Abstract—During the last years lithium-ion batteries have emerged as the power source of choice for the electric vehicle market. One important step of the lithium-ion battery process chain is electrolyte filling. The electrolyte filling process constitutes the interface between cell assembly and formation and is a quality critical and also time consuming process step. To avoid limitations in battery performance, a homogeneous electrolyte distribution is necessary. Therefore, especially large cells are stored for hours to reduce their wetting time. In order to reduce this wetting time, an automated system to accelerate the electrolyte distribution in lithium-ion batteries by press rolling was designed. For the technical design concept, the degree of kinematic coupling between roller and the drive system for cell transport was determined. Subsequently, an exemplary motion profile and resulting loads due to the rolling process were derived in order to design the drive system. To quantify the influence of press rolling on electrolyte distribution a transparent test cells had been developed for visualization. Finally, a procedure for evaluating the optical data of the macroscopic electrolyte distribution was deducted. 
 

Index Terms— electrolyte filling, lithium ion battery, press rolling, wetting

Cite: A. Schilling, F. Gabriel, F. Dietrich, and K. Dröder, "Design of an Automated System to Accelerate the Electrolyte Distribution in Lithium-Ion Batteries," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 162-166, January 2019. DOI: 10.18178/ijmerr.8.1.162-166