middle East: Andrew Brunt, NDC Infrared Engineering Ltd, Bates Road, Maldon, Essex, CM9 5FA, UK Tel: +44 1621 852244, Fax: +44 1621 840995, E-mail: abrunt@ndcinfrared.co.uk.
