Electricity: battery or capacitor charging or discharging – Wind – solar – thermal – or fuel-cell source
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-09
2001-02-13
Tso, Edward H. (Department: 2838)
Electricity: battery or capacitor charging or discharging
Wind, solar, thermal, or fuel-cell source
C320S107000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06188197
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a light charging type secondary battery unit in which a photo-electric transducer and a storage battery are unified together. This invention also relates to an electrical equipment having both a photo-electric transducer and a storage battery unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
The photo-electric transducer, also termed a solar cell, is a device for converting light energy, such as that from the sunbeams, into an electrical energy. In distinction from a fossil fuel, utilized up to now, the photo-electric transducer scarcely emits an exhaust gas, such as carbon dioxide, when recovering the electric energy from the light energy. Also, since the photo-electric transducer recovers the electric energy from the light energy of a sunbeam, which is felt to be limitless, power generation can be assured semi-permanently. For this reason, the photo-electric transducer presumably finds an increasing field and scope of application in view of the incumbent problem of the global environment.
However, the photo-electric transducer frequently undergoes temporal fluctuations in the amount of the light energy from the sunbeams, such that the electric energy recovered by conversion from the light energy also undergoes temporal fluctuations, with the result that the photo-electric transducer can frequently not be usable as a direct power source for electric equipments.
Also, since the light energy such as that from the sunbeams is present in a spatially rarefied state, the photo-electric transducer is in need of a large light reception area in order to acquire the power of a pre-set quantity suitable for utilization.
Thus, the photo-electric transducer is used as an auxiliary power source for electric equipment or in a field in which the generated electric energy is transiently stored in a storage battery and used as the power discharged from the storage battery.
On the other hand, electrical equipment is progressively reduced in size with the recent progress in various processing techniques and frequently used as portable equipment. For this reason, the usual power source for the electrical equipment is a dry cell which is convenient for its portability, and hence there is possibility of an increasing demand for dry cells in the future.
However, the dry cell is usually a primary cell, such as a manganese dry cell or an alkali manganese dry cell, and is discarded after discharging its stored energy. Thus, dry cells cannot be said to be desirable because of economic considerations, wastage of natural resources and load imposed on the environment. Although a secondary battery having the standard shape similar to that of the dry cell, such as a NiMH cell, is in use, it cannot be said to be optimum, as the primary battery, if the battery is charged by means which possibly imposes loads on the global environment.
There has also been proposed in, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent S-63-314780 entitled “Battery” or in Japanese Laid-Open Patent H-2-73675 entitled “Cylindrically-Shaped Charging Type Solar Cell”, a light charging type secondary battery unit which combines the above-described merit of the photo-electric transducer and the ease in handling proper to the dry cell. The conventional light charging type secondary battery unit, combining the photo-electric transducer as a power generating portion and the storage battery as a charging/discharging portion, realizes the driving of an ordinarily used electrical equipment by the power generated by the light energy.
However, with the conventional light charging type secondary battery unit since the photo-electric transducer receives the light energy of sunbeams, which illuminate from a pre-set direction, it is difficult to utilize the totality for the outer surface of the storage battery. Moreover, it is not possible with the conventional light charging type secondary battery unit to have a light receiving area of the photo-electric transducer which is in excess of the outer surface of the storage battery. Therefore, the conventional light charging type secondary battery unit has a drawback that the battery charging time is unbearably long, while the photo-electric transducer cannot develop the power required for charging the storage cell.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a light charging type secondary battery which, by combining a resilient photo-electric transducer and a storage cell, can use light energy, such as that from sunbeams, as a power source for usually employed electrical equipment, and has practically usable charging/discharging performance.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an electrical equipment having a storage cell that can be charged and discharged and a flexible photo-electric transducer and which is endowed with a practically sufficient power generating performance in charging the storage cell by the photo-electric transducer.
In one aspect, the present invention provides a light charging type secondary battery unit including a cylindrically-shaped winding core, and a flexible photo-electric transducer placed around the winding core so that the photo-electric transducer can be pulled out therefrom. The winding core includes a secondary battery that can be charged and discharged, and a control circuit for controlling the charging and discharging of the secondary battery. The photo-electric transducer is wound on the winding core to present a substantially cylindrical overall shape.
In the above-defined light charging type secondary battery unit, the photo-electric transducer wound about the winding core is pulled out to receive light for charging the secondary battery to realize apractically sufficient charging performance. For discharging, the photo-electric transducer is wound on the winding core so that the overall structure presents a substantially cylindrical shape to facilitate the use of the secondary battery as a power source for an ordinary electrical equipment.
In another aspect, the present invention provides an electrical equipment including a secondary battery that can be charged and discharged and a flexible photo-electric transducer. The photo-electric transducer is housed in the inner space of the electrical equipment in the wound or collapsed state. The secondary battery is charged in the state it is extracted from the electrical equipment.
In the above-described electrical equipment, the photo-electric transducer housed in the inner space in the electrical equipment in the wound or collapsed state is pulled out to receive the light for charging the secondary battery to realize the practically sufficient charging performance.
Thus, in the light charging type secondary battery unit according to the present invention, the photo-electric transducer wound on the winding core is pulled out to receive the light for charging. When the photo-electric transducer has been taken up on the winding core for discharging of the secondary battery, the entire unit presents a substantially cylindrical shape to assure facilitated utilization of the unit as a power source of the commonplace electrical equipment as well as manifestation of the high charging performance sufficient for practical utilization. Thus, with the present light charging type secondary battery unit, the light energy of, for example, the sunlight can be used as a power source for the electrical equipment to realize effective utilization of natural resources as well as to prevent production of waste materials.
Also, with the electrical equipment according to the present invention, provided with a secondary battery that can be charged and discharged, and a flexible photo-electric transducer, which is housed in the wound or collapsed state, the photo-electric transducer can be efficiently accommodated even if the photo-electric transducer is increased in its light receiving area. Thus, the electrical equipment can be provided with the photo-electric transducer having a large light receiving area so that
Hinokuma Koichiro
Inoue Ritsuko
Watanabe Haruo
Watanabe Tomikazu
Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal
Sony Corporation
Tso Edward H.
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