Wire Bonding machines

[jonescg]

Has anyone here in the e-bike manufacturing world bought an ultrasonic wirebonder for terminating cells?

It's a big ticket expense, so I'm expecting to only hear from larger e-bike manufacturers, but the company I work for is looking at buying one with a working area of about 500 x 900 mm. I'm guessing they start in the $60k range?

 

[KWS Seuren]

I have searched for them in the past but too expensive unless you have high demand for alot of the same batteries.

 

[PaulD]

I recall them starting around $70-80K USD. That size you are looking for would be more $$. This was at 5 years ago.
In my past job, we looked at Hesse, F&K and K&S.. then decided not to use cylindrical cells
What does your company build?

 

[Toorbough ULL-Zeveigh]

that iz a moist excellent question to put to dervish ron.
https://www.electricbike.com/luna-cycle-announces-wire-bonded-ebike-battery-packs/

In May 25th of last year, Luna Cycle took delivery of the latest technology in wire-bonding and shot a photo of the giant wooden box it came in, which was posted on the fast electric bike facebook group where the Luna founder Eric Hicks often posts. Here is what he said…”What’s in this one box, we gambled everything for…and this has the potential to change this ebike game forever.”

 

[jonescg]

Yeah we're using cylindrical cells for home and grid-scale storage batteries. Prototypes used spotwelds, but the long term plan is to U/S wirebond stuff. I have contacted Hesse Mechatronics and hoping to get a decent price soon, but there are a few cheaper Alibaba types such as Minder Hi-Tech. I think they started at $60k.

 

[PaulD]

I have contacted Hesse Mechatronics and hoping to get a decent price soon, but there are a few cheaper Alibaba types such as Minder Hi-Tech. I think they started at $60k.

Cool, I wonder if Minder is any good. I was hoping they would be significantly cheaper than US and EU machines. Let us know what you decide to go with (if you are able to share). thanks.

 

[flat tire]

lol, Luna can't afford a wire bonding machine and their press release is mostly useful to competitors not customers. Really though I want one of these.

The $40-60k one on alibaba is also fully automated. The actuators themselves are under $10K.

 

[jonescg]

Hi All,
Just thought I'd follow up with this thread. My work bought the Minder Hightech welder with conveyer for long packs.
http://minder-hightech.com/ProDetails.asp?ID=420

It came to about AUD$100k landed, which is well less than the ~$300k on offer by Hesse and the like. However, you can have any two of the following: good, cheap and easy. Easy it aint.

It seems to be doing some reasonably good welds, but we're a long way from welding packs. Will update as I can, and as I'm allowed to.

 

[PaulD]

Thanks for the follow up! Interesting to see how spendy even the Chinese machine is. I've been tempted to buy a 1980s heavy wire bond head off of ebay and mounting to a CNC router if I had the time. That would be a big project. Hope you're able to share more as you start welding packs.