JPH09153377A - Charging device using used battery - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To charge a secondary battery by utilizing residual power in a used battery, and improve safety of the used battery to be disposed. SOLUTION: A pair of electrode pins 3, 4 are applied to respective terminals of a positive electrode and a negative electrode of a battery 10 at a processing position among plural used batteries 10 held in a battery holding part, an internal impedance in it is detected based on voltage drop of a terminal voltage Vb before and after discharge for a specified time, the battery is discharged when it is a specified value or less to input the terminal voltage Vb through a diode D1 to a charging circuit to be boosted, and a charging current Ic is supplied to a secondary battery 2 to charge it. When the terminal voltage Vb of the battery 10 becomes the lowest voltage possible to charge or less, charging is stopped, residual power of the battery 10 is forcedly discharged through a resistance R, and it is disposed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a charging device for charging a secondary battery with the remaining power of a used battery so that the remaining power can be effectively used.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Various devices such as manganese batteries, alkaline batteries, lithium batteries, nickel-cadmium batteries, etc. are used for various small household appliances, portable information / communication devices, watches, cameras, calculators, etc. Dry batteries) are used, but when these batteries consume their power and reach the end of their life, they are taken out and replaced with new batteries, and used batteries are discarded.

However, some of these batteries, such as nickel-cadmium batteries, contain substances that are harmful to the human body, and in recent years, manufacturers and distributors have also taken into consideration the protection of the global environment. The industry is becoming more active in collecting used batteries. In addition, local governments such as prefectures, municipalities, etc. also tend to promote the collection and reuse of used batteries by ordinating the recycling of batteries.

Such various batteries cannot be used when the electric power (output voltage × current) falls below the capacity capable of driving the device, and therefore they are usually discarded at that stage. However, in many cases, some electric energy still remains in the used battery. When collecting these used batteries, they are temporarily stored by collecting them in a battery collection box such as a ball box, metal can, or plastic container prepared by each local government or battery industry. After storage for a certain period of time, the product is handed over to a specialist and sorted according to the type of battery and disposed of.

[0005]

However, in such a used battery recovery method, when a large number of used batteries are collected and stored in a battery recovery box, etc. , The positive and negative terminals of multiple batteries may be connected, resulting in a short circuit.At that time, the rapid discharge of the remaining power of those batteries causes heat generation, which may cause a fire, There was a problem that there is a risk of being burned or electric shock.

Therefore, it is conceivable to forcibly discharge the residual power of such a used battery or to insulate the terminals before discarding such a used battery. There is a problem that it will be discarded without doing so. The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and when a used battery has a certain level or more of residual power (electrical energy), it can be effectively used to charge a secondary battery. The purpose is to

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a charging device using a used battery configured as follows. That is, the battery holding unit is provided with a holding member that holds a plurality of used batteries so that they can be discharged, and a pair of electrodes that come into contact with the anode and cathode terminals of the battery held by the holding member.

The used battery held in the battery holding portion converts the DC voltage applied to the pair of electrodes into a predetermined charging voltage, and a charging current is passed through the charging secondary battery. A charging circuit for charging is provided, and the internal impedance of the used battery in which the terminals of the anode and the cathode are in contact with the pair of electrodes is detected, and if the detected internal impedance is not less than or equal to a preset value, the holding member is used. It is provided with a control means for releasing the holding of the battery by means of and discharging the battery from the battery holding portion.

A unidirectional element may be inserted in the circuit connecting the pair of electrodes and the input side of the charging circuit so as to be forward in the direction in which the discharge current of the used battery flows.

Further, the control means monitors the terminal voltage of the used battery after starting the charging of the secondary battery by the used battery, and stops the charging operation when the voltage becomes equal to or lower than a preset predetermined voltage. Then, it is preferable to have means for releasing the holding of the battery by the holding member and discharging the battery from the battery holding portion.

Further, in the charging device using these used batteries, a discharge circuit is provided for connecting the pair of electrodes through a resistor and a normally open switch, and the control means holds the battery by the holding member. It is desirable to also have a means for closing the switch and forcibly discharging the battery by the discharge circuit before releasing and discharging the battery from the battery holding portion.

Furthermore, a plurality of the battery holding portions are provided,
Although a control means (if the unidirectional element and the discharging circuit are provided, respectively) is provided corresponding to each battery holding portion, only one charging circuit for charging the secondary battery may be provided in common. . Furthermore, by providing a means for opening and closing the discharge voltage input line for the used battery at a predetermined cycle on the input side of the charging circuit, it is possible to accelerate the discharging of the used battery and the charging of the secondary battery by the opening / closing operation. it can.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram showing an embodiment of a charging device according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view of a battery holding portion and a treated battery receiving portion.

First, an example of the battery holding portion used in the charging device of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. As shown,
A rectangular tube-shaped battery holding portion 30 capable of accommodating a plurality of used batteries 10 in a lateral direction is provided, and the unprocessed used batteries 10 are placed in the battery holding portion 30 with the orientations of the anode terminal 10a and the cathode terminal 10b as illustrated. Align and store more than one.

A stopper 32 as a holding member which is advanced and retracted by a solenoid 31 is provided below the battery holding portion 30.
Is provided, and the lower surface of the lowermost used battery 10 is brought into contact with the curved receiving surface of the stopper 32, and the used battery 1
Hold 0 in the discharge position. In the drawing of the battery holding portion 30, the pair of electrode pins 3 are penetrated through the left and right lower wall surfaces, respectively.
4 are provided, and the respective electrode pins 3 and 4 are pressed and urged inward by springs 35 and 36, respectively, and the amount of protrusion inward is restricted by the flange portions 3a and 4a.

Further, a pair of guide plates 37, 38 made of a leaf spring or the like is provided above the pair of electrode pins 3, 4 in the battery holding portion 30, and the inserted lowest used battery 1
0 of both terminals 10a, 10b is guided to the used battery 10 at the discharge processing position held by the stopper 32.
The electrode pin 3 is pressed against the anode terminal 10a of the
The electrode pin 4 is configured to be in pressure contact with b.

A treated battery receiving portion 39 is provided below the battery holding portion 30, and when the battery 10 which has completed the discharge processing is released from the locking by the stopper 32, it drops and is placed there. It is stored. The processed battery receiving portion 39 has a bottom surface with a gentle slope so that the dropped processed battery 10 'can be rolled to the discharge port, or can be drawn out to collect the processed battery 10' to some extent. It can be configured so that it can be pulled out and discarded when it is used.

The charging device using the used battery 10 is constructed as shown in FIG. That is, the secondary battery (storage battery) 2 is connected to the output side of the charging circuit 1. The charging circuit 1 boosts (converts) the input DC voltage to a predetermined charging voltage, that is, a voltage between terminals of the secondary battery 2 set for charging or higher, and outputs the charging current Ic to the secondary battery 2. Is a circuit for charging and charging, for example, a separately excited oscillation type DC-DC converter is used. As the secondary battery, a lead storage battery is generally used, but a small and efficient new alkaline storage battery such as a nickel-zinc storage battery, a nickel-cadmium storage battery, a nickel-iron storage battery, or a silver oxide-zinc storage battery may be used. .

On the input side of the charging circuit 1, the electrode pin 3 in contact with the anode of the used battery 10 described in FIG. 2 is a switch S1 and a diode D1 which is a unidirectional element for preventing backflow.
Also, the electrode pin 4 in contact with the cathode of the used battery 10 is connected to the positive side input terminal via the switch S2 and the negative side input terminal, respectively. Furthermore, a discharge circuit is provided that connects the electrode pins 3 and 4 via a normally open switch S2 and a resistor R having a small resistance value. Further, a constant current load circuit 11 is provided that connects the electrode pins 3 and 4 to a normally open switch S5 via a stop current load such as a constant current diode.

These switches S1, S2, S5 are electronic switches or relay switches, and their on / off are controlled by a control section 5 using a microcomputer as a control means. This control unit 5 uses the used battery 1
It also has a function of measuring the voltage Vb on the electrode pin 3 side of 0, a function of discriminating the internal resistance of the used battery 10 from the measured voltage, and a drive circuit for the solenoid 31.
Further, the on / off control circuit 6 turns on / off the switch (electronic switch) S3 at a predetermined cycle (time interval).

A plurality of sets of the battery holding unit 30 and the circuit and control unit 5 on the input side of the switch S3 can be provided in parallel. In this embodiment, two sets are provided and the used battery 10 is used.
The two can be processed simultaneously. The on / off control circuit 6, the switch (electronic switch) S3, the charging circuit 1, and the secondary battery 2 are provided one by one, and are commonly used in each set. If the control unit 5 also uses a microcomputer having a high processing capacity, it is possible to perform a plurality of sets of control with a common control unit.

In this example, the load 7 is connected to both terminals of the secondary battery 2 via the diode D2 and the switch S4 so that the electric power charged in the secondary battery 2 can be supplied to the load 7. It is also possible to take out the fully charged secondary battery 2 and load it into another device, and use it as a power source.

Next, the operation of this charging device will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 3 and FIGS. 4 to 6. In addition,
First, the case where the switch S3 in FIG. 1 is kept in the ON state will be described. As shown in FIG. 2, the used battery 10 is held by the stopper 32 at the discharge processing position in the battery holding unit 30, and the control unit 5 displays the electrode pin 3 and 4 in contact with the anode and cathode of the used battery 10, respectively. The process of the flowchart shown in 3 is started.

First, in step 1, the internal impedance of the used battery 10 at the discharge processing position is detected. To do this, switch the batteries S1, S2, S5 off and the battery 1
After measuring the terminal voltage Vb of 0 (Vb _{1 in} FIG. 4), the switch S5 is turned on for a fixed time (short time: T in FIG. 4) to discharge the constant current load circuit 11. At this time, The terminal voltage Vb (Vb _{2 in} FIG. 4) of the battery 10 is measured, and the switch S5 is turned off again.

Then, the voltage drop ΔVb = Vb ₁ −V
Calculate b ₂ . As shown in FIG. 5, since this voltage drop ΔVb is proportional to the internal impedance Zi of the battery 10, the internal impedance of the battery 10 at this time can be detected. Next, at step 2, it is judged whether or not the internal impedance is low impedance (ΔVb is Vr or less in FIG. 5). This low impedance is 1 Ω or less when the battery 10 is a nickel-cadmium battery or a nickel-hydrogen battery.

If the impedance is low (Y in step 2), the remaining power of the used battery 10 can be utilized, so the switch S1 is turned on again in step 3 to discharge the remaining power of the battery 10 to the charging circuit 1. Then, the charging circuit 1 boosts the voltage and supplies the charging current Ic to the secondary battery 2,
Charge it. Then wait for a certain time in step 4,
In step 5, the terminal voltage of the battery 10 is detected again.

Then, in step 6, it is judged whether or not the detected voltage is equal to or lower than a predetermined voltage, and steps 4 to 6 are repeatedly executed until the voltage becomes equal to or lower than the predetermined voltage.
The charging process of the secondary battery 2 by the discharge of is continued. When it is determined in step 6 that the voltage detected in step 5 is less than or equal to the predetermined voltage (minimum chargeable voltage), the switch S1 is turned off to end the charging process, and at the same time, the switch S2 is turned on to indicate that the used voltage The remaining power of the battery 10 is forcibly discharged through the resistor R.

At step 8, the switch S2 is turned off after waiting for the discharge to be completed. Then, the solenoid 31 is turned on for a short time, and the stopper 32
2 is temporarily retracted from the battery holding position of the battery holding unit 30 shown in FIG. 2 to release the holding of the battery 10 for which the lowest processing has been completed, and the battery 10 is dropped into the processed battery receiving unit 39. It returns to the position and holds the next used battery 10. Then, the processing from step 1 is repeated again.

When the remaining power of the used battery 10 is small, the aforementioned voltage drop ΔVb is large and the internal impedance is higher than 1Ω. In that case, the determination in step 3 is negative (N), and steps 3 to 6 are skipped and the processing in steps 7 to 10 is performed. That is, after the switch S2 is turned on to forcibly discharge the remaining power of the used battery 10, the solenoid 31 is turned on for a short time.
The battery 10 is dropped into the processed battery receiving portion 39, and the next used battery 10 is held at the discharge processing position. Then, the processing from step 1 is repeated.

In this manner, the used battery 10 stored in each battery holder 30 is sequentially discharged with its residual power so that the secondary battery 2 can be charged and used. Forcibly discharge the remaining small amount of power,
It can be discharged safely. When the remaining power is too small to be used for charging the secondary battery 2, the remaining power is forcibly discharged to a safe state and then discharged. The electric power charged in the secondary battery 2 can be used to drive the load 7, or the secondary battery 2 can be taken out and loaded into another device and used as its power source.

By the way, during the charging process of the secondary battery 2 by discharging the used battery 10, the switch S3 shown in FIG.
When the on / off control circuit 6 turns on / off the battery at a predetermined cycle or frequency, as shown in FIG.
The terminal voltage Vb of 0 decreases due to discharge during the period when the switch S1 is on, but recovers and increases during the period during which the switch S1 is off. The utilization efficiency of can be improved. The on / off frequency is suitably about 1 KHz to 10 KHz.

Only when the charging process is performed, the boosting charging circuit 1 is operated by the signal from each control unit 5, and the charging circuit 1 is operated when there is no operation command signal from any of the control units 5. Should be stopped (for example, the oscillation circuit is turned off).

A battery holding unit similar to the battery holding unit 30 shown in FIG. 2 is also provided for the secondary battery 2, and a plurality of battery holding units are stored together in an uncharged state, and one battery holding unit is stored therein. Rechargeable secondary battery 2 which is fully charged by sequentially holding and charging the electrodes at their respective charging positions with their bipolar terminals connected to their respective electrode pins.
It is also possible to release the holding of the above and sequentially drop it into the charged secondary battery storage section or send it out to the outlet.

[0034]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to charge the secondary battery by effectively utilizing the remaining power of the used and unnecessary battery, and to use it as electric energy. Therefore, the utilization rate of resources can be increased. Since the residual power of the used battery that is finally discarded is forcibly discharged, even if the discarded battery causes an accidental short circuit, the generated heat may cause a fire or the worker may get an electric shock. There is no fear, and safety can be improved.

Further, it is determined whether or not the residual electric power of the used battery can be used by detecting its internal impedance, and when the residual electric power is not usable, the residual electric power is immediately discharged forcibly and discharged. Processing is not performed and processing efficiency is improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram showing an embodiment of a charging device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the battery holding portion and the treated battery receiving portion.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of processing by a control unit 5 in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a waveform diagram for explaining a voltage drop measurement of a terminal voltage for detecting the internal impedance of a used battery.

FIG. 5: Voltage drop ΔVb and internal impedance Zi
It is a diagram showing the relationship of.

6 is a waveform diagram showing a change in the terminal voltage of a used battery when the switch S3 in FIG. 1 is turned on / off.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1: Charging circuit 2: Secondary battery 3, 4: Electrode pin 5: Control part (control means) 6: On / off control circuit 7: Load 10: Used battery 30: Battery holding part 31: Solenoid 32: Stopper ( Holding member) 39: Treated battery receiving portion S1 to S4: Switch D1, D2: Diode (unidirectional element) R: Resistor with small resistance value

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inoue Naohisa Enkazaka 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Ricoh Co., Ltd. (72) Inoue Noyuki 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Within Ricoh Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Shiro Uchida 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Within Ricoh Co. Ltd. (72) Yasutaka Goto 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Ricoh Co., Ltd. Within

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A battery holding part comprising a holding member for holding a plurality of used batteries so that the battery can be discharged, and a pair of electrodes abutting against the respective terminals of the anode and the cathode of the battery held by the holding member, Charging for charging the secondary battery by converting the DC voltage applied to the pair of electrodes by the used battery held in the battery holding unit into a predetermined charging voltage and passing a charging current through the charging secondary battery. Circuit, detecting the internal impedance of the used battery in which the anode and cathode terminals are in contact with the pair of electrodes, and if the detected internal impedance is not less than a preset value, holding the battery by the holding member And a control means for releasing the battery from the battery holder and discharging the battery from the battery holder. 2. The used battery charging device according to claim 1, wherein a forward direction in which a discharge current of the used battery flows in a circuit connecting the pair of electrodes and an input side of the charging circuit. A charging device using a used battery, wherein a unidirectional element is inserted so that 3. The control means monitors the terminal voltage of the used battery after starting the charging of the secondary battery by the used battery, and performs the charging operation when the voltage becomes equal to or lower than a preset predetermined voltage. The device for charging a used battery according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising means for stopping and releasing the holding of the battery by the holding member and discharging the battery from the battery holding portion. 4. The used battery charging device according to claim 1, further comprising a discharge circuit connecting the pair of electrodes via a resistor and a normally open switch, and the control means. However, before using the holding member to release the holding of the battery and discharging the battery from the battery holding portion, it also has means for closing the switch and forcibly discharging the battery by the discharge circuit. Charger with a used battery. 5. A plurality of the battery holders are provided, the control means is provided corresponding to each of the battery holders, and only one charging circuit for charging the secondary battery is provided in common. The charging device for a used battery according to claim 1. 6. A plurality of the battery holding parts are provided, the discharge circuit and the control means are provided corresponding to each of the battery holding parts, and only one charging circuit for charging the secondary battery is provided in common. 5. The used battery charging device according to claim 4. 7. The charging circuit according to claim 1, further comprising means for opening and closing a discharge voltage input line for the used battery at a predetermined cycle on an input side of the charging circuit. Charging device with used batteries.