CA2128853A1 - Battery charger for cylindrical batteries - Google Patents
Battery charger for cylindrical batteriesInfo
- Publication number
- CA2128853A1 CA2128853A1 CA002128853A CA2128853A CA2128853A1 CA 2128853 A1 CA2128853 A1 CA 2128853A1 CA 002128853 A CA002128853 A CA 002128853A CA 2128853 A CA2128853 A CA 2128853A CA 2128853 A1 CA2128853 A1 CA 2128853A1
- Authority
- CA
- Canada
- Prior art keywords
- battery charger
- recesses
- cells
- housing
- slots
- Prior art date
- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
- Abandoned
Links
Classifications
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H02—GENERATION; CONVERSION OR DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRIC POWER
- H02J—CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS OR SYSTEMS FOR SUPPLYING OR DISTRIBUTING ELECTRIC POWER; SYSTEMS FOR STORING ELECTRIC ENERGY
- H02J7/00—Circuit arrangements for charging or depolarising batteries or for supplying loads from batteries
- H02J7/0042—Circuit arrangements for charging or depolarising batteries or for supplying loads from batteries characterised by the mechanical construction
- H02J7/0045—Circuit arrangements for charging or depolarising batteries or for supplying loads from batteries characterised by the mechanical construction concerning the insertion or the connection of the batteries
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01M—PROCESSES OR MEANS, e.g. BATTERIES, FOR THE DIRECT CONVERSION OF CHEMICAL ENERGY INTO ELECTRICAL ENERGY
- H01M50/00—Constructional details or processes of manufacture of the non-active parts of electrochemical cells other than fuel cells, e.g. hybrid cells
- H01M50/20—Mountings; Secondary casings or frames; Racks, modules or packs; Suspension devices; Shock absorbers; Transport or carrying devices; Holders
- H01M50/204—Racks, modules or packs for multiple batteries or multiple cells
- H01M50/207—Racks, modules or packs for multiple batteries or multiple cells characterised by their shape
- H01M50/213—Racks, modules or packs for multiple batteries or multiple cells characterised by their shape adapted for cells having curved cross-section, e.g. round or elliptic
-
- Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
- Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
- Y02E—REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS [GHG] EMISSIONS, RELATED TO ENERGY GENERATION, TRANSMISSION OR DISTRIBUTION
- Y02E60/00—Enabling technologies; Technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation
- Y02E60/10—Energy storage using batteries
Landscapes
- Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
- Chemical Kinetics & Catalysis (AREA)
- Electrochemistry (AREA)
- General Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
- Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
- Power Engineering (AREA)
- Charge And Discharge Circuits For Batteries Or The Like (AREA)
- Secondary Cells (AREA)
- Battery Mounting, Suspending (AREA)
Abstract
Battery charger for cylindrical cells which comprises a substantially cylindrical housing with respective bottom and upper parts separated by a pair of opposing recesses. In operation the housing is arranged in upright position and the recesses have planar rear faces extending in parallel with each other and with the axis of symmetry of the hous-ing. Spaced guiding ribs are provided at upper and lower end zones of the faces to laterally guide the cells to be in-serted. Contact members are arranged at upper and lower end walls of the recesses between the ribs to spring-bias the cells inserted. The bottom part is capable of locating a mains transformer. Slots are defined in lower and upper parts of the housing which define an airflow cooling channel.
Description
2128~53 Battery charger for cylindrical batteries The present utility model relates to a battery charger of the household type with built in mains transformer and cord with a plug in connector which is capable of holding and receiving a plurality of cylindrical batteries mainly of the "AA" and "AAA", "C" and "D" types.
With increasing number of household electric and elect-ronic appliances more and more battery cells are used. Re-chargeable cells are often preferred to primary cells, since they can be used through a large number of cycles, and they are therefore substantially cheaper compared to the use of a corresponding number of primary cells and constitute smaller load to the environment as well. In a household where a plu-rality of rechargeable cells is used, a battery charger is also required.
Battery chargers are generally arranged in a plastic housing provided with a compartment for the cells to be charged, and the electrical components of the charger comp-rise a mains transformer, a rectifier, one or more charging circuits and preferably display means e.g. light emitting diodes (LEDs) which give optical information on the status of the charging process. Smaller battery chargers can be plugged in the mains receptacle, while larger ones consti-tute self supporting units connected to the line voltage by means of a cord.
During the operation of the charger heat is generated, and the design of the charger should provide appropriate cooling so that the temperature of the electrical components and of the cells must remain within acceptable limits.
Further requirements imposed on a battery charger are easy handling, mechanical stability and pleasing appearance.
The primary object of the present utility model is to provide a battery charger which can well meet all these re-quirements.
This objective has been achieved by providing a battery charger that comprises a substantially cylindrical housing with respective bottom and upper parts separated by a pair of opposing recesses. In operation the housing is arranged in upright position, the recesses have planar rear faces which extend in parallel with each other and with the axis of symmetry of the housing. Spaced guiding ribs are provided at upper and lower end zones of the faces to laterally guide cells to be inserted, furthermore contact members are ar-ranged at upper and lower end walls of the recesses between the ribs to spring-bias the cells inserted. The bottom part is capable of locating a mains transformer and slots are de-fined in the housing to define an airflow cooling channel.
In a preferable embodiment the slots are provided at the upper zone of the rear planar surfaces of the recesses and at the bottom surface of the bottom part which comprises short legs for keeping a distance between the slots at the bottom surface and any support surface on which the battery charger is standing.
It is preferable if the upper part has a pair of paral-lel planar faces above the recesses and at least one of the planar faces comprise display means indicating charge state of cells charged.
The available space can be utilized in such a way that one of the recesses serves as holder of cells only, i.e.
these cells cannot be charged but only stored.
In a still preferable embodiment at one end wall of the recess spring-guiding slots are provided between the ribs, and arched biasing springs that serve as contact members are lead through the associated guiding slots.
It is preferable from the point of view of utilizing available space and increasing stability if the bottom part of the housing is formed to locate a toroidal transformer.
The battery charger will now be described in connection with a preferable embodiment, in which reference will be made to the accompanying drawings. In the drawing:
FIG. 1 is the perspective view of the battery charger;
FIG. 2 shows the battery charger in side view;
FIG. 3 shows the battery charger in elevation view; and FIG. 4 shows the battery charger in top view.
The battery charger 10 has a substantially cylindrical housing which stands in upright position on four short legs 11. Respective recesses 12, 13 are formed at two opposing sides of the housing which have profiles best shown in FIG.
With increasing number of household electric and elect-ronic appliances more and more battery cells are used. Re-chargeable cells are often preferred to primary cells, since they can be used through a large number of cycles, and they are therefore substantially cheaper compared to the use of a corresponding number of primary cells and constitute smaller load to the environment as well. In a household where a plu-rality of rechargeable cells is used, a battery charger is also required.
Battery chargers are generally arranged in a plastic housing provided with a compartment for the cells to be charged, and the electrical components of the charger comp-rise a mains transformer, a rectifier, one or more charging circuits and preferably display means e.g. light emitting diodes (LEDs) which give optical information on the status of the charging process. Smaller battery chargers can be plugged in the mains receptacle, while larger ones consti-tute self supporting units connected to the line voltage by means of a cord.
During the operation of the charger heat is generated, and the design of the charger should provide appropriate cooling so that the temperature of the electrical components and of the cells must remain within acceptable limits.
Further requirements imposed on a battery charger are easy handling, mechanical stability and pleasing appearance.
The primary object of the present utility model is to provide a battery charger which can well meet all these re-quirements.
This objective has been achieved by providing a battery charger that comprises a substantially cylindrical housing with respective bottom and upper parts separated by a pair of opposing recesses. In operation the housing is arranged in upright position, the recesses have planar rear faces which extend in parallel with each other and with the axis of symmetry of the housing. Spaced guiding ribs are provided at upper and lower end zones of the faces to laterally guide cells to be inserted, furthermore contact members are ar-ranged at upper and lower end walls of the recesses between the ribs to spring-bias the cells inserted. The bottom part is capable of locating a mains transformer and slots are de-fined in the housing to define an airflow cooling channel.
In a preferable embodiment the slots are provided at the upper zone of the rear planar surfaces of the recesses and at the bottom surface of the bottom part which comprises short legs for keeping a distance between the slots at the bottom surface and any support surface on which the battery charger is standing.
It is preferable if the upper part has a pair of paral-lel planar faces above the recesses and at least one of the planar faces comprise display means indicating charge state of cells charged.
The available space can be utilized in such a way that one of the recesses serves as holder of cells only, i.e.
these cells cannot be charged but only stored.
In a still preferable embodiment at one end wall of the recess spring-guiding slots are provided between the ribs, and arched biasing springs that serve as contact members are lead through the associated guiding slots.
It is preferable from the point of view of utilizing available space and increasing stability if the bottom part of the housing is formed to locate a toroidal transformer.
The battery charger will now be described in connection with a preferable embodiment, in which reference will be made to the accompanying drawings. In the drawing:
FIG. 1 is the perspective view of the battery charger;
FIG. 2 shows the battery charger in side view;
FIG. 3 shows the battery charger in elevation view; and FIG. 4 shows the battery charger in top view.
The battery charger 10 has a substantially cylindrical housing which stands in upright position on four short legs 11. Respective recesses 12, 13 are formed at two opposing sides of the housing which have profiles best shown in FIG.
2. Each recess has a planar rear surface 14, 15. Short sepa-ration ribs 16, 17 project from upper and lower end zones of the planar surfaces spaced to guide insertion of cylindrical AA size cells. Four cells can be inserted at each side of the housing. The separation ribs 16, 17 have wedge-shaped lateral surfaces narrowing in forward direction, and the outer surfaces of the outermost ribs are constituted by the cylindrical surface of the housing. The recesses 12, 13 have narrow horizontal upper and lower walls 18, 19. The lower walls 19 have small slots at locations that correspond to the middle zones of the spacings defined between the ribs 17 and arched contact springs 20 extend through each slot. Flat contact members 21 with slightly projecting spherical tips are mounted on the upper walls 18 between the upper ribs 16.
The contact members 21 are arranged in respective recesses which are only slightly wider than the tip representing the positive pole of a cell, whereby there will be no contact when a cell is inserted with incorrect polarity.
If a cell is inserted in a slot with correct polarity, the two end contacts thereof will be spring biased between the upper contact member 21 and the lower contact spring 20, and the biasing force is provided by the fact that the cell pushes the contact spring 20 in downward direction. The four ribs ensures lateral support for the inserted cell.
Horizontal cooling slots 22 are provided at the upper zones of the planar surfaces 12, 13 which together with slots at the bottom of the housing (not shown in the draw-ing) form inlets and outlets of an airflow cooling channel 2 i28853 defined in the housing. The legs 11 provide a spacing between the slots at the bottom part and any support surface on which the battery charger is standing, so that air can freely flow therethrough.
The battery charger is capable of receiving and charging eight AA cells. In embodiments designed for charging four cells only, the recess for the other four cells can well be used to store already charged cells. The recesses designed for cell storage only are not provided with upper contacts 21 and the contact springs 21 serve as biasing members.
The housing has respective rectangular planar faces 23, 24 above the recesses 12, 13 in which, at the charger side, light emitting diodes (LEDs) 25, 26 can be arranged which indicate the charging state of the cells inserted. When the left LED 25 lights, the charging process goes on, and when the right LED 26 lights, the cells are fully charged.
The housing comprises respective inclined planar sur-faces 27, 28 starting at the outer edges of the horizontal walls 19, 20 which has no other specific function than of-fering a more pleasing appearance.
The wide circular bottom portion of the housing spaced from the support surface by the legs 11 locates the heaviest and largest component of the battery charger, the mains transformer, and such a form facilitates the use of a toro-idal transformer. The transformer arranged in the lower part of the housing increases mechanical stability and it is thereby far away from other electronic components which can well be located in the head portion above the recesses. The heat and magnetic field of the transformer is well separated from any sensitive component.
The housing offers several places for the arrangement of labels and inscriptions. Favorable locations for this pur-pose are the mantle surface 29 of the lower part of the housing, the two planar faces 23, 24, the top surface 30 and for warnings and other messages the planar rear surfaces 14, 15 of the recesses which will be visible when no cell is in-serted.
The contact members 21 are arranged in respective recesses which are only slightly wider than the tip representing the positive pole of a cell, whereby there will be no contact when a cell is inserted with incorrect polarity.
If a cell is inserted in a slot with correct polarity, the two end contacts thereof will be spring biased between the upper contact member 21 and the lower contact spring 20, and the biasing force is provided by the fact that the cell pushes the contact spring 20 in downward direction. The four ribs ensures lateral support for the inserted cell.
Horizontal cooling slots 22 are provided at the upper zones of the planar surfaces 12, 13 which together with slots at the bottom of the housing (not shown in the draw-ing) form inlets and outlets of an airflow cooling channel 2 i28853 defined in the housing. The legs 11 provide a spacing between the slots at the bottom part and any support surface on which the battery charger is standing, so that air can freely flow therethrough.
The battery charger is capable of receiving and charging eight AA cells. In embodiments designed for charging four cells only, the recess for the other four cells can well be used to store already charged cells. The recesses designed for cell storage only are not provided with upper contacts 21 and the contact springs 21 serve as biasing members.
The housing has respective rectangular planar faces 23, 24 above the recesses 12, 13 in which, at the charger side, light emitting diodes (LEDs) 25, 26 can be arranged which indicate the charging state of the cells inserted. When the left LED 25 lights, the charging process goes on, and when the right LED 26 lights, the cells are fully charged.
The housing comprises respective inclined planar sur-faces 27, 28 starting at the outer edges of the horizontal walls 19, 20 which has no other specific function than of-fering a more pleasing appearance.
The wide circular bottom portion of the housing spaced from the support surface by the legs 11 locates the heaviest and largest component of the battery charger, the mains transformer, and such a form facilitates the use of a toro-idal transformer. The transformer arranged in the lower part of the housing increases mechanical stability and it is thereby far away from other electronic components which can well be located in the head portion above the recesses. The heat and magnetic field of the transformer is well separated from any sensitive component.
The housing offers several places for the arrangement of labels and inscriptions. Favorable locations for this pur-pose are the mantle surface 29 of the lower part of the housing, the two planar faces 23, 24, the top surface 30 and for warnings and other messages the planar rear surfaces 14, 15 of the recesses which will be visible when no cell is in-serted.
Claims (6)
1. Battery charger, comprising a substantially cylind-rical housing having respective bottom and upper parts sepa-rated by a pair of opposing recesses, in operation said housing is arranged in upright position, said recesses have planar rear faces extending in parallel with each other and with axis of symmetry of said housing, spaced guiding ribs are provided at upper and lower end zones of said faces to laterally guide cells to be inserted, contact members being arranged at upper and lower end walls of the recesses bet-ween said ribs to spring bias the cells inserted, said bot-tom part is capable of locating a mains transformer, slots are defined in said housing to define an airflow cooling channel.
2. The battery charger as claimed in claim 1, wherein said slots are provided at upper zone of said rear planar surfaces of said recesses and at bottom surface of said bot-tom part, said bottom part comprising short legs keeping a distance between said slots at the bottom surface and any support surface on which said battery charger is standing.
3. The battery charger as claimed in claim 1, wherein said upper part has a pair of parallel planar faces above said recesses and at least one of said planar faces comprise display means indicating charge state of cells charged.
4. The battery charger as claimed in claim 1, wherein one of said recesses serving as holder of cells that cannot be charged when being inserted in the holder recess.
5. The battery charger as claimed in claim 1, wherein at one end wall of said recess spring guiding slots are provid-ed between said ribs, and arched biasing springs that serve as contact members are lead through the guiding slots.
6. The battery charger as claimed in claim 1, wherein said bottom part is formed to locate a toroidal transformer.
Applications Claiming Priority (2)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| HUU94.00035 | 1994-02-04 | ||
| HU949400035U HU534U (en) | 1994-02-04 | 1994-02-04 | Battery charger for cylindric batteries |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA2128853A1 true CA2128853A1 (en) | 1995-08-05 |
Family
ID=10984400
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA002128853A Abandoned CA2128853A1 (en) | 1994-02-04 | 1994-07-26 | Battery charger for cylindrical batteries |
Country Status (5)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| JP (1) | JP3005633U (en) |
| CA (1) | CA2128853A1 (en) |
| DE (1) | DE9407442U1 (en) |
| GB (1) | GB2286493A (en) |
| HU (1) | HU534U (en) |
Families Citing this family (4)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DE19607226A1 (en) * | 1996-02-27 | 1997-09-04 | Metabowerke Kg | Battery charger for electrical hand tools |
| US6710577B1 (en) * | 2003-05-06 | 2004-03-23 | Jeckson Electric Company Limited | Battery charger |
| US20050024021A1 (en) * | 2003-05-07 | 2005-02-03 | Milwaukee Electric Tool Corporation | Battery charger and assembly |
| US8183830B2 (en) * | 2009-02-05 | 2012-05-22 | Keep Smart Trading Limited | Adjustable charger |
Family Cites Families (2)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GB609360A (en) * | 1946-03-12 | 1948-09-29 | Alfred Ernest Baker | Improvements in or relating to charging equipment for electric accumulators |
| US4009429A (en) * | 1975-12-31 | 1977-02-22 | General Electric Company | Charger with multiple attachable cellholder modules |
-
1994
- 1994-02-04 HU HU949400035U patent/HU534U/en unknown
- 1994-05-04 DE DE9407442U patent/DE9407442U1/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
- 1994-05-20 GB GB9410268A patent/GB2286493A/en not_active Withdrawn
- 1994-05-23 JP JP1994005613U patent/JP3005633U/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
- 1994-07-26 CA CA002128853A patent/CA2128853A1/en not_active Abandoned
Also Published As
| Publication number | Publication date |
|---|---|
| GB9410268D0 (en) | 1994-07-13 |
| JP3005633U (en) | 1995-01-10 |
| GB2286493A (en) | 1995-08-16 |
| HU534U (en) | 1995-07-28 |
| DE9407442U1 (en) | 1994-09-22 |
| HU9400035V0 (en) | 1994-04-28 |
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Legal Events
| Date | Code | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| FZDE | Dead |