Electric cell battery with plastic webbing spacer for fast and complete epoxy encapsulation

Claim 2

An electric cell battery, as in claim 1, in which said spacer is formed of a plastic material and has three-dimensional adjustability relative to an adjacent cell.

Claim 3

An electric cell battery, as in claim 2, in which said spacer is formed as a web structure, with said parallel ribs arranged in a cylindrical plane as a bottom layer, and held in position by an overlayer of parallel spaced ribs, angularly disposed relative to the bottom ribs.

Claim 4

An electric cell battery, as in claim 4, in which said spacer is formed as a web structure of polypropylene material.

Claim 5

An electric cell battery, as in claim 5, in which said spacer constitutes and functions as an expansible tubular web structure for fitting over cells of different diameters.

Claim 6

An electric cell battery, as in claim 5, including multiple stacks of cells, adjacently disposed in side-by-side relation, with a spacer web fitting lengthwise over each stack; and a filling of thermo-setting material filling the running spaces between parallel ribs to constitute a thermoset structure locked in the interstices of the webs to constitute a complete filling of thermoset insulating material engaging and encapsulating the cells within the housing.

Claim 7

An electric cell battery, as in claim 1, in which said spacer consists of a web structure with free running spaces formed lengthwise of said web and transverse running spaces to define interstices with said lengthwise spaces to receive and hold locking keys of a thermosetting encapsulating material.

Claim 8

An electric cell battery, as in claim 1, in which said spacer is of a material that is relatively frictionless and non-wetting to a flowing fluid thermosetting plastic material, and said spacer serves in place as a frictionless guide for the fluid thermosetting material as said material flows into ultimate position to fill intended space surrounding the several cells of the battery.

Claim 9

An electric cell battery, as in claim 1, in which said spacer embodies a series of parallel spaced ribs surrounding each cell and defines unimpeded free flow paths in the spaces between said ribs, said spacer ribs being of a material that is non-wetting to the epoxy used therewith, and that is easily and readily deformable, so the fluid epoxy will flow freely in said space paths and also freely under said ribs to wet and cover the outer surface of the outer jacket of the cell under the spacer ribs, whereby a complete epoxy cylinder is formed around each cell, to prevent any cell leakage from becoming an intercell short-circuiting bridge.

Claim 10

An electric cell battery, as in claim 1, in which said spacer consists of a webbed structure of filaments or ribs of insulating material that is non-wetting and easily deformable, whereby said thermosetting material in fluid form at elevated temperature will flow freely along said filaments or ribs, and will also flow freely around and under said filaments or ribs to engage the surface of said enclosing jacket around said cell and will also creep in sub-stream along said jacket surface due to surface tension, and will thereby raise the easily deformable filaments or ribs sufficiently to enable the freely flowing and creeping thermosetting fluid to join and coalesce with other similarly flowing and creeping sub-streams to form an ultimate continuous cylinder enclosing a cell and constituting a complete barrier against leakage from said cell bridging over to another cell.

Claim 11

An electric cell battery, as in claim 5, in which a top cell in said stack has a top central electrode exposed to serve as a first terminal for connection to an external circuit; and lower cells are serially electrically connected in a manner to permit the cells to be stacked in close physical engagement axially; and said spacer is concentrically disposed around said cells along the length of said stack of cells; and a conductor is suitably bonded to the outer casing or terminal of the bottom cell of said stack and disposed along the length and along the outside of said spacer to a level adjacent the top of said stack, to serve as a second terminal of said stack for connection to an external circuit.

Claim 12

A battery, as in claim 1, in which said spacer has three-dimensional adjustability characteristics that will enable said spacer to snugly conform to the surrounding structure while permitting the liquid thermosetting epoxy material to flow freely into and through interstices in said spacer.

Claim 13

In an electric battery containing one or more electric cells, each of said cells embodying an enclosing jacket and a cylindrical spacer consisting of a polypropylene grid mesh surrounding each cell thereof, said mesh having filaments disposed in two directions, with all filaments in one direction co-planar, and all filaments in a transverse direction co-planar.

Claim 14

In a battery assembly comprising a plurality of jacketed electric cells contained within an outer housing, a cylindrical insulating member therefor separating said housing from said cells, said insulating member consisting of a tubular grid of polypropylene filaments with the filaments disposed in two directions, with all filaments in one direction co-planar, and all filaments in a transverse direction co-planar, to thereby provide free runways in said insulating member to allow an insulation to be poured between said cells and said housing to impregnate same to form a composite of grid and sheath to form a complete insulating closure for said assembly.