Destructive battery closure

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9692036-B2
Application number	US-201514703158-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 4, 2015
Priority date	Aug 29, 2012
Publication date	Jun 27, 2017
Grant date	Jun 27, 2017

Abstract

An article including: a battery support containing battery lead wires attached to terminals; an opposing battery support attached to the battery support to create a battery closure; one or more batteries having battery contacts in the opposing battery support; and one or more activation tabs; wherein the terminals are attached to spring-loaded members; wherein the one or more activation tabs are spaced between the terminals and the battery contacts; wherein the spring-loaded members provide a biasing force that biases the terminals against the activation tabs keeping the one or more activation tabs in place in either a first position or a second position of the opposing battery support; wherein the opposing battery support is securely connected to the battery support in both the first position and the second position; and wherein the biasing force is greater in the second position than in the first position.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An article comprising:
(a) a battery support containing battery lead wires attached to one or more terminals;
(b) an opposing battery support attached to the battery support to create a battery closure;
(c) one or more batteries having one or more battery contacts in the opposing battery support;
(d) one or more activation tabs; and
(e) one or more spring-loaded member shaving a linear axis;
wherein the one or more terminals are attached to the one or more spring-loaded members;
wherein the one or more activation tabs are spaced between the one or more terminals and the one or more battery contacts;
wherein the one or more spring-loaded members provide a biasing force that biases the one or more terminals against the one or more activation tabs keeping the one or more activation tabs in place in either a first position or a second position of the opposing battery support;
wherein the opposing battery support is moveable from the first position to the second position relative to the battery support by moving the opposing battery support along the linear axis and toward the one or more spring-loaded members to compress the one or more spring-loaded members so that the biasing force is greater in the second position than in the first position; and
wherein the opposing battery support is securely connected to the battery support in both the first position and the second position.

2. The article of claim 1 , wherein the one or more spring-loaded members are one or more compression springs having a first end connected to the one or more terminals.

3. The article of claim 1 , wherein the one or more spring-loaded members hold the one or more activation tabs between the one or more terminals and the one or more battery contacts, before the one or more activation tabs are removed from the article.

4. The article of claim 3 , wherein the one or more activation tabs prevent contact between the one or more battery contacts and the one or more terminals in both the first position and the second position.

5. The article of claim 4 , wherein the one or more spring-loaded members drive the one or more terminals into contact with the one or more battery contacts once the one or more activation tabs are removed.

6. The article of claim 5 , wherein contact between the one or more terminals and the one or more battery contacts engages the one or more batteries and enables transmission of electrical energy from the one or more batteries to the battery lead wires.

7. The article of claim 1 , wherein the one or more spring-loaded members are placed between the one or more terminals and an anchoring surface.

8. The article of claim 7 , wherein the one or more spring-loaded members are one or more compression springs having:
a) a first end connected to the one or more terminals; and
b) a second end connected to the anchoring surface.

9. The article of claim 8 , wherein a distance between the one or more terminals and the anchoring surface is greater in the first position than in the second position.

10. The article of claim 9 , wherein the article comprises a battery bulkhead attached to both the battery support and the opposing battery support; and the anchoring surface is part of the battery bulkhead.

11. The article of claim 9 , wherein the anchoring surface is part of the battery support.

12. The article of claim 11 , wherein the anchoring surface is an interior wall of the battery support.

13. The article of claim 1 , wherein the article comprises a battery bulkhead attached to both the battery support and the opposing battery support; and
wherein the one or more spring-loaded members are placed between the battery bulkhead and the one or more terminals.

14. The article of claim 13 , wherein the one or more spring-loaded members are one or more compression springs having:
a) a first end connected to the one or more terminals; and
b) a second end connected to the battery bulkhead;
wherein a distance between the one or more terminals and the battery bulkhead is greater in the first position than in the second position.

15. The article of claim 1 , wherein the one or more spring-loaded members are placed between an anchoring surface of the battery support and the one or more terminals; and
wherein the anchoring surface is an interior wall of the battery support.

16. The article of claim 1 , wherein either the battery support or the opposing battery support has an opening; and
wherein the one or more activation tabs protrude from the opening so that a user can remove the one or more activation tabs by pulling on the one or more activation tabs.

17. The article of claim 1 , wherein the one or more activation tabs protrude from between the battery support and the opposing battery support so that a user can remove the one or more activation tabs by pulling on the one or more activation tabs.

18. A method comprising the following steps:
(i) preventing supplying energy to a device by:
(a) assembling a battery closure by connecting a battery support to an opposing battery support, wherein the battery support contains battery lead wires attached to one or more terminals, one or more batteries are secured to the opposing battery support, and the one or more batteries have one or more battery contacts;
(b) preventing engaging the one or more batteries by one or more spring-loaded members which provide a biasing force that biases the one or more terminals against one or more activation tabs when the opposing battery support is in either a first position or a second position, wherein the one or more activation tabs are spaced between the one or more terminals and the one or more battery contacts;

(ii) supplying energy to the device by:
(a) removing the one or more activation tabs;
(b) driving the one or more terminals by the one or more spring-loaded members into contact with the one or more battery contacts so as to engage the one or more batteries and the battery lead wires to establish contact between the one or more battery contacts and the battery lead wires; and

wherein the one or more spring-loaded members have a linear axis;
wherein the opposing battery support is moveable from the first position to the second position relative to the battery support by moving the opposing battery support along the linear axis and toward the one or more spring-loaded members to compress the one or more spring-loaded members so that the biasing force is greater in the second position than in the first position, and
wherein the opposing battery support is securely connected to the battery support in both the first position and the second position.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the step of supplying energy to the device can occur in either the first position or the second position.

20. The method of claim 18 , comprising a step of disabling supplying energy to the device by removing the opposing battery support from the battery closure to disable transmission of electricity.

Assignees

• Gyrus Acmi Inc

Inventors

• Bennett Michael J
• Ryan Phillip A
• Yarbrough Paul E
• Roth Richard

Classifications

• A61B17/32002 Primary

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• H01M50/514

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• H01M50/204

  Racks, modules or packs for multiple batteries or multiple cells · CPC title

• H01M2220/30

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