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EP-4735201-A1 - HOLD-DOWN SYSTEM FOR JOINT PAIRS IN CLOSELY SPACED INTEGRAL JOINING OPERATIONS, AND USE OF THE HOLD-DOWN SYSTEM

EP4735201A1EP 4735201 A1EP4735201 A1EP 4735201A1EP-4735201-A1

Abstract

The present invention relates to a hold-down system (10) having high functional integration for joint pairs (35) in closely spaced integral joining operations, in particular welding operations. The hold-down system comprises at least one clamping element (15), at least one actuator (17) for controllably holding down the joint pair (35) by means of the at least one clamping element (15), at least one hold-down mask (19) connected to the at least one clamping element (15), and at least one suction channel (20) integrated into the at least one clamping element (15). The at least one clamping element (15) performs the hold-down operation force- and/or travel-controllably, and surrounding atmosphere (29) is suctioned into the suction channel (20) via a process region (27) in the hold-down mask (19). The invention also relates to the use of the hold-down system (10) according to the invention.

Inventors

  • WESTER, STEFFEN
  • Heeling, Thorsten
  • LEIMSER, MARKUS

Assignees

  • Robert Bosch GmbH

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20240625

Claims (11)

  1. 1. Hold-down system (10) with high functional integration for joining pairs (35) in closely spaced material-locking joining processes, in particular welding processes, comprising at least one clamping element (15), at least one actuator (17) for controllably holding down the joining pair (35) by means of the at least one clamping element (15), at least one hold-down mask (19) connected to the at least one clamping element (15), at least one suction channel (20) integrated into the at least one clamping element (15), wherein the hold-down is operated in a force- and/or displacement-controllable manner by means of the at least one clamping element (15) and a surrounding atmosphere (29) is sucked off into the suction channel (20) via a process region (27) in the hold-down mask (19).
  2. 2. Hold-down system (10) according to claim 1, wherein it additionally comprises at least one guide system (23) for the at least one clamping element (15).
  3. 3. Hold-down system (10) according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the at least one hold-down mask (19) is designed to be exchangeable or is permanently installed once.
  4. 4. Hold-down system (10) according to one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the at least one hold-down mask (19) is rotatable.
  5. 5. Hold-down system (10) according to one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the at least one tensioning element (15) has an additional spring (31) on a hold-down mask (19) and/or in the region of an actuator (17).
  6. 6. Hold-down system (10) according to one of claims 1 to 5, wherein protective gas is supplied near the at least one hold-down mask (19), preferably via a hose connection or an outlet bore.
  7. 7. Use of the hold-down system (10) according to one of claims 1 to 6 for the material-locking joining, in particular welding, in particular laser welding, of connectors (41), in particular cell connectors (42) for battery systems (39) or battery modules.
  8. 8. Use of the hold-down system (10) according to claim 7, wherein the hold-down mask (19) has an electrical insulation function between simultaneously held-down positions on a joining partner (36), in particular between two poles (43), and/or to the overall system.
  9. 9. Use of the hold-down system (10) according to claim 7 or 8 for producing at least five material-locking connections, preferably at least 10 material-locking connections, in particular at least 100 material-locking connections, between joining pairs (35) within a workpiece (38).
  10. 10. Use of the hold-down system (10) according to one of claims 7 to 9 for producing material-locking connections between flexible joining partners (36) with wall thicknesses of less than 3 mm, preferably less than 2 mm, particularly preferably 0.1 mm - 2 mm.
  11. 11. Use of the hold-down system (10) according to one of claims 7 to 10 in conjunction with one or more further hold-down systems (10).

Description

HOLDING DOWN SYSTEM FOR JOINING PAIRS IN CLOSELY LOCATED MATERIAL JOINING PROCESSES AND ITS USE The present invention relates to a hold-down system with a high degree of functional integration for joining pairs in closely spaced material-bonded joining processes, in particular welding processes. It comprises at least one clamping element, at least one actuator for the controllable holding down of the joining pair by means of the at least one clamping element, at least one hold-down mask connected to the at least one clamping element, and at least one suction channel integrated into the at least one clamping element. The hold-down is operated by means of the at least one clamping element in a force- and/or displacement-controllable manner and a surrounding atmosphere is sucked into the suction channel via a process area in the hold-down mask. The invention also relates to the use of the hold-down system according to the invention. State of the art Various devices and methods for material-bonded joining of joining pairs are known in the literature, including laser welding of battery cell connectors. To ensure the quality of the joining processes, the joining partner must be held down on the joint and thus clamped. Complete masks with or without over-springs are usually used to clamp the connectors with the cells. However, with increasing material thicknesses and the resulting necessary hold-down forces, as well as an increasing number of rows per module and one-sided position of both poles, this type of clamping is generally no longer usable. High cell height tolerances also have a negative effect on a homogeneous distribution of the clamping forces. Clamping all joints of a system at the same time can lead to very high forces that are detrimental to the system technology and the workpiece (for example the battery cell). Therefore, individual hold-down systems are being developed to hold down the cell connectors of each cell individually. However, this requires constant repositioning of the hold-downs, which increases idle time. Parallelization using hold-downs that can be positioned individually in XYZ directions is possible, but leads to major challenges in terms of coordination, kinematics and vibration damping. What they all have in common is the need to minimize wear on the hold-down and emission agglomerations in order to maximize the service life of the tools. This often leads to hold-down geometries that do not allow adjacent cells to be clamped at the same time. DE 10 2021 001 676 A1 discloses a welding device for use in a laser welding process. The welding device has a first surface facing a laser beam optics, a second surface facing away from the laser beam optics, at least one welding recess and at least one gas flow channel running at least partially in an interior of the welding device. In addition, the welding recess penetrates the welding device between the first surface and the second surface, wherein the gas flow channel opens into the welding recess. DE 10 2020 006 655 A1 also relates to a welding device for use in a laser welding process, wherein the welding device has a first surface facing a laser beam source, a second surface facing away from the laser beam source, at least one welding recess, an air channel and at least one extraction channel. The at least one welding recess penetrates the welding device between the first surface and the second surface, the air channel intersects the at least one welding recess in a cutting area, and the at least one extraction channel leads away from the cutting area. The invention described here addresses the challenges mentioned and shows a way to optimize the hold-down tool life, the welding quality and the simple modularized parallelization of many closely spaced hold-down functions. disclosure of the invention According to the invention, a hold-down system with a high degree of functional integration is proposed for joining pairs in closely spaced material-bonded joining processes, in particular welding processes. This comprises at least one clamping element, at least one actuator for the controllable holding down of the joining pair by means of the at least one clamping element, at least one hold-down mask connected to the at least one clamping element, and at least one suction channel integrated into the at least one clamping element. The hold-down is operated by means of the at least one clamping element in a force- and/or displacement-adjustable manner and a surrounding atmosphere is sucked into the suction channel via a process area in the hold-down mask. Hold-down devices are generally known in the field and are used, for example, in material-bonded joining processes to bring the components to be joined (joining pairs) into contact with one another during the process, i.e. to hold them down together. The distance at which joining processes are to be carried out within one or more workpieces is determined by the positioning of the componen