Work holders – Plural holders to hold workpieces relative to each other – Workpieces parallel to each other
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-03
2001-05-29
Hail, III, Josheph J. (Department: 3723)
Work holders
Plural holders to hold workpieces relative to each other
Workpieces parallel to each other
C269S903000, C029S281100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06237906
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The field of the invention is the electrical connection of dry cell batteries and the invention relates more particularly to devices which assist in the preparation of battery packs composed of multiple cells in differing configurations which will hold a number of batteries together electrically connected normally in series but possibly in parallel or partially in parallel and partially in series to provide a source of electricity for a battery powered device.
Several battery jigs have recently been developed to assist in the soldering of a group of batteries in a line. One such device is shown in Xtreme R/C Cars, Issue 3.9 June-July, 1998, at Page 68-69. In this device the batteries are arranged by standing them up in a tray alternating polarity on the top positive
egative. Two side braces must be carefully held to sandwich the cells with nothing to locat them or keep them square, after which a Velcro strap is wrapped around the two side braces to hold the cells together. Care must be taken to keep the cells from falling out until they are placed in the bottom tray. The photograph in the center bottom of Page 68 shows a user soldering one end of a battery bar to a battery. After battery bars are placed on one surface, then the half connected cells are flipped over and the other set of battery bars are soldered to complete the series connection. As stated in the article, the job of holding the two pressure plates while placing the strap around the plates “. . . takes some dexterity, to say the least.” (Column 1, page 69).
A second battery jig is shown in Xtreme R/C Cars, Issue 2.9 May-June, 1997, at Pages 42-43. In this device the batteries are placed in a battery jig. The battery bar is held between two adjacent batteries by another object, such as a pair of needle nose plyers, which is best performed by a second person. Then, as stated in step 6 on Page 42, one “gently slides the pack out of the jig, then the pack is turned over and the user slides it back into the jig and repeats the soldering step. Also note in Step 2, the battery bars themselves are also pre-tinned. There are several shortcomings with this approach: One is that the batteries are not held tightly together before they are soldered together. Also, only half of the batteries have been interconnected in Step 5. In other words, three bars have been soldered on as shown in the bottom of the batteries in Step 8 and, thus, there are three separate units which must be gently slid in and out of the jig.
Any commercially provided battery packs have been mass produced by welding thin conductors between adjacent batteries and then holding the groups of batteries together in heat-shrink tubing. While this method permits mass production, it has some serious limitations in electrical resistance due to the nature of the thin conductors soldered between adjacent batteries.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a battery jig which permits the user to easily connect adjacent batteries by soldering a battery bar between them and also permits the adhering of the sides of adjacent batteries together by glue.
The present invention is for a battery jig for facilitating the soldering of a battery bar between adjacent pairs of batteries of a line of dry cell batteries which are positioned with alternating positive and negative terminals facing in the same direction. The jig comprises a main frame which has two ends and a back and a front piece. The frame also provides means for holding the top portions and the bottom portions of the batteries in a straight line which not only hold the batteries parallel and square, but also accurately positions them in a straight line.
The frame preferably has a glue application opening
25
so that the user can apply glue between adjacent batteries to further assist in holding the resulting battery stick together as one unit. This also permits the user to position the batteries so that they face in a desired orientation for aesthetic purposes. Also, the battery jig preferably has at least one flexible foam spacer
26
which permits the jig to be used for a different number of batteries. It also helps to hold the batteries in a touching relationship while applying pressure to square up the cells against the end of the frame. Because the spacers are flexible, they press against the straight line of batteries
28
so that the beginning of the line
29
presses against first end
12
and the end of the line
30
presses against foam spacer
27
. Battery jig
10
also has means for aligning the tops and bottoms of the battery. This is accomplished by an inwardly directed overhang
31
so that when the batteries are placed against the back portion
14
, they are held so they cannot move upwardly as viewed in FIG.
1
. Similarly, as shown in
FIG. 5
, an inwardly directed overhang
32
is formed in back portion
14
to hold the bottoms of the batteries in line. The battery jig also permits the user to solder wires or end lugs at the two ends of the group of batteries for connection to an appropriate electrical connector.
REFERENCES:
patent: 359833 (1887-03-01), Basinger
patent: 1781997 (1930-11-01), Brezowski
patent: 3312460 (1967-04-01), Kaufman
patent: 4341375 (1982-07-01), Romanin
Allec Chris D.
Deans Robin W.
Averill, Jr. Edgar W.
Hail, III Josheph J.
Wilson Lee
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