Battery Assembly - Consumer Battery Assembly
DMW Automation engineers and staff personnel designed and built custom automated manufacturing systems to revolutionize the manner in which various consumer battery types are manufactured, both domestically and worldwide.
Overview
- Location: Southeast, Europe, Asia
- Industry: Consumer
- Products/Services: Alkaline Batteries Assembly
- Primary SIC Code: 3692
- Annual Sales: $50 to $100 million
- Technology: Indexing and Continuous Motion
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| High-speed alkaline battery assembly line. |
Situation
A new battery manufacturer approached DMW Automation to help them develop a faster solution to assemble their batteries.
The customer was in the business of manufacturing a new type of alkaline consumer battery of various standard sizes. They owned and operated existing automated machinery, but they were able to produce only 60 parts-per-minute. They understood that the existing machine’s production speed was too slow to be competitive in an aggressive market dominated by large competitors.
The customer contracted with DMW Automation to design and develop a fully-automated 300 parts-per-minute alkaline battery assembly line.
Action
DMW Automation personnel traveled to the customer site to evaluate and examine the existing 60 parts-per-minute-machine, its footprint, and reaffirm the assembly requirements.
Our engineers designed a new machine that utilized both Synchronous Indexing and Continuous Motion operations to provide the most optimal solution for assembling batteries at 300 parts per minute. The Indexing motions were used to dispense sealant and electrolyte materials, and to cut and place separator paper and insulating washers. Continuous Motion technology was used to load the cells, dispense anode material, and close and unload the cells.
DMW Automation’s engineers designed and integrated systems to perform the following operations at high speed:
- Parts feeding and orienting
- Positive displacement dispensing of sealant and electrolyte
- Feeding, cutting and insertion of separator paper
- Punching and placement of an insulator washer
- Can closing
- Electrical and visual tests, and
- Product conveyance
After fabrication and assembly, we conducted Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT) with the customer present and received their approval to ship the equipment. We shipped and installed the equipment on site.
Following this effort we placed over a dozen lines into multiple facilities, assembling AAA, AA, C, D and 9V batteries.
We later re-engineered the machine to achieve a fully Continuous Motion design that was capable of speeds in excess of 500 parts per minute. To achieve these new speed requirements we developed innovative Continuous Motion designs to cut separator paper with lasers, punch out insulating washers, dispense sealant (including new dispensing methods), electrolyte and anode materials, and laser weld negative caps.
Results
DMW Automation’s original machines are still operating after decades of use, producing 375 parts per minute, 25% faster than originally designed. We added numerous enhancements over the years to create new machines capable of 600 parts per minute, 10-times the production speed of the original equipment while increasing quality, productivity, reducing rejects, and changing the way batteries are produced in the U.S., Europe, and worldwide. We continue to maintain this decades-old relationship and are an ongoing supplier to this organization.
For more information about DMW Automation's success stories and our custom automation equipment and systems services, please call us at 847-437-0665, or email us at sales@dmwautomation.com.
