18650 Pulse Arc Welding

AEM

10 mW
Joined
Nov 17, 2015
Messages
20
Location
Chula Vista
anyone seen this video of an 18650 CNC welder [youtube]tpNfA9SBEi4[/youtube]
It uses a modified DC Inverter TIG welder with HF Start with a pulsing circuitry to keep from damaging the cells along with the CNC. The pack/module he is making in the video is 7S46P using Samsung 29E cells. Connections between the cells are made using a copper sheet.
 
The one who made the welder also has a GitHub with the code for his CNC welder by the name of Siwastaja. Could cell level fuses be added to the design?
 
I can't help but notice on the video that the coil-spring makes certain that a consistent amount of pressure is applied to the welding head, as it presses down on the bus-plate.

Looks like 7S / 48P? Dayum, that's freakin huge, bro...
 
spinningmagnets said:
I can't help but notice on the video that the coil-spring makes certain that a consistent amount of pressure is applied to the welding head, as it presses down on the bus-plate.

Looks like 7S / 48P? Dayum, that's freakin huge, bro...
Yeah its is definitely of the most impressive things I've seen on diy battery pack building especially since Siwastaja built it himself, unfortunately he doesn't seem to have been active on diyelectriccar or his youtube channel for at least a year. This is the link to his Github where he has some code for his welder https://github.com/siwastaja and the link to the original dielectric thread is here http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=160266
 
The only issue I have with the welder is how little detail there is on how he made it though the code for the CNC and the welder appears to be complete on Siwastajas GitHub. I would definitely want to have a welder like his.
The module made in the video is large enough for a car and with higher capacity cells would have about 4kwh capacity.
It could allow for relatively easy mass production for 18650 battery packs especially since it uses a low resistance copper sheet instead of nickel. I also remember he used custom laser cut cell holders for the module.
 
Amazing machine absolutely. Can someone explain why it uses TIG welding as opposed to spot welding? What are the benefits? Doesn't TIG welding require gas? As someone who is welding illiterate, I don't understand the added complexity.

Shame that such a system is only really good for enormous battery packs in standard shapes. When someone makes a machine that cuts nickel, transports it to the correct location, and welds it together, then I will be happy.
 
Basically spot welding sticks two similar or dissimilar materials together....sometimes it works sometimes not.

Pulse arc actually heats up and combines the two metals......basically melts them together. In this way pretty much all metals can be combined.

Having a shielding gas or not is not as important as a good quality weld/contact point with dissimilar metals.....which is the ONLY point we care about when making a battery pack.

The guy that designed my 800 watt second spot welder is now designing a pulse arc welder.....when finished I will be building one of those.

Tom
 
litespeed said:
Basically spot welding sticks two similar or dissimilar materials together....sometimes it works sometimes not.

Pulse arc actually heats up and combines the two metals......basically melts them together. In this way pretty much all metals can be combined.

Having a shielding gas or not is not as important as a good quality weld/contact point with dissimilar metals.....which is the ONLY point we care about when making a battery pack.

The guy that designed my 800 watt second spot welder is now designing a pulse arc welder.....when finished I will be building one of those.

Tom
Question who is the person who designed your spot welder and where could I find him? I'm interested in looking at his design.
 
Fritz!

http://frikkieg.blogspot.com I built the 800WS one.

His new one coming sometime,

http://pulsearcwelder.blogspot.com/2016/08/page4-pulse-arc-welder-prototype.html?m=1

He's a good guy but development time isn't super fast but I assume it's a hobby for him which for most of us is limited time.

Tom
 
I know it’s been a very long while since I’ve posted anything on this thread, I’ve found a bit more detail on the robotic welder I found and posted in this thread. The video that gives some greater details is here.

[youtube]ElB3Pp1s[/youtube]

From the video thee CNC seemed to be a Millennium series, and seemed far less crude than the welder from a year previous. The software seems to be largely complete as well. The welder itself was based off a TIG stick welder with a circuit to measure current to keep it from bursting through the cell with too much power. They also seem to have access to a Laser cutter, so they can cut out their own copper sheets. I even heard something about an ePassat on Siwastaja’s github but that was over a year ago.

Edit-

Also after looking more closely at the video, I could see that the CNC was labeled as an Asymtek Millennium, which after further research seems to be an automated dispenser, though I can’t tell what model the machine is from the video. Again it’s perfectly capable of welding copper, and the pack being welded is made of 52 29e cells for an ebike.

Any further thoughts on the welder? Based on what’s I’ve found for the cost of the cnc it wouldn’t be an inexpensive endeavor to replicate, though the software is freely open on github. Cheapest I’ve seen was just north of 3000 US dollars on eBay.
 
Bump.

I would like any more thoughts on this machine, though I suppose most of it has already been said.
One of these machine could probably make hundreds of e bike batteries per year or several full car batteries. Honestly the only improvement I could think of would be liquid cooling and maybe single cell fuses cut into the battery connectors. I’m not entirely sure how the computer would be programmed to leave the fuses undamaged though.
 
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