With the booming development of new energy vehicles and the energy storage industry, the repair, reuse, and recycling of battery packs have become crucial aspects of the industry. However, whether repairing faulty modules or recycling valuable cells, we face a common and challenging problem: how to safely and without damage open battery packs tightly sealed with high-strength adhesive? Traditional cutting methods relying on manual or rough mechanical methods are prone to damaging the fragile internal cells due to improper operation, leading to cell failure or even serious safety accidents such as short circuits and thermal runaway. So, is there a method that can be as precise as surgery, “cutting” only the adhesive while perfectly protecting the cells? The answer is yes. This article will delve into this pain point and introduce how Guheng Energy, with its innovative CNC cutting technology, provides the industry with a precise solution of “cutting only the adhesive, without damaging the cells.”
Battery Pack Disassembly: The Surgical Challenge of Cutting with Structural Adhesive
Adhesive: The Battery Pack’s “Rugged Armor”
In modern battery pack design, structural adhesives play a crucial role. They are not merely adhesives, but structural components. Their main functions include:
- Structural Fixation: Firmly bonding the cells, modules, cooling plates, and casing into a unified whole, resisting vibrations and impacts during vehicle operation.
- Thermal Management Assistance: Some adhesives possess excellent thermal conductivity, helping to conduct heat from the cells to the cooling system.
- Sealing and Insulation: Filling gaps, providing dustproofing, waterproofing, and electrical insulation.
These requirements necessitate that the adhesives used in battery packs typically possess extremely high bonding strength, aging resistance, and temperature resistance, creating a robust “barrier” for subsequent maintenance and disassembly.
The Tragedy of Traditional Cutting: Risks and Costs
Faced with this “armor,” many workshops still use angle grinders, cutting machines, chisels, and even heated knives for manual disassembly. These methods have significant drawbacks:
- Uncontrollable cutting depth: Completely reliant on operator feel, they easily cut through the aluminum-plastic film or metal casing of the battery cell, directly causing cell damage or internal short circuits.
- Thermal damage and contamination: The high temperatures generated by high-speed cutting can damage the battery cell’s chemical system and even ignite the electrolyte; the resulting dust and debris can also contaminate the cell terminals.
- Significant safety risks: Violently cutting charged battery packs (even if they are de-energized but still have residual charge) is one of the main causes of thermal runaway and fires.
- Inefficient and wasteful: Careful handling leads to lengthy processing times, and a mistake can significantly devalue the entire battery pack, contradicting the principles of economic efficiency and environmental recycling.
Precise cutting: The key to safety and value
Therefore, achieving precise cutting is far more significant than simply “opening” the battery pack. It is the bottom line for ensuring operator safety, a prerequisite for maximizing the preservation of battery cell value (whether for repair or recycling), and the core of improving the efficiency and economic benefits of the entire battery lifecycle management process. What we need is no longer “dismantling,” but “minimally invasive surgery.”
CNC Cutting Machine: The Smart Key to “Minimally Invasive Surgery”
What is a CNC Cutting Machine?
The core of a CNC cutting machine lies in “Computer Numerical Control.” Through pre-programming or real-time sensing, it allows the cutting tool to operate according to digitally set paths, speeds, and depths, completely eliminating the uncertainty of “manual operation.”
Guheng Energy, deeply rooted in the new energy battery aftermarket, has successfully developed a high-precision CNC cutting device specifically for battery pack disassembly to address this precise demand. Our design philosophy is to translate the engineer’s precise thinking into stable execution by the equipment, making every cut knowable, controllable, and repeatable.
How does core technology protect cell safety?
Taking Guheng Energy’s typical equipment as an example, its achievement of “cutting only the adhesive, without damaging the core” relies on three core technological pillars:
- High-precision multi-axis CNC system and 3D path planning: Our equipment is equipped with a high-performance multi-axis motion control system. Before operation, the adhesive distribution can be reconstructed in 3D visualization in the software through laser scanning or based on the battery pack CAD model. The system automatically plans the optimal cutting path, ensuring the cutting head completely and continuously separates all bonded surfaces while perfectly avoiding critical components such as battery cells and wire harnesses.
- Intelligent Depth Sensing and Adaptive Control: This is the core of damage prevention. The equipment integrates highly sensitive pressure and displacement sensors. During cutting, the system monitors the resistance changes and position information of the cutting head in real time, forming a closed-loop feedback. Once a sudden change in resistance is detected (indicating potential contact with the battery cell casing or metal structure), the control system automatically fine-tunes the cutting depth or stops the feed within milliseconds, ensuring the cutting operation is always confined within the adhesive layer.
- Low-Temperature Cutting and Vibration Suppression Design: We use specially designed low-heat-load cutting tools and processes to minimize the conduction of cutting heat to the battery cell. Simultaneously, the entire equipment employs a high-rigidity anti-vibration structure, coupled with an active vibration damping system, effectively absorbing operational vibrations and preventing displacement or damage to the internal electrode plates of the battery cell due to vibration.
The Application Value of Guheng Energy’s CNC Cutting Machines
In real-world scenarios, whether it’s automotive power battery pack repair, energy storage station battery replacement, or environmentally friendly recycling of scrapped battery packs, our equipment excels:
- Repair Scenarios: Precisely cuts away the adhesive around faulty modules, quickly removing problematic units, significantly shortening repair cycles, and ensuring the surrounding healthy cells remain intact.
- Recycling Scenarios: Efficiently and non-destructively separates cells from connectors and structural components, improving the integrity and purity of individual cells during recycling, creating higher value for subsequent reuse or material regeneration.
- Standardized Operations: Transforms skills reliant on experienced technicians into standardized, trainable processes, reducing dependence on highly skilled personnel and ensuring consistent work quality.
Towards Safe and Efficient Battery Lifecycle Management
As a professional manufacturer specializing in providing new energy service technology solutions and battery maintenance and testing instruments, Guheng Energy is committed to solving the industry’s most pressing pain points. We deeply understand that the precise disassembly of battery packs is a crucial link connecting repair, recycling, and remanufacturing, and its safety, economy, and environmental impact affect the sustainable development of the entire industry.
Our CNC cutting solution is a product of this philosophy. It’s not just a piece of equipment, but a system integrating intelligent planning, precise execution, and safety protection. Through continuous technological iteration and in-depth customer scenario research, we ensure that our products truly create a safe environment and economic value for our customers.
Conclusion
In the new energy era, batteries are core assets, and every “operation” throughout their life cycle is crucial. Rough disassembly methods are a thing of the past; precise, intelligent, and safe operations are the future. Guheng Energy’s CNC cutting technology was born to lead this transformation. It uses technological precision to mitigate the greatest risks in the disassembly process, protect the value of the battery cells, and pave a safer and more efficient path for the industry’s green and circular development.
We believe that through continuous technological innovation and reliable solutions, Guheng Energy can become your most trusted partner in the field of new energy battery management. Let’s work together to propel the industry towards a safer and more sustainable future. Looking to explore safer and more efficient solutions for precise battery pack disassembly? Visit the Guheng Energy website for more information on our CNC cutting equipment and comprehensive battery maintenance and testing solutions.
FAQ
Q: Why can’t we directly cut the adhesive with an angle grinder during battery pack disassembly?
A: Angle grinders operate at high speeds and generate significant vibration, easily cutting through the battery casing and damaging the cells, potentially causing short circuits or thermal runaway. Furthermore, high temperatures can damage the cell’s chemical structure, creating safety risks. CNC cutting machines, through low-temperature, low-speed, and high-precision control, ensure that the cut only affects the adhesive layer, guaranteeing safety.
Q: Can Guheng Energy’s CNC cutting machines handle all types of battery packs?
A: Yes. Our equipment is equipped with an adaptive programming system and modular cutting heads, allowing for 3D scanning and modeling to adapt to various battery configurations, including square, cylindrical, and pouch cells. Users can also customize cutting parameters according to their needs, offering high flexibility.
Q: Will using a CNC cutting machine for battery pack disassembly reduce work efficiency?
A: No. Although a single cut may take slightly longer than with rough tools, CNC cutting machines are highly automated, eliminating the need for repeated checks and adjustments, and significantly reducing rework or scrap due to battery cell damage. Overall, dismantling efficiency is significantly improved, and the overall cost is lower.
Q: How does the CNC cutting machine ensure operator safety during the cutting process?
A: The equipment uses a fully enclosed operating chamber to prevent debris from flying; it is equipped with real-time smoke and temperature monitoring and an automatic fire extinguishing system; it supports remote monitoring and emergency stop functions. Multiple protective designs ensure the safety of personnel and equipment.
Q: Is the investment cost of a CNC cutting machine too high for small repair shops?
A: Guheng Energy offers a variety of equipment models to choose from, among which the compact CNC cutting machine is designed specifically for small to medium-sized operations and offers high cost-effectiveness. Considering its improved safety and battery cell recycling value, the investment payback period is typically within one year, with significant long-term benefits.
