A secondary battery charging and discharging apparatus for performing a secondary battery activation process including a plurality of compression plates disposed to face each other to form a cell insert space therebetween in which a secondary battery cell is disposed, the plurality of compression plates moving to reduce a gap therebetween to press a body of the secondary battery cell; gripper units respectively mounted to the compression plates to move integrally with the compression plates, the gripper units coming into contact with an electrode lead of the secondary battery cell when the compression plate presses the body of the secondary battery cell; and push bar units respectively mounted to the compression plates to be adjacent to the gripper units and configured to press a terrace portion of the secondary battery cell adjacent to the electrode lead is provided.

A lithium-ion secondary battery containing: a positive electrode; a negative electrode; a separator between the positive electrode and the negative electrode; and an electrolyte, in which the negative electrode may contain silicon or a silicon compound, a binder, and a carbon nanotube, the binder may contain a compound having a structure in which a linear molecule penetrates a cyclic molecule, and the electrolyte may contain an electrolytic salt containing one or more elements selected from the group consisting of boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur.

A nonaqueous electrolyte rechargeable battery includes an electrode body, a nonaqueous electrolyte, and a rectangular box-shaped battery case accommodating the electrode body and the nonaqueous electrolyte. The electrode body includes a positive electrode including a positive base and a positive composite material layer, a negative electrode including a negative base and a negative composite material layer, and a porous resin separator disposed therebetween. The electrode body has a low profile when the positive electrode, the negative electrode, and the separator are laminated and rolled. When spring constant of the nonaqueous electrolyte rechargeable battery with a load of 316 to 210 N/cm.sup.2 and 95 to 74 N/cm.sup.2 is respectively referred to as spring constant H and spring constant L, the ratio L/H is 0.34 or greater and 0.41 or less. A resistance increase rate between before and after a square wave test is less than or equal to 1.17.

The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a degenerate cell and a method for evaluating a degenerate cell including the same. The method for manufacturing a degenerate cell includes: preparing a battery cell which has a structure where an electrode assembly, which is generated by lamination of a negative electrode, a positive electrode, and a separator, is accommodated in a battery case, and an electrode lead is drawn out to an outside of the battery case; and precipitating lithium metal on a predetermined region between the negative electrode and the separator by performing charge and discharge under predetermined temperature, pressure and charge and discharge pattern conditions.

The present invention is a system and method for formation and packaging of a rechargeable battery. Battery is packaged with multiple modules with each module containing cells of different sizes. A controller reads the state of charge of battery modules and if state of charge is low, battery modules with smaller cells are charged first. The system is comprising of battery modules with each module holding one size cells and the package holding modules of different cell sizes. It is possible to have each module formed with different cell sizes as well. Logics in the controller memory determines the recharging sequence of the battery modules and send charging command to recharging hardware.

Provided is a method for producing a nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery, and a production system therefor, that allow forming a good SEI film in a shorter time. The production method includes an assembly step, an initial charging step and a high-temperature aging step. At least one from among the initial charging step and the high-temperature aging step has the following sub-steps: a step of performing an AC impedance measurement on the nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery and, on the basis of the AC impedance measurement, calculating an ionic conductivity of an SEI film that is formed the surface of a negative electrode of the nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery; and a step of determining whether the calculated ionic conductivity falls within a predetermined range or not, and terminating the initial charging step or the high-temperature aging step when the ionic conductivity falls within the predetermined range, and continuing the initial charging step or the high-temperature aging step when the ionic conductivity does not fall within the predetermined range.

Systems and techniques for measuring process characteristics including electrolyte distribution in a battery cell. A non-destructive method for analyzing a battery cell includes determining acoustic features at two or more locations of the battery cell, the acoustic features based on one or more of acoustic signals travelling through at least one or more portions of the battery cell during one or more points in time or responses to the acoustic signals obtained during one or more points in time, wherein the one or more points in time correspond to one or more stages of electrolyte distribution in the battery cell. One or more characteristics of the battery cell are determined based on the acoustic features at the two or more locations of the battery cell.

A power supply system includes a power storage device, a positive electrode-side relay, a negative electrode-side relay, a power control unit that includes a capacitor configured to be pre-charged in response to a system start request and that is connected with the power storage device via the positive electrode-side relay and the negative electrode-side relay, and a control device programmed to close the positive electrode-side relay and the negative electrode-side relay at different timings always or under a predetermined condition in response to the system start request and programmed to change a sequence of closing the positive electrode-side relay and the negative electrode-side relay in accordance with a predetermined restriction. This configuration effectively extends the lives of the positive electrode-side relay and the negative electrode-side relay.

Ascertaining a charge state of a battery system that includes at least one battery cell and one additional energy store that is connected in series with the at least one battery cell and can be switched in and out. One method includes switching in the additional energy store; measuring a voltage of the additional energy store at predefined time intervals; ascertaining a capacity change of the additional energy store with reference to the measured voltage and to a characteristic voltage curve of the additional energy store; ascertaining a charge throughput of the additional energy store with reference to the ascertained capacity change of the additional energy store; and ascertaining the charge state of the battery system with reference to the ascertained charge throughput.

A clamping device for an electrochemical cell stack is provided. The clamping device can include a first plate and a second plate. The second plate can be positionable relative to the first plate such that a space between the first plate and the second plate can be sized to receive an electrochemical cell stack. The device also can include a coupling member coupling the first plate to the second plate. At least one of the first and second plates can be movable away from the other plate. The coupling member can have a first end portion and a second end portion. The device further can include an elastic member disposed between the first end portion and the second end portion.