Advances in Automated Handling of Sulfide-Based Solid Electrolytes in All-Solid-State Battery Cell Stacking
摘要
All-solid-state batteries (ASSBs) are viewed as a consequential step in the development of rechargeable batteries for enabling higher energy and power densities, particularly with sulfide-based solid electrolytes (SEs). Contrasting these benefits, their low resistance to mechanical loads introduces production-related challenges during cell assembly, especially component handling. The present research investigates the handling of sulfide-based SEs (Lithium phosphorus sulfur chloride) in ASSB cell stacking with various state-of-the-art grippers to identify optimization potentials. The experimental design systematically evaluates key parameters such as holding force, gripper speed, and deposition distance, in relation to the achievable deposition accuracy per ISO 9283. All tested grippers achieve deposition accuracies of less than 0.2 mm or 0.2° in 74% of parameter settings. The highest accuracies are observed with a vacuum suction gripper with a Polytetrafluoroethylene contact surface, operated at defined process conditions. These insights benefit the further development towards the accurate and secure handling within future ASSB manufacturing.