You should consider many things to make batteries. You should know the properties of each material used for manufacturing and each phenomenon that differs depending on the materials and methods of combining them. Lastly, you weld together the parts using the right method for the materials and the battery’s structure and you have a finished battery. Jeong-hyun Park at the Platform Technology for Welding Team of LG Energy Solution does the job. We will find out his role in his team!
Q. Please introduce yourself.
Hi! I am Jeong-hyun Park and I work at the Platform Technology for Welding Team of the Platform Technology Center that provides the optimum platform technology solutions for battery development and manufacturing. Here I provide welding theory (mechanisms) based on the battery structure and material properties as a welding expert while securing, developing, and improving welding solutions.
Q. What do you need to work at the Platform Technology for Welding Team?
First, you should be well aware of the theory. You should understand the properties of materials used for manufacturing batteries, such as aluminum and copper. The methods of battery welding are largely categorized into ultrasonic, laser, and resistance welding and you should know about them.
A variety of perspectives in dealing with materials are also necessary. You should understand materials and battery structure and employ the right welding method for the materials and structure. As for me, I majored in material engineering in college and learned the physical properties of the materials used for batteries. In my graduate school, I studied welding phenomena and welding process development. That’s how I acquired expertise in welding phenomena and welding standards of batteries.
Q. What do you do to improve your professional abilities?
I have working-level communications on welding within the company and talk with relevant departments to build various perspectives. In addition, I develop myself by participating in welding patent development projects with the mindset that we are the world’s best in the battery industry, so our welding experts have to be the world’s best, too. Maybe as a result, I was named an IEEE* senior member as a welding expert this year.
*Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE): The leading institute consisting of experts in electrical, electronics, and computer engineering. It has about 3.5 million members of 150 countries.
I also make efforts to get the expertise I want to have in the future. I study materials such as lithium metal, a next-generation battery material, to be a material expert as well.
Q. Do you have a future plan? And what are your aspirations for the future?
First, I want to be a go-to person in the field of welding at LG Energy Solution. My long-term goal is to become a globally recognized battery-welding expert. Then, I want to make the battery welding methods of LG Energy Solution the global standards. Another aspiration is to make the battery welding method, of which I have led the development, a global standard. While there are many internationally certified standards in the heavy industry, there is none in the battery industry. I will devote myself to making LG Energy Solution’s battery welding methods the global standards!