JPH0237662A - Dislocating detection process for insulating ring-shaped thin sheet of battery - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To permit high-precision detection of a microdislocation of an insulating ring-shaped thin sheet, by emitting evenly diffused light onto a terminal area, binary-coding picture data reflected within a delimited zone in terms of light and shade, and comparing the area of bright segments or dark segments with a reference area in the normal condition of the sheet. CONSTITUTION:Evenly diffused light is emitted onto a cylindrical battery for subjecting reflected picture data to an image processing. So that delimitation is applied to a zone corresponding to an insulating ring-shaped thin sheet situated in its normal condition at the positive pole terminal of the battery and picture data reflected within this delimited zone are binary- coded in terms of brightness and darkness. This may result in acquisition of a picture representing an outer circle 41 corresponding to the contour of the battery, and a ring-shaped dark portion 42 situated inside this outer circle 41 and corresponding to the delimited zone of the thin sheet. The number of picture elements present within bright segments in the binary coded picture data attributive to the delimited zone is counted to find the area of the bright segments for comparing the area with the area of the bright segments reference picture data inputted beforehand. This procedure permits the high-precision detection of a micro-dislocation the insulating ring-shaped thin sheet secured to the battery without depending on visual examination.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a method for detecting positional deviation of an insulating ring-shaped thin plate of a battery, and in particular to a method for detecting positional deviation of an insulating ring-shaped thin plate attached to a terminal portion during assembly of a battery. The present invention relates to a method for detecting defects due to positional deviation.

[Prior art] In the case of a cylindrical tau pond, as shown in Fig. 5 (a3, (b)), an insulating ring-shaped thin plate is attached to the terminals of the positive and negative electrodes for the purpose of gas insulation. Namely, 1 in the figure is a cylindrical metal can with a -H bottom.

Inside this metal can 1, a positive electrode mixture 3 is placed through a separator 2.
Or filled. A carbon rod 4 is inserted into the center of this positive electrode mixture 3. This carbon rod 4 is placed near the top of the metal can 1, and is fitted into a through hole in a polyethylene sealing plate 5 for sealing the opening. Further, on the bottom surface of the metal can, a metal bottom plate 6 which also serves as a negative electrode terminal and an insulating ring-shaped thin plate 7 are arranged one on top of the other. It is fixed by an inwardly bent portion of an insulating tube 8 made of vinyl chloride which is placed on the surface and heat-shrinked. Furthermore,
A metal cap 9, which also serves as a positive electrode terminal, is fitted onto the head of the carbon rod 4. At the upper edge of Camp 9,
An insulating ring-shaped thin plate 10 is arranged, and the ring-shaped thin plate 10 is fixed by bending inward the upper and lower openings of a metal exterior cylinder 11 laminated on the insulating tube 8.

In the figure, 12 is an insulating bottom plate disposed on the inner bottom surface of the zinc can 1, and 13 is an insulating boxwood paper disposed on the positive electrode mixture 3.

By the way, when assembling two cylindrical batteries, there may be defects such as the insulating ring-shaped thin 1flo on the positive electrode terminal side shifting from its normal position due to incorrect insertion positions of parts or timing errors during the crimping process. Occur. in particular,
As shown in Fig. 6, an insulating ring-shaped thin plate 2 is bent in half and attached to the positive terminal of the battery, or as shown in Fig. 7, a part of an insulating ring-shaped thin plate 2 210 or a carbon rod is used. This may cause misalignment such as protrusion to the outside of the 4 side and the positive electrode terminal. It should be noted that the insulating ring thin plate 7 on the negative electrode terminal side hardly experiences any misalignment unlike the insulating ring-shaped thin plate 10 on the positive electrode terminal side due to the relationship with the assembly process.

Detection of misalignment of the insulating ring-shaped thin plate of batteries has traditionally been done by human visual inspection on the assembly line, or by human visual inspection on the assembly line.
A method of inspecting several locations on the positive terminal side of a battery using an optical sensor is being used.

[Problem to be solved by the invention] However, with visual inspection methods performed by humans, insulation problems arise due to problems unique to humans, such as fatigue caused by looking at moving batteries for long periods of time, and reduced attention span due to surrounding noise. Overlooking the position of the ring-shaped thin plate, misreading, and errors in judgment occur. Therefore, it is necessary to take measures such as double checking in the post-process of the product or increasing the number of personnel to partially increase the degree of discrimination +r and ii, which makes inspection work more complicated and increases inspection costs. <There was a problem.

Furthermore, since the inspection method using the optical sensor does not inspect the entire surface of the positive terminal side of the battery, minute positional deviations of the insulating ring-shaped thin plate can only be inspected with a certain probability. For this reason, there was a problem that ended up requiring a separate process of inspection by humans.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and therefore,
The present invention aims to provide a method that can detect even the slightest positional deviation of an insulating ring-shaped thin plate attached to a battery with high precision without relying on human visual inspection.

"Means for Solving the Problems" The present invention provides a method for detecting displacement of an insulating ring-shaped thin plate attached to a terminal part of a battery, in which the terminal part of the battery is irradiated with uniformly diffused light. a step of performing image processing on the reflected image data to specify an area corresponding to the thin plate located in a regular shape 9; and a step of binarizing the reflected image data in this area designated area as bright and dark. Then, by comparing the area of the bright part or the dark part of the binarized area designated area with the area of the bright part or dark part of the binarized area designated area when the thin plate is positioned in a normal state, the insulation is determined. 1. A method for detecting positional displacement of an insulating ring-shaped thin plate of a battery, comprising the step of determining positional displacement of the insulating ring-shaped thin plate of a battery.

[Function] According to the present invention, by irradiating uniformly diffused light onto the terminal portion attached to the insulating ring-shaped thin plate of the battery, the insulation is improved in the same manner as when the terminal portion is irradiated with direct light. It is possible to prevent reflections from the ring-shaped thin plate portion and irregular reflections from gentle unevenness, and to reflect only from the metal surface excluding the sharp unevenness of the terminal portion. The reflection image data reflected from the terminal part of the battery by the jj and Q radiation of the diffused light is image-processed to designate an area corresponding to Mae-3-Usaka, which is located in the normal state, and the reflection in this designated area is The surface 1 image data is binarized as light and dark, and the area of the bright part or the dark part of the binarized area designated area and the area of the thin plate in the normal state are 14
By comparing the areas of the bright and dark parts of the binarized area designation area when performing the process, it is possible to accurately determine the positional deviation of the insulating ring-shaped thin plate over the entire area where the thin plate is located. In other words, if an insulating ring-shaped thin plate is attached to the battery terminal in the normal condition, the corresponding area of the thin plate is designated as an area, and when binarized, the thin plate is non-reflective in the designated area. is processed as a dark area.

On the other hand, if the thin plate is attached to the terminal part with a deviation from its normal position, the metal of the terminal part will be exposed at the position of the deviation, and this part will be treated as a bright part due to reflection. . Based on these results, it was actually measured and 2
By comparing the area of the dark part of the binarized area specified area with the area of the dark part of the binarized area specified area when the thin plate is located in a normal state, it is determined that there is no difference in their area (or a predetermined threshold value It can be determined that the thin plate is attached to the terminal in the correct position (within the range of the area difference), while it can be determined that the thin plate is attached to the terminal in the normal position, while when it is outside the area difference range of the predetermined threshold value, the thin plate is in the normal position. It can be determined that the terminal was attached to the terminal part with a deviation from the position. In addition, by specifying the area during such determination, it is possible to cut out brightness information in areas other than the thin plate, improving the S/N ratio and achieving highly accurate positional deviation detection of the insulating ring-shaped thin plate. .

[Example code] Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a positional deviation detection system installed in a battery inspection line, and FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of the main part of FIG. 1. Reference numeral 21 in the figure is an endless conveyor belt that is rotated in the direction of the arrow by a drive roller 22 at a circumferential speed of, for example, 400 mrn/see.
The holding block 23 has a structure in which a plurality of holding blocks 23 each having a semi-cylindrical groove into which a cylindrical battery is inserted horizontally are connected.

A pusher mechanism 24 is disposed in the middle of the conveyor belt 21, which is activated by a signal input from an image processing device to be described later, and pushes out batteries determined to be defective. A chute 25 for smoothly discharging the batteries pushed out by the pusher mechanism 24 to the outside of the line is disposed on the opposite side of the pusher mechanism tM24 with respect to the conveyor belt 21.

A table 26 with one end extending below the belt 21 is provided in the middle of the conveyor belt 21 . On this table 26, a CCD camera 27 capable of photographing an image at a shutter speed of, for example, 15,600 seconds is installed at a constant distance from the conveyor belt 21. The center of the lens section 28 of this camera 27 is set to be located on the same plane as the center of the battery that is transported horizontally by the transport belt 21. Between the lens portion 28 of the camera 27 and the conveyor belt 21, as shown in FIG. They are arranged sequentially. The light emitting section 29 is composed of a ring 32 and a plurality of optical fibers 33 that are built into the ring 32 and have one end exposed concentrically on an annular surface on the matte glass plate 31 side. ing. Further, the other ends of these optical fibers 33 are connected to, for example, a halogen illumination light source 35 as a fiber bundle 34. The CCD camera 27, the ring-shaped light emitting section 29, and the matte glass plate 31 are arranged such that their lens section 28, the center of the ring 32, and the light transmission hole 30 are located on the same axis, and The lens part 28 of the CCD camera 27, the ring-shaped light emitting part 29, and the matte glass E31 are connected to the cover 3.
It is housed in 6. Further, the CCD camera 27 is connected to an image processing device 37 for performing area designation and binarization image processing.

This image processing device 37 processes the reflection image data when the insulating ring-shaped thin plate attached to the positive terminal of the battery is positioned in a normal state, and prints the reflected image data on the thin plate (into a desired area). Specified and binarized image data (hereinafter referred to as basic image data) is input in advance.The image processing device 37 is connected to a monitor television 38.

Furthermore, a light emitting element 39 is arranged between the conveyor belt 21 and the matte glass plate 31 so that the light emitting path is located at a location that is far more shifted toward the conveyance direction of the conveyor belt 21 than the optical axis of the CCD camera 27. has been done. A light receiving element 40 is placed directly above the light emitting element 39, and the light receiving element 40 is connected to the CCD camera 27. That is, when the battery conveyed by the conveyor belt 21 moves to the optical path between the light emitting element 38 and the light receiving element 40 and blocks the light, a signal is output from the light receiving element 40 to the CCD camera 27,
The image data captured by the camera 27 at the time when the signal is input is outputted to the image processing device 37.

Next, a method for inspecting positional deviation of an insulating ring-shaped thin plate of a cylindrical battery using the above-mentioned inspection line will be described.

First, the cylindrical battery B having the structure shown in FIGS.
The positive terminal of the CCD camera 27 is sequentially inserted into the semi-cylindrical groove of each holding block 23 on the endless conveyor belt 21 which rotates at a circumferential speed of 21, horizontally facing the CCD camera 27, and is conveyed in the direction of the arrow. At the same time as the conveyor belt 21 is driven, the halogen illumination light source 35 is turned on, and the light source 35 is turned on.
The light from the ring-shaped light emitting part 2 passes through the fiber bundle 34.
Ring-shaped light is irradiated from the plurality of optical fibers 33 of 9 toward the matte glass VL31.

The light irradiated onto the matte glass plate 31 is diffused in a --like manner and irradiated onto the conveyor belt 21 side. Also, CCD
The camera 27 is turned on, and the image reflected by the diffused light irradiation is passed through the light transmission hole 31 of the matte glass plate 31 and the ring-shaped light output part 29 to the lens part 27.
At 8, images are taken sequentially at a speed of 1 to 5600 seconds.

In this state, when the battery B at the front stage of the conveyor belt 21 moves to the optical path between the light emitting element 38 and the light receiving element 40 and blocks the light, a signal is output from the light receiving element 40 to the CCD camera 27, and the signal is output from the light receiving element 40 to the CCD camera 27. The captured image data (reflection image data) of the camera 27 at the time of manual operation is transmitted to the image processing device 37.
is output to. The reflection image data is image-processed in the image processing device 37, and a region is designated as an area that contacts the insulating ring-shaped thin plate normally located at the positive terminal of battery B, and the reflection image data in this designated region is processed. is binarized as light and dark. When the binarized image data of the designated area at this time is output to the monitor television 38, as shown in FIG. An image is obtained in which a target annular dark area (indicated by dots) 42 is shown in the specified area. However, this image shows the insulating ring-shaped thin plate attached to the positive terminal of battery B in a normal state. In addition,
When the reflected image data is simply binarized and outputted to the monitor television 38 without specifying a region, an outer circle 41 corresponding to the outline of battery B and an outer circle 41 of this outer circle 41 are formed as shown in FIG. An annular dark area (indicated by dots) 43 located inside and corresponding to the peripheral area of the thin plate, and an annular dark area 44 (indicated by dots) located inside this annular dark area 43 and corresponding to a sharp step of the carbon rod. A projected image is obtained. and,
The area of the bright area is determined by counting the number of pixels in the bright area in the binarized image data of the image-processed region designated area by the image processing device 37, and this area and the number of pixels manually entered in the image processing device 37 in advance are counted. The area of the bright part of the reference image data is compared.

In this comparison, when the areas are the same (or within a range of area difference within a predetermined threshold value), it is determined that the insulating ring-shaped thin plate of battery B is properly attached. On the other hand, in the above comparison, when the areas are outside the area difference range that is a predetermined threshold value, it is determined that the insulating ring-shaped thin plate attached to battery B is deviated from its normal position. The reason why such an area difference occurs is that if the insulating ring-shaped thin plate is attached to the positive terminal of the battery out of its normal position, the metal of the positive terminal will be exposed at the position of the misalignment, and the metal of the positive terminal will be exposed when irradiated with diffused light. This is due to the fact that since the light is reflected at a certain point, the area specified and binarized image data is processed as a bright part, and the area of the counted bright part increases. If it is determined that the thin plate attached to battery B is deviated from its normal position in this way, a signal is output from the image processing device 37 to the pusher mechanism 24, and when the battery B is moved to the pusher mechanism 24, the signal is is extruded and discharged to the outside of the line through the chute 25.

Next, regarding the batteries in the later stage than the battery B in the front stage,
Similar to the above-mentioned sweeping, output of image data (reflection image data) taken by the CCD camera 27 to the image processing device 37 according to the detection timing of the light emitting element 38 and the light receiving element 40, area designation in this image processing device, Binarization, measurement of the area of the bright area by counting the number of pixels of the bright area in the binarized image data of the area designated area, and measuring the area of the bright area of the basic emblem image data inputted in advance to the image processing device 37. A comparison is made with the area to determine whether the insulating ring-shaped thin plate of the battery is installed in a normal state or is installed in a misaligned manner.

Therefore, according to the present invention, evenly diffused light is irradiated onto the insulating ring-shaped thin plate of the battery or the attached terminal part, thereby causing reflections on the insulating ring-shaped thin plate and irregularities caused by gentle unevenness. Preventing reflection and reflecting only the metal surface excluding sharp irregularities of the terminal portion, image processing the reflected image data and specifying an area corresponding to the thin plate located in a normal state,
The reflection image data in this area designated area is binarized as bright and dark, and the area of the bright or dark part of the binarized area specified area and the binarized area specified area when the thin plate is positioned in a normal state. By comparing the areas of the bright or dark parts of the insulating ring-shaped thin plate, it is possible to accurately detect the positional shift of the thin insulating ring-shaped plate over the entire area where the thin plate is located. Furthermore, by specifying the area during such detection, it is possible to cut out brightness information in areas other than the thin plate, improving the S/N ratio and achieving highly accurate positional deviation detection of the insulating ring-shaped thin plate. .

In fact, when we automatically detected 100 batteries in which the insulating ring-shaped thin plate was attached to the positive electrode terminal with a misaligned position according to this embodiment described above, the judgment results shown in Table 1 below were obtained, indicating that highly accurate positional misalignment detection was performed. It was confirmed that it can be done. Note that, in Table 1, the results of the conventional three-point optical sensor test are also listed as comparative examples.

Table 1 Note that in the above embodiment, an example was explained in which the misalignment of an insulating ring-shaped thin plate of a battery that is continuously conveyed by an endless conveyor belt was inspected. You can also do this.

In the above embodiment, the area of the binarized image data of the image-processed region designated area was determined by counting the pixels in the bright area, but the area may also be determined by counting the pixels in the dark area.

[Effects of the Invention] As detailed above, according to the method for detecting positional deviation of an insulating ring-shaped thin plate of a battery according to the present invention, minute displacement of an insulating ring-shaped thin plate attached to a battery can be detected without relying on human visual inspection. It is possible to detect the positional deviation of the battery with high accuracy, and the installation of the insulating ring-shaped thin plate of the battery has remarkable effects such as significantly improving the efficiency of inspection for defects caused by mistakes.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing one form of an inspection line used in an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of the main part of FIG. 1, and FIG.
The figure is an explanatory diagram showing the image when the binarized image data of the area specified area is output to the monitor TV, and Figure 4 shows the image when the binarized image data without area specification is output to the monitor TV. Explanatory drawings, FIG. 5(a) is a plan view of a cylindrical battery, FIG. 5(b) is a half-cut view of the battery in FIG. 6(a), and FIGS. 6 and 7
Each figure is a plan view showing the positive terminal side of a cylindrical battery in which an insulating ring-shaped thin plate is deviated from its normal position. l...metal can, 4...carbon rod, 5...sealing plate, 9
...Metal cap, 10...Insulating ring-shaped thin plate,
21... Endless conveyor belt, 23... Block ° section,
24...butsusha mechanism, 27...CCD camera, 29
... Ring-shaped light emitting part, 31 ... Matte glass plate, 3
5...Halogen illumination light source, 37... Image processing device, 3
8... Monitor television, 39... Light emitting element, 40...
... Light receiving element, B... Cylindrical battery. Applicant's agent Patent attorney Takehiko Suzue Figure 2 (a) (b) Figure 5

Claims (1)

[Claims] A method for detecting a positional shift of an insulating ring-shaped thin plate attached to a terminal portion of a battery includes the steps of irradiating the terminal portion of the battery with uniformly diffused light, and image processing the reflected image data. a step of specifying an area in an area corresponding to the thin plate located in a normal state; a step of binarizing the reflection image data in this area designated area as bright and dark;
The insulating ring-shaped thin plate is determined by comparing the area of the bright part or dark part of the digitized area designated area with the area of the bright part or dark part of the binarized area designated area when the thin plate is positioned in a normal state. 1. A method for detecting positional deviation of an insulating ring-shaped thin plate of a battery, comprising the step of determining a positional deviation of a battery.