Battery Pack Guide Rails for Terminal Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Misalignment between terminal blocks on battery packs and chargers can damage terminal assemblies, affecting electrical connections and rendering battery packs unusable due to frequent interconnections.
Innovation Solution
A battery pack design featuring a cradle with guide members and a board with terminal contacts, where the guide members protrude through guide apertures to align with terminal apertures, ensuring proper engagement with devices and chargers, and a method of manufacturing that allows relative movement of the board to adjust and secure the terminal contacts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If terminal blocks are frequently connected and disconnected, then battery pack mobility and convenience are improved, but misalignment between mating contacts damages terminal assemblies
Solution Approach 1:
Guide members are pre-installed on the battery pack housing to establish alignment paths before terminal connections are made. This preliminary structural arrangement ensures that mating contacts align properly during insertion, preventing damage from misalignment while maintaining frequent interconnection capability
Solution Approach 2:
Guide members act as intermediary elements between the battery pack housing and terminal blocks. These intermediaries physically guide the terminal blocks into correct alignment during connection and disconnection operations, protecting the terminal assemblies from damage while enabling convenient frequent interconnections
2Manufacturing precision
If guide members are added to the battery pack housing, then terminal alignment precision is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Guide members are integrally formed with the cradle structure, merging the alignment function into an existing component rather than adding separate complex alignment mechanisms. This approach achieves precise terminal alignment while minimizing increases in overall device complexity
Solution Approach 2:
Guide members are strategically positioned only at specific locations where terminal alignment is needed, rather than implementing a complex alignment system throughout the entire battery pack. This localized approach provides necessary alignment precision with minimal added structural complexity
Data Source
AI summary
A battery pack may include a battery cell, a cradle, a board and a housing. The cradle may be coupled with the battery cell and may include one or more guide members extending from and integrally formed with a surface of the cradle. The board may be mounted to the cradle and may include a plurality of terminal contacts electrically connected with the battery cell. The one or more guide members may be adapted to guide a device into engagement with the terminal contacts. The housing may at least partially enclose the cradle and the battery cell and may include one or more guide apertures and a plurality of terminal apertures. The one or more guide members may protrude through the one or more guide apertures. Each of the terminal apertures may be aligned with a corresponding one of the plurality of contacts.