Method for characterizing a weld

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11543387-B2
Application number	US-202017122557-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 15, 2020
Priority date	Dec 16, 2019
Publication date	Jan 3, 2023
Grant date	Jan 3, 2023

Abstract

A method for characterizing at least one joined connection between at least two components, whereby an eddy-current sensor is consecutively moved several times over the at least one weld, thereby generating a plurality of data sets of the detected measuring signals in various parallel sectional planes of the weld, and whereby, on the basis of the plurality of data sets, a projection data set is subsequently determined as the measure of the spatial distribution of the measuring signals along the at least one joined connection.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for characterizing at least one joined connection between at least two joined components, comprising:
consecutively moving an eddy-current sensor several times over the at least one joined connection, thereby generating a plurality of data sets of detected measuring signals in various parallel sectional planes of the joined connection,
determining, on the basis of the plurality of data sets, a projection data set as a measure of a spatial distribution of the measuring signals along the at least one joined connection,
adding the data sets in order to determine the projection data set along a direction (y) that is oriented perpendicular to the sectional planes,
adapting a curve progression to the projection data set, whereby, on the basis of the adapted curve progression, flaws and/or defects of the at least one joined connection are determined,
comparing the projection data set to a stored reference data set, and
characterizing the joined components as rejects if a flaws and/or defect in the projection data set reaches or exceeds a reference threshold value of the reference data set.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising passing the eddy-current sensor over a number of adjacent joined connections of the components, whereby a shared projection data set is determined as the measure of the spatial distribution of the measuring signals along each joined connection.

3. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising tilting and/or swiveling the eddy-current sensor over the course of consecutive movements along the at least one joined connection.

4. The method according to claim 1 , for a production of a battery element, further comprising:
joining together at least two battery components situated adjacent to each other by means of a welded connection, whereby at least one weld is made as the joined connection.

5. A device for the production of a battery element, comprising
a welding apparatus configured to create an integrally bonded welded connection of at least two battery components that are arranged so as to be stacked above each other,
an eddy-current sensor configured to generate and detect eddy currents in the vicinity of at least one joined connection that has been created by the welding apparatus, and
a controller for execution of the method according to claim 1 .

6. The device according to claim 5 , wherein the eddy-current sensor is configured as a fork sensor having a transmission geometry.

7. A vehicle battery of a motor vehicle that is or can be electrically powered, comprising at least one battery element produced according to the method of claim 4 .

Assignees

• Volkswagen Ag
• Plr Prueftechnik Linke & Ruehe Gmbh

Inventors

• Böhm Dennis
• Breuer Alexander
• Dilz Karsten
• Kraken Mathias
• Schönemann Malte
• Zihrul Patrick

Classifications

• G01R31/364

  Battery terminal connectors with integrated measuring arrangements · CPC title

• G01N27/9006 Primary

  Details, e.g. in the structure or functioning of sensors · CPC title

• Y02E60/10

  Energy storage using batteries · CPC title

• H01M50/569

  Constructional details of current conducting connections for detecting conditions inside cells or batteries, e.g. details of voltage sensing terminals (battery terminal connectors with integrated measuring arrangements G01R31/364) · CPC title

• G01N27/902 Primary

  by moving the sensors · CPC title