US-20260126398-A1 - IMAGING DEVICE WITH TILTABLE MIRROR FOR INTERNAL SURFACE OF CYLINDRICAL BATTERY PRODUCTS

US20260126398A1US 20260126398 A1US20260126398 A1US 20260126398A1US-20260126398-A1

Abstract

Disclosed is an imaging device with a tiltable mirror for an internal surface of cylindrical battery products, the imaging device including: a transfer module configured to transfer a cylindrical battery product, which is in an upright posture with its top side open, to an imaging position; a camera module positioned above the imaging position and configured to capture an image of the cylindrical battery product transferred to the imaging position; and an internal-surface reflection mirror module positioned between the imaging position and the camera module and configured to reflect the internal surface of the cylindrical battery product.

Inventors

Seong Gi Kim
Ji Man RYU
In Ho KA
Sang Jin Choi

Assignees

ENSCAPE CO., LTD.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20251104
Priority Date: 20241105

Claims (9)

1 . An imaging device with a tiltable mirror for an internal surface of cylindrical battery products, the imaging device comprising: a transfer module configured to transfer a cylindrical battery product with opened top side in an upright posture, to an imaging position; a camera module positioned above the imaging position and configured to capture an image of the cylindrical battery product transferred to the imaging position; and an internal-surface reflection mirror module positioned between the imaging position and the camera module and configured to reflect the internal surface of the cylindrical battery product, the internal-surface reflection mirror module comprising: a plurality of mirrors arranged around a height axis vertically passing through the imaging position; and a mirror angle adjuster configured to adjust an angle formed by each of the mirrors with respect to the height axis.
2 . The imaging device of claim 1 , wherein each of the mirrors is provided to have a tilted shape to protrude further toward the height axis as being positioned closer to a lower end.
3 . The imaging device of claim 2 , wherein the mirror angle adjuster is configured to adjust each of the mirrors from a first angle to a second angle or from the second angle to the first angle upon the cylindrical battery product being transferred to the imaging position, and the first angle is an angle at which the mirror reflects a lower portion on the internal surface of the cylindrical battery product, and the second angle is an angle at which the mirror reflects an upper portion on the internal surface of the cylindrical battery product.
4 . The imaging device of claim 3 , further comprising a detector sensor configured to detect the cylindrical battery product transferred to the imaging position.
5 . The imaging device of claim 1 , further comprising a lifting module configured to change relative distances between the internal-surface reflection mirror module and the transfer module.
6 . The imaging device of claim 5 , wherein the lifting module comprises a stage formed to move up and down and configured to allow the cylindrical battery product located at the imaging position to be seated thereon.
7 . The imaging device of claim 5 , wherein the lifting module comprises a mirror lifting actuator configured to adjust the height of the internal-surface reflection mirror module.
8 . The imaging device of claim 7 , wherein the lifting module further comprises a camera lifting actuator configured to adjust the height of the camera module.
9 . The imaging device of claim 1 , further comprising a coaxial lighting module arranged between the internal-surface reflection mirror module and the camera module, and configured to irradiate light in a direction coaxial with an imaging direction of the camera module.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION Priority to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2024-0155285 filed on Nov. 5, 2024 and No. 10-2025-0126662 filed on Sep. 5, 2025, the entire disclosure of which are incorporated by reference herein, are claimed. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The disclosure relates to an imaging device with a tiltable mirror for inspecting the internal surface of cylindrical battery products. The present application is the result of the “materials and components technology development program (R&D)” supervised by the Korea Planning & Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology (KEIT), under the project (titled “Development of an Integrated Optical System for Inspection and Measurement and AI-Based Vision Inspection System for Next-Generation Cylindrical Batteries (4680 to 46200 types), and Project No. RS-2024-00418621). Description of the Related Art Secondary batteries refer to batteries that convert chemical energy into electrical energy to supply power and, when discharged, receive external power and convert electrical energy back into chemical energy for storage. With the advancement of electronic devices, the secondary batteries are being applied to various devices in a wide range of fields. These secondary batteries are produced in a variety of forms, and among them, commonly used cylindrical batteries are still widely used today. Cylindrical batteries with defects such as dents, scratches, or stains on the surface are classified as defective and discarded before final shipment to proactively eliminate the risk of safety incidents caused by the defects. Therefore, battery manufacturers perform vision inspections on cylindrical batteries before final delivery to preemptively identify defective ones. As the amount of power required for electronic devices has recently increased, cylindrical batteries are also growing in size. Specifically, the batteries with diameters of approximately 46 mm and lengths ranging from 80 mm to 130 mm have emerged. In terms of surface inspection, larger cylindrical batteries are more difficult to inspect on the internal surface than on the external surface. As a concrete example of conventional surface inspection, the internal surface of the cylindrical battery was imaged by moving the cylindrical battery relative to a camera placed at a certain distance directly above the cylindrical battery, with a mirror positioned in the optical path of the camera to reflect the internal surface. Therefore, as the length of the cylindrical battery increases, the height at which the camera is installed increases, and the distance the battery moves up and down also increases, thereby resulting in a corresponding increase in the overall size of the optical system. In addition, the increase in the length of a cylindrical battery product causes a bottom portion of the cylindrical battery product to be positioned deeper. Therefore, to image a lower portion of the internal surface, the mirror needs to be tilted to be nearly vertical. The mirror tilted in this way narrows a viewing angle for inspecting the defects on the lower portion of the internal surface, thereby causing the defects to appear smaller in a detected image and hindering the ability to detect the defects. Nevertheless, it is unavoidable to maintain the foregoing tilt angle of the mirror in order to image the lower portion of the internal surface, and thus the conventional inspection imaging has been performed by using the mirror tilted nearly vertical to reflect the internal surface from top to bottom. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An aspect of the disclosure is to provide an optical system capable of maintaining a certain level of detection capability or higher for cylindrical battery products, which have a high aspect ratio (i.e., a ratio of length to diameter), while minimizing changes in the volume thereof. Another aspect of the disclosure is to provide an optical system capable of capturing images at optimal angles for various vertical positions on the internal surface of cylindrical battery products based on tilt adjustment of the mirror. The problems of the disclosure are not limited to the aforementioned problems, and other problems not mentioned above may become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description. According to an embodiment of the disclosure, an imaging device with a tiltable mirror for an internal surface of cylindrical battery products includes: a transfer module configured to transfer a cylindrical battery product, which is in an upright posture with its top side open, to an imaging position; a camera module positioned above the imaging position and configured to capture an image of the cylindrical battery product transferred to the imaging position; and an internal-surface reflection mirror module positioned between the imaging position and the camera module and configured to reflect the internal surface of the cylindrical battery product. The inte