Method of manufacturing a circuit breaker and method of manufacturing a battery pack including the circuit breaker
AssigneeOtsuka Techno Corporation
InventorsYoshihiro Nakanishi, Shiro Shibuya, Kazuo Tanabe
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The circuit breaker is fabricated by an assembly step that makes a circuit breaker assembly with a moving contact metal plate, stationary contact metal plate, and bimetallic strip disposed in prescribed locations in an external case; and an anneal step that introduces the circuit breaker assembly made in the assembly step into an anneal oven, heats the circuit breaker assembly in the anneal oven and then cools it to anneal both the moving contact metal plate and the bimetallic strip and produce a heat-treated circuit breaker.
Claims20
A method of manufacturing a circuit breaker comprising:
- a stationary contact metal plate having a stationary contact;
- a moving contact metal plate that is a flexible metal plate, which has a moving contact disposed in a position opposite the stationary contact, and which resiliently presses the moving contact against the stationary contact;
- a bimetallic strip that changes shape with temperature and is disposed in a position to switch the moving contact metal plate ON and OFF;
- and
- an external case that houses the stationary contact on the stationary contact metal plate and the moving contact on the moving contact metal plate and also contains the bimetallic strip,
- the method comprising:
- an assembly step to make a circuit breaker assembly with the moving contact metal plate, the stationary contact metal plate, and the bimetallic strip disposed in prescribed locations within the external case;
- and
- an anneal step that introduces the circuit breaker assembly made in the assembly step into an anneal oven, heats the circuit breaker assembly in the anneal oven and subsequently cools the circuit breaker assembly to anneal both the moving contact metal plate and the bimetallic strip and produce a heat-treated circuit breaker.
A method of manufacturing a battery pack, the method comprising:
- an assembly step to form a circuit breaker assembly having a stationary contact metal plate with a stationary contact;
- a moving contact metal plate that is a flexible metal plate, which has a moving contact disposed in a position opposite the stationary contact, and which resiliently presses the moving contact against the stationary contact;
- a bimetallic strip disposed in a position to switch the moving contact metal plate ON and OFF;
- and an external case that houses those components and disposes the stationary contact on the stationary contact metal plate and bimetallic strip in fixed positions;
- an anneal step that introduces the circuit breaker assembly made in the assembly step into an anneal oven, heats the circuit breaker assembly to anneal both the moving contact metal plate and the bimetallic strip and produce a heat-treated circuit breaker;
- a solder reflow step that places the heat-treated circuit breaker annealed in the anneal step in a prescribed location on a circuit board, and heats the heat-treated circuit breaker in a solder reflow oven to solder-attach it to the circuit board;
- and
- an electrical connection step to electrically connect the circuit board carrying the heat-treated circuit breaker mounted in the solder reflow step to one or more batteries.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.