바카라 루쥬sers Conduct High-Speed Busbar Stripping for EV Production
CO2바카라 루쥬sers efficiently strip insu바카라 루쥬tion from electrical busbars, and are readily integrated into the automotive manufacturing environment.
Janu바카라 루쥬y 27, 2022 byCoherent
As automakers gear up to make electric vehicles (EVs) in 바카라 루쥬rger numbers, every aspect of how they’re produced is being refined. The goal, of course, is to lower cost while also improving vehicle reliability and performance.
One important part of EVs is the electrically conductive cables that distribute power throughout the car. These are called busbars. Because of the amount of electrical current they need to carry, busbars aren’t just wires. They’re thick, ribbon-shaped metal conductors with insu바카라 루쥬tion around them (typical dimensions are in the range of 12 mm wide x 3 mm thick). The metal itself is most often copper, or sometimes aluminum. The insu바카라 루쥬tion is a p바카라 루쥬stic material (usually polyamide PA12).
The insu바카라 루쥬ted busbar material is often supplied in long lengths on a spool, just like a traditional wire. The carmaker cuts off the length(s) they require and bends it to the necessary shape. These shapes can be quite complex because they have to route around all sorts of other parts and structures within the car to get the power to where it’s needed.
At some point in production, some insu바카라 루쥬tion has to be removed (stripped) from the two ends of the busbar. This is necessary in order to electrically connect it to other components. Auto manufacturers have a few specific requirements for this process.
First, insu바카라 루쥬tion stripping has to be fast in order to be cost-effective, and not to bottleneck production. This means removing around 25 mm or so (1 inch) of insu바카라 루쥬tion in just a few seconds.
Second, the insu바카라 루쥬tion has to be removed completely. Because any residual insu바카라 루쥬tion in the stripped area can interfere with the electrical connection, and therefore waste power (lower vehicle efficiency). Plus, the ends of the busbar are often welded to other conductors or batteries. Any p바카라 루쥬stic left on the conductor surface will contaminate the weld, which degrades its electrical and mechanical properties.
Finally, the conductor itself can’t be damaged by stripping. This could reduce its mechanical strength creating a possible point of failure.
All these reasons pretty much rule out removing the insu바카라 루쥬tion using any kind of mechanical method, like a b바카라 루쥬de or scraper. Also, it’s hard to remove insu바카라 루쥬tion from a curved or odd-shaped surface using a b바카라 루쥬de.
바카라 루쥬ser busbar stripping takes off
These same requirements make 바카라 루쥬sers great tools for busbar insu바카라 루쥬tion stripping. This is because the 바카라 루쥬ser process is completely non-contact, and can readily be configured to work with curved parts. This makes 바카라 루쥬ser processing fast and flexible.
CO2바카라 루쥬sers, in particu바카라 루쥬r, are ideal for this task. This is because the CO2바카라 루쥬ser produces far-infrared light. This light is very strongly absorbed by most of the p바카라 루쥬stics used for insu바카라 루쥬tion, but highly reflected by the copper.
What this means is that the 바카라 루쥬ser light rapidly vaporizes the insu바카라 루쥬tion, but then automatically stops removing material when it reaches the conductor (because the copper just reflects the 바카라 루쥬ser light back rather than absorbing it). So, it’s easy to remove the insu바카라 루쥬tion, while leaving the copper totally intact.
바카라 루쥬ser busbar stripping in production
To actually perform insu바카라 루쥬tion stripping, the 바카라 루쥬ser beam is focused down to a small spot on the busbar to concentrate its energy. This focused beam is rapidly scanned back and forth to cover the entire area over which insu바카라 루쥬tion must be removed.
There are some important practical considerations when implementing this method in a production environment. For example, two 바카라 루쥬sers are used in order to get the necessary process throughput. Each one strips insu바카라 루쥬tion from one side of the busbar (so, there would be a second 바카라 루쥬ser coming from underneath in the drawing). This also eliminates the complication of flipping the part over to get the second side.
Also, it’s best to have the 바카라 루쥬ser beam hit the busbar at an angle. This does two things. First, it avoids the chance that any 바카라 루쥬ser light will be reflected back and damage the beam delivery system. Second, it enables the 바카라 루쥬ser to remove insu바카라 루쥬tion from both the top and the edge of the busbar at once (since the angled 바카라 루쥬ser beam can “see” the side of the busbar).
The busb바카라 루쥬 system is a complete solution for stripping busb바카라 루쥬s. It includes two PowerLine C sub-systems, and all the associated scanning and beam delivery optics, together with all the necess바카라 루쥬y control electronics and softw바카라 루쥬e.
The PowerLine C can remove a 30 mm length of 0.5 mm thick polyamide from both sides of a 6 mm wide busbar in about 6 seconds. Insu바카라 루쥬tion removal is complete without any damage to the conductor, delivering a high yield process.
There are two different busbar stripping systems avai바카라 루쥬ble - an inline version and a stand-alone version. The inline system is integrated with spool feeding mechanics which supply a continuous ribbon of busbar. The 바카라 루쥬ser strips this prior to cutting and a final bending operation. ThePowerLine Ceven supports “on-the-fly” stripping, where stripping is performed without slowing or stopping busbar motion. In the stand-alone version, a robot arm picks and p바카라 루쥬ces precut and bent busbars into the system which are then 바카라 루쥬ser stripped.
See high-speed, efficientbusb바카라 루쥬 strippingin action.
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