Delta IA Achieves Precise Positioning Control for Laser Welding

Many industries nowadays are developing green energy technologies to meet global demand for environmentally-friendly and energy-saving products, such as energy efficient batteries. The lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) or LFP battery is favored for use by hybrid and electric vehicles for its high discharge power, fast charging, long cycle life, and more.

Welding during the production of LFP batteries is used to connect the battery cap and case. Positioning control in the welding process is a major issue to ensure battery quality and safety. Delta Industrial Automation (IA) has provided a positioning and control solution for the laser welding production line of an LFP battery manufacturer in China. The customer adopted Delta IA's solution with human machine interface (HMI), industrial Ethernet solution, programmable logic controller (PLC), and AC servo drives and greatly improved production efficiency.

Delta adopted 18 AC Servo Drives ASDA-A2-F Series to control 18 axes that carry the batteries in the laser welding process. Each axis achieves high speed, high precision positioning control in the area of 300 mm x 450 mm. (See diagram 1) Users can monitor the production quality of the production line through Delta's HMI DOP-B10E615 Series with user-defined interface, editable software, and color touchscreen. Delta's industrial Ethernet switch DVS-016W01 Series connects the control system of the laser welding process with 16 communication ports, and supports various communication protocols even in harsh working environments (-40°C~75°C).

The solution also adopted Delta's mid-range PLC AH500 Series with motion control module AH20MC and RTU module AHRTU-DNET for excellent motion control. The built-in hot-swapping function keeps the AH500 Series PLC running during maintenance, which greatly saves time and cost for the production process.

With Delta's solution, the LFP battery production line can complete 60 laser welding processes within 1 hour, saving time and labor costs while enhancing production efficiency for the customer. Now and in the future, Delta Industrial Automation will continue to support customers in these highly competitive markets.