Inline Tester

The inline test system can load the cells from a hopper or bin, or the cells can be loaded from a buffer conveyor in front of the test system.

A feeding wheel will line up the cells and transfer to the main test wheel. This wheel has 48 individual test positions, from which 30 are active. The number of test positions on the wheel can be customized and is determined by the requested line speed and the length of the test.

Each position has a 4-wire contact to the cell and the PEC inline test system differentiates itself by running the test with a stationary contact to the cells. This eliminates the chance on measurement and contact failures.

After the test run, the onboard electronics, will determine the quality based on the reject thresholds, defined by the operator computer.

The communication between the operator computer and the electronics is wireless. When the cell is OK, the cell will be taken by the output wheel, which will transfer it to a buffer conveyor. When the cell is not OK, the cell will stay on the main wheel and will be rejected on the eject position.

The setup of the test can be done off-line. The test can be configured in time and load, which results in a high level of flexibility. For each cell type or quality a different test profile can be chosen.

The inline tester supports constant and intermittent resistive, current and power tests, as well as flash amperage (short circuit current) and impedance tests.

The setup of the system can easily be done via the operator panel, which functions as the main control panel for the inline test system. The operator can select the product type and start the unit. On the operator panel, a synoptical screen will show different real time and statistical values. The reject band can also be recalculated in case the nominal value is not stable. In this case a moving average can be set to define the reject bands.