JPH11125664A - Battery checker and dry battery provided with the battery checker - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a battery checker which uses very small power for confirming the consumption status of a battery and is hardly affected by using environment and a dry battery provided with the battery checker. SOLUTION: This battery is constituted of a base film 10 consisting of transparent polyethylene terephthalate film having flexibility, a liquid crystal element 20 fixed on the base film 10, a conduction layer 30 electrically connected to this liquid crystal element 20 and formed on the base film 10 and a protection film 40 covering the liquid crystal element 20 and the conduction layer 30. The liquid crystal element 20 is constituted of a pair of transparent plastic base plates 21 having flexibility and formed with transparent electrode layers 22 inside and a high polymer dispersing type liquid crystal material 23 charged in between the plastic base plates 21.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a battery checker for checking the consumption status of a dry battery and a dry battery provided with the battery checker.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a battery checker for checking the consumption status of a dry battery, for example, there is one as shown in FIG. The battery checker 50 includes a film substrate 51 formed of a synthetic resin film having flexibility.
And contact portions 52a, 5a formed on the back surface of the film substrate 51 and electrically connected to the positive and negative electrodes of the dry battery.
A conductive layer 52 having both ends at the both ends;
Except for a and 52b, an insulating layer 53 formed on the back surface of the film substrate 51 so as to cover the conductive layer 52, and a temperature rise formed on the surface of the film substrate 51 so as to correspond to the conductive layer 52. And a thermochromic layer (not shown) made of a temperature-sensitive ink that changes color as the color changes.

The width of the conductive layer 52 is gradually increased from one contact portion 52a to the other contact portion 52b, and the width of the conductive layer 52 is increased from the contact portion 52b to the contact portion 52a. The resistance value is gradually increasing.

Accordingly, when the contact portions 52a and 52b are brought into contact with the positive electrode and the negative electrode of the dry battery, an electric current flows through the conductive layer 52, so that the conductive layer 52 generates heat and corresponds to the conductive layer 52 of the base film 51. Since the temperature of the portion of the thermochromic layer rises, the color of the thermochromic layer at that portion changes color. Since the amount gradually decreases from the contact portion 52b side, it is possible to confirm the consumption state of the dry battery.

[0005] In addition, dry batteries in which such a battery checker is incorporated into an external label covering the dry battery main body and respective contact portions are connected to the positive electrode and the negative electrode of the dry battery main body via a switch portion have been developed. With batteries,
For example, when the switch is pressed, the contact portion of the battery checker is electrically connected to the positive electrode and the negative electrode of the dry battery main body, so that the consumption state of the dry battery can be checked.

[0006]

Since the above-described battery checker generates heat in the conductive layer by energizing the conductive layer as an electric resistor,
There is a problem in that the power consumed to check the consumption status of the dry battery is not negligibly small and the dry battery is gradually consumed every time the consumption status of the dry battery is checked.

[0007] Further, the battery checker described above changes the color of the thermochromic layer due to a rise in the temperature of the conductive layer. Therefore, the battery checker is susceptible to the influence of the outside air temperature and the wind for removing heat. There is also a problem that it is not possible to accurately display the wear state of the camera.

In particular, in the case of a dry battery in which a battery checker is incorporated in advance, the battery checker is usually mounted in contact with the surface of the container of the dry battery main body formed of a metal having good heat conductivity. There is a problem that the battery is taken away by the metal container of the dry battery main body without being transmitted to the thermochromic layer, and as a result, the dry battery is displayed as being consumed more than the actual consumed state.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a battery checker and a battery provided with the battery checker, which consume very little power for checking the state of consumption of the dry battery and which is hardly affected by the use environment. It is in.

[0010]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a flexible base film, a liquid crystal display element fixed to the base film, and one end of the liquid crystal display element. And a conductor formed on the base film and having a contact part with the positive electrode or the negative electrode of the dry battery on the other end side.

The battery checker configured as described above uses a liquid crystal display element whose display state (shading) changes due to a change in the voltage (electric field) applied between the electrodes. Power consumption is extremely small and is not easily affected by the use environment such as temperature and wind.

In addition, if the battery checker described above is incorporated in a dry battery with its contact portions connected to the positive electrode and the negative electrode of the dry battery main body via the switch portion, the operating condition of the dry battery can be obtained simply by operating the switch portion. Can be easily confirmed.

The liquid crystal display element comprises a pair of flexible transparent plastic substrates having a transparent electrode layer formed on an inner surface thereof, and a polymer-dispersed liquid crystal material filled between the plastic substrates. It is preferable to use such an element because the element becomes extremely stable in structure and does not require an alignment film or a polarizing plate, and can be used in a state where the entire element is curved.

[0014]

Embodiments will be described below with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, the battery checker 1 includes a base film 10 made of a transparent polyethylene terephthalate film having flexibility (hereinafter, referred to as a PET film), and a liquid crystal display fixed to the base film 10. It comprises an element 20, a pair of conductive layers 30 formed on the base film 10 with the liquid crystal display element 20 interposed therebetween, and a protective film 40 covering the liquid crystal display element 20 and the conductive layer 30.

It is desirable that the above-mentioned PET film is used for the base film 10 from the viewpoints of heat resistance, transparency, gloss and stiffness, and the thickness is 20 to 100 μm.
m, preferably about 30 to 60 μm.

The liquid crystal display element 20 is composed of a pair of flexible transparent plastic substrates 21 each having a transparent electrode layer 22 formed on an inner surface thereof, and a liquid crystal material 23 filled between the plastic substrates 21. The periphery of the plastic substrate 21 is sealed with an adhesive 24 at a predetermined interval.

The plastic substrate 21 is suitably made of polycarbonate, polyarylate, polyethersulfone, or the like. The transparent electrode layer 22 formed on the inner surface of the plastic substrate 21 is usually made of an oxide of indium and tin. An ITO layer made of a material is formed by a technique such as sputtering.

As the liquid crystal material 23, a polymer produced by dispersing liquid crystal molecules in a polymer matrix such as polyvinyl alcohol or acrylic resin, or impregnating liquid crystal molecules in a microporous film. Dispersion type liquid crystal materials are suitable. By using such a liquid crystal material, a liquid crystal display element which is extremely structurally stable and does not require an alignment film or a polarizing plate can be obtained.

As the liquid crystal itself, a liquid crystal having a threshold voltage determined by the voltage of the dry cell to be measured may be appropriately selected, and a liquid crystal in a scattering mode is particularly preferable.

The driving method of the liquid crystal display element 20 may employ a simple on / off drive for determining whether or not a voltage is applied from both electrodes of the dry battery to be measured. It is also possible to adopt a static drive as the electrode.

The conductive layer 30 is formed by attaching a conductive film such as an aluminum foil to the base film 10, depositing a conductive metal on the base film 10, or applying a conductive ink to the base film 10. Each conductive layer 30 is formed by coating the liquid crystal display element 2
0 transparent electrode layer 22.

Although the conductive layer 30 is mostly covered with the protective film 40, the non-connection end side is partially exposed, and the exposed portions are respectively formed on the positive electrode and the negative electrode of the dry battery. It becomes the contact part 31 to be connected.

As shown in FIG. 2, the battery checker 1 having the above-described configuration is configured such that both the contact portions 31 of the conductive layer 30 are connected to the positive electrode c and the negative electrode a, a voltage is applied to the liquid crystal display element 20, and the display state (shading) changes according to the applied voltage. Therefore, the liquid crystal display element 20
The state of consumption of the dry battery B can be confirmed by the display state of. In FIG. 2, the conductive layer 30 and the protective film 40 are omitted.

In this embodiment, the liquid crystal display element 20
The state of consumption of the dry battery is confirmed by a change in the display state in a certain display area formed in, for example,
Characters such as "GOOD" and "good" can be displayed on the liquid crystal display element, and the state of consumption of the dry battery can be confirmed by a change in the display state of such characters.

As shown in FIG. 3A, a plurality of liquid crystal display elements 20 are connected in parallel by a conductive layer 30 and the voltage applied to each liquid crystal display element 20 is changed stepwise. The liquid crystal of each liquid crystal display element 20 is provided by providing a fixed resistor R at an appropriate position or changing the electrode spacing of the plurality of liquid crystal display elements 20 connected in parallel as shown in FIG. If the electric field strength to the material is changed stepwise, the display state of each liquid crystal display element 20 changes stepwise according to the consumption state of the dry battery, so that the consumption state of the dry battery can be displayed stepwise. it can.

FIG. 4 shows another embodiment. The battery checker 2 is formed such that the protective film 40 in the battery checker 1 is elongated to protrude outward from both ends of the base film 10, and a base material is formed on the inner surface of both ends of the protective film 40. A new conductive layer 3 partially contacting the conductive layer 30 formed on the film 10
0a is separately formed, and the conductive layer 30a becomes a contact portion 31a between the positive electrode and the negative electrode of the dry battery.

In the above-described battery checker 1, as shown in FIG. 2, the liquid crystal display element 20 comes inside the base film 10 in the use state, so that the display state of the liquid crystal display element 20 is changed through the base film 10. In the case of the battery checker 2, the liquid crystal display element 20 comes to the outside of the base film 10 at the time of use, so that the display state of the liquid crystal display element 20 is checked through the protective film 40. Therefore, in this case, the protective film 4
0 must be transparent, but the base film 1
For 0, it is not necessary to be transparent.

Since the battery checkers 1 and 2 configured as described above use the liquid crystal display element 20 whose display state changes directly depending on the applied voltage, the battery checkers 1 and 2 are hardly affected by the use environment such as temperature and wind. Compared to a conventional battery checker that employs a thermochromic layer that changes color due to a temperature change caused by resistance heat generation, it is possible to more reliably check the consumption status of a dry battery. In addition, since the power consumption of the liquid crystal display element 20 is extremely small, the consumption state of the dry battery can be checked with little consumption of the dry battery.

Further, since the liquid crystal display element 20 is composed of a pair of flexible plastic substrates 21 having flexibility, when the battery checkers 1 and 2 are used as shown in FIG. Even when the material film 10 is curved, the liquid crystal display element 20 bends to some extent following the base film 10, so that the liquid crystal display element 20 is hardly damaged and easy to use.

FIG. 5 conceptually shows the structure of a dry battery 6 in which the battery checker 3 is incorporated in the dry battery main body 4.

The dry battery body 4 has an opening of a conductive metal container 4a on the negative electrode side closed by a metal cover 4c on the positive electrode side via an insulating member 4b. It is electrically insulated from the metal lid 4c.

On the other hand, the battery checker 3 comprises a conductive layer 3 on which a liquid crystal display element 20 is fixed on the front side of the base film 10 and which is electrically connected to the liquid crystal display element 20.
0 is formed, and the base film 10 is formed with a hole 10a forming a switch portion at one end thereof,
The conductive layer 30 is formed so as to cover the hole 10a.

As shown in FIG. 1, the battery checker 3 is mounted on the battery checker 3 such that the back surface of the base film 10 is superimposed on the peripheral surface of the metal container 4a of the battery main body 4.
And attaching the metal cover 4c to the metal container 4a such that the multi-end side of the base film 10 is sandwiched between the metal cover 4c and the insulating member 4b. Then, a label base made of a heat-shrinkable polyester film is used. The entire dry battery body 4 (the positive electrode terminal and the negative electrode terminal are left exposed) is covered with an outer label 5 in which a metal deposition layer and a heat bonding layer are sequentially laminated on the inner surface side of the material. The exterior label 5 is provided on the liquid crystal display element 2 of the battery checker 3.
No metal-deposited layer is provided on the portion covering 0, so that the display state of the liquid crystal display element 20 can be checked through the outer label 5.

In the dry battery 6 configured as described above, one end of the conductive layer 30 of the battery checker 3 is
Are electrically connected to the positive electrode side of the battery 10, and the user of the dry battery 6
When the portion a is pushed in from the outside of the outer label 5, the conductive layer 30 enters the hole 10a together with the outer label 5, and the conductive layer 3
0 is electrically connected to the metal container 4 a on the negative electrode side of the dry battery main body 4, and the consumption state of the dry battery 6 can be confirmed by the liquid crystal display element 20. When the pushing of the outer label 5 is released, the conductive layer 30 returns to the original position together with the outer label 5, and the dry cell main body 4 and the battery checker 3
The electrical connection with is disconnected.

In this dry battery 6, by sandwiching the base film 10 between the metal cover 4c of the dry battery main body 4 and the insulating member 4b, the metal cover 4c on the positive electrode side and the conductive layer 30 are electrically connected. We are trying to connect, but it is not always necessary to adopt such a connection structure, for example,
A terminal portion is formed by projecting one end of the conductive layer 30 from the base film 10, and the terminal portion is pressed against the surface of the metal lid 4 c by the outer label 5 to make electrical contact therewith. Is also good.

Further, the battery checker 3 may be formed in advance on the inside of the outer label 5 and the battery checker 3 may be attached to the dry battery main body 4 by attaching the outer label 5.

In the dry battery 6, the metal container 4a of the dry battery main body 4 is on the negative electrode side. However, when the metal container is on the positive electrode side, the base is placed between the metal cover on the negative electrode side and the insulating member. The conductive layer 30 may be connected to the negative electrode in advance with the material film 10 interposed therebetween.

In this embodiment, the switch section including the hole 10a is formed only on one side of the conductive layer 30, but the structure of the switch section is not limited to such. It is also possible to form a similar switch section on both the positive electrode side and the negative electrode side.

[0039]

As described above, the battery checker of the present invention and the dry cell incorporating the battery checker are:
The use of a liquid crystal display element allows for very low power consumption when checking the consumption of the batteries, and is not easily affected by the operating environment such as temperature and wind. You can check the situation.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing an embodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram conceptually showing a use state of the above.

FIG. 3 is a partial conceptual view showing a modification of the above.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing another embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram conceptually showing a structure in which a battery checker is incorporated into a dry battery main body.

FIG. 6 is a rear view showing a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 2, 3 Battery checker 4 Dry battery main body 4a Metal container 4b Insulating member 4c Metal cover 5 Outer label 6 Dry battery 10 Base film 10a Hole 20 Liquid crystal display element 21 Plastic substrate 22 Transparent electrode layer 23 Liquid crystal material 24 Adhesive 30, 30a Conductive layer 31, 31a Terminal part 40 Protective film

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A flexible base film, a liquid crystal display element fixed to the base film, one end connected to an electrode of the liquid crystal display element, and the other end side of a positive electrode of a dry battery or A battery checker comprising: a conductor having a contact portion with a negative electrode; and a conductor formed on the base film. 2. The battery checker according to claim 1,
A dry battery with its contacts connected to the positive and negative electrodes of the dry battery body via the switch. 3. A liquid crystal display device comprising: a pair of flexible transparent plastic substrates having a transparent electrode layer formed on an inner surface thereof; and a polymer-dispersed liquid crystal material filled between the plastic substrates. The battery checker according to claim 1, wherein the battery checker is configured. 4. The liquid crystal display element comprises a pair of flexible transparent plastic substrates having a transparent electrode layer formed on an inner surface thereof, and a polymer-dispersed liquid crystal material filled between the plastic substrates. The dry battery according to claim 2, which is configured.