JPH07226194A - Battery pack and manufacturing method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Object] An object of the present invention is to save space, improve the degree of freedom, and improve productivity in mounting terminals and protection elements of a battery pack. A battery pack of the present invention is a battery pack in which a battery, a protective element and a terminal are housed in an outer case, and a positioning member, which is a resin molded body, is installed in a space between the outer case and the battery.
The positioning member has a plurality of terminal projections fitted into positioning holes formed in the terminals to position and fix the terminals, a storage space for positioning and fixing the body of the protective element, and A plurality of lead projections for sandwiching the lead of the protection element are integrally formed, and the terminal and the protection element are positioned and fixed at a predetermined position in the pack by the positioning member.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a battery pack and its manufacturing method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, due to the multi-functionalization of small portable communication devices or small camcorders, the battery pack serving as a driving power source is required to have high energy in order to cope with the multi-functionalization, and downsizing, Lighter weight is required. By the way, in recent battery packs, an electronic circuit, a protective element, or the like is often mounted in the battery pack for reasons of safety and control of driving power supply.

[0003]

However, the terminals and protective elements mounted on the conventional battery pack are
It is fixed by soldering it to the printed circuit board.The printed circuit board has a low degree of freedom in shape design, and when mechanical processing such as bending or punching is applied, the circuit pattern may float and the wire may break. It was Further, in the soldering process, it takes time to melt and cool and solidify, and there is a problem that productivity is poor.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned conventional problems, and an object of the present invention is to save space, improve the degree of freedom, and improve the productivity in mounting the terminals and protective elements of a battery pack.

[0005]

The battery pack of the present invention is a battery pack in which a battery, a protective element and a terminal are housed in an outer case, and a positioning member which is a resin molded body is provided in a space between the outer case and the battery. The positioning member is provided with a plurality of terminal projections for fitting the positioning holes formed in the terminals to position and fix the terminals, and to position and fix the body of the protective element. And a plurality of lead projections for sandwiching the lead of the protection element are integrally formed, and the terminal and the protection element are positioned and fixed at a predetermined position in the pack by the positioning member. It is a thing.

The storage space is formed by holes or grooves. The battery pack manufacturing method of the present invention is the battery pack manufacturing apparatus described above, wherein a working hole is formed in advance at a predetermined position of the positioning member, and the lead of the terminal and the protection element is formed by electric resistance welding. At the time of joining, one of the pair of electrode rods is passed through the working hole, the terminal and the lead of the protective element are sandwiched by the pair of electrode rods, and both are electrically resistance welded in this state. To do.

[0007]

With this structure, since the resin molded body forming the positioning member has a three-dimensional degree of freedom, it is possible to effectively use the space, and the protective element is provided in the space which is the hole or groove provided in the molded body. Since the main body can be embedded, space saving for mounting can be achieved. Moreover, since the protective element is embedded in the molded body, it can be welded and fixed to the terminal without bending the lead of the protective element. Moreover, the terminals and the protective element can be easily positioned by the protrusions provided on the resin molded body.

To connect the terminal and the lead of the protective element, electric resistance welding can be performed by passing an electrode rod through a hole formed in a resin molded body, and the working time can be significantly shortened as compared with soldering. Further, when mechanical stress is applied, it is possible to eliminate the fear of rise in circuit resistance or disconnection due to float of solder or float of the circuit pattern of the printed circuit board.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A battery pack and a method of manufacturing the same according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a view showing a battery pack according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and (A), (B) and (C) are a front view, a side view and a sectional view of the battery pack, respectively. .

In the above drawings, reference numeral 1 denotes a positioning member which is a molded body of resin, and this positioning member 1 is formed by using, for example, polypropylene which is a thermoplastic resin,
The overall shape is a horizontally long rectangular parallelepiped shape, and is integrally formed so as to have a plurality of protrusions and a plurality of spaces. The positioning member 1 is installed in the space between the outer case 38 made of resin and the unit cell 37 of the battery.

The positioning member 1 is for positioning and fixing the two projections 2 and 3 for positioning and fixing the nickel positive electrode terminal 21 and the nickel protection element terminal 22 of the thermistor 34 which is a protection element. It has two protrusions 4 and 5 and two protrusions 14 and 15 for positioning and fixing the nickel negative electrode terminal 23. On the other hand, the positive electrode terminal 21, the protective element terminal 22, and the negative electrode terminal 23 are each provided with two positioning holes 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 at predetermined positions.

These positive electrode terminal 21 and protective element terminal 2
2 and the negative terminal 23 have their holes 24, 25, 26, 27 and 2 as shown in FIG.
8, 29 are the protrusions 2, 3, 4, 5 and 14, 15
It is positioned by fitting it to the
It is crushed and fixed as in (B). Note that FIG.
In the drawings, reference numeral 39 represents a protrusion, reference numeral 40 represents a terminal, and reference numeral 41 represents a positioning member.

The positioning member 1 is further formed with holes 17 and 19 which form a space for accommodating the main body of the thermistor 34 which is a protective element and the thermal fuse 35. This hole may be in the shape of a groove as long as a space for accommodating the protective element is formed. The positioning member 1
Further, the projections 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 for sandwiching and fixing the leads of each element, that is, the thermistor leads 30, 31 and the thermal fuse leads 32, 33 on both sides of the holes 17 and 19, respectively. , 11, 12, and 13 are formed. Further, the positioning member 1 is formed with working holes 16, 18 and 20 at positions corresponding to the connecting portions between the terminals and the leads.

In the above structure, the body of the thermistor 34 is housed in the hole 17, the thermistor lead 30 is a pair of protrusions 6 and 7, and the thermistor lead 31 is a pair of protrusions 9 and 1.
The thermistor 34 is positioned by being sandwiched between 0, 12, and 13. Further, the main body of the thermal fuse 35 is housed in the hole 19, and the thermal fuse leads 32 and 33 are sandwiched between the pair of protrusions 8, 9 and 11, 12 respectively, and the thermal fuse 3
Position 5. Further, one end is located at the negative electrode portion of the unit cell 37, from which the lower side of the positioning member 1 is passed, and the other end is bent to provide a communication terminal 36 exposed to the working hole 18. There is. When each protective element is positioned as described above, each lead is in a state of being superposed on the terminal to which each lead is connected.

Next, with reference to FIG. 3, a method of connecting the lead and the terminal of each of the above protective elements by electric resistance welding will be described. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 43 represents a lead of the element, reference numeral 44 represents a working hole, and reference numeral 45 represents a terminal. In electric resistance welding,
Two electrode rods 42 are used, and one of them is brought into contact with a terminal 45 from the lower side through a working hole 44 in the figure, and the other of the electrode rods is brought into contact with a lead 43 from the upper side to perform electric resistance welding. .

By this electric resistance welding, the negative electrode terminal 23, the thermistor 34 and the lead 31 of the thermal fuse 35,
33, connection between the protective element terminal 22 and the lead 30 of the thermistor 34, and connection between the communication terminal 36 and the lead 32 of the thermal fuse 35, respectively.

After the above connection is completed, in the unit of the positioning member 1, one end of the connecting terminal 36 is electrically resistance-welded to the negative electrode of the unit cell 37, and the positive terminal 21 is connected to the positive electrode of the unit cell 37.
Is attached to the unit cell 37 by electrical resistance welding. As a result, the negative electrode side of the unit cell 37 is connected to the communication terminal 3
6, thermal fuse 35, negative electrode terminal 23, thermistor 34
And the protective element terminal 22 are connected in series in this order. Then, the unit cell 37 to which the unit of the positioning member 1 is attached is housed in the outer case 38, and the manufacturing of the battery pack is completed.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the space between the battery and the outer case is used, the space can be effectively utilized, and the resin molding forming the positioning member has a degree of freedom in shape, and the terminal is Since the protection element is fixed to the molded body, the mounting space can be saved. In addition, since the protective element lead is fixed by electric resistance welding, not only is workability improved compared to soldering, but there is no concern about rising circuit resistance due to solder float or circuit pattern disconnection on the printed circuit board. It is possible to realize space saving, workability, and reliability.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a battery pack according to the present invention, in which (A), (B) and (C) are a front view, a side view and a sectional view, respectively.

2A and 2B are views for explaining a method of connecting a terminal and a lead in an example of the present invention, FIG. 2A is a partially enlarged cross-sectional view when a terminal is installed, and FIG. 2B is a partially enlarged view when a terminal is fixed. FIG.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view for explaining an operation of electric resistance welding in the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Positioning member 2-15 Protrusion 16-20 Hole 24-29 Hole 44 Hole 21 Positive electrode terminal 22 Protection element terminal 23 Negative electrode terminal 30,31 Thermistor lead 32,33 Thermal fuse lead 34 Thermistor 35 Thermal fuse 36 Contact terminal 37 Unit cell 38 Outer case 39 Protrusion 40 Terminal 41 Molded body 42 Electrode rod 43 Protective element lead 45 Terminal

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. In a battery pack in which a battery, a protective element and a terminal are housed in an outer case, a positioning member, which is a resin molded body, is installed in a space between the outer case and the battery, and the positioning member includes: A plurality of terminal projections for fitting and positioning the terminals are formed in the positioning holes formed in the terminals, a storage space for positioning and fixing the body of the protection element, and a lead of the protection element. A battery pack in which a plurality of lead projections to be sandwiched are integrally formed, and the terminal and the protection element are positioned and fixed at a predetermined position in the pack by the positioning member. 2. The method of manufacturing a battery pack according to claim 1, wherein a working hole is formed in advance at a predetermined position of the positioning member, and the terminal and the lead of the protection element are joined by electric resistance welding. A method of manufacturing a battery pack, wherein one of a pair of electrode rods is passed through the work hole, the pair of electrode rods sandwiches the terminal and the lead of the protective element, and both are electrically resistance-welded in this state.