Battery pack manufacturing method, and battery pack

• US 8,470,470 B2
• Filed: 05/09/2008
• Issued: 06/25/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic EV Energy Company, Limited (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic EV Energy Company, Limited (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Okumura, Motoyoshi, Maegawa, Katsunori
• Primary Examiner(s): Ruddock, Ula C
• Assistant Examiner(s): MARKS, JACOB B
• Application Number:
  US12/450,959
• Publication Number:
  US 20100047684A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,873 Days
• Field of Search: 429/156
• US Class Current: 429/156
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/42 Methods or arrangements for servicing or maintenance of secondary cells or secondary half-cells H01M10/60 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/4207 for several batteries or cells simultaneously or sequentially
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/48 Accumulators combined with arrangements for measuring, testing or indicating the condition of cells, e.g. the level or density of the electrolyte constructional details of current conducting connections for detecting conditions inside cells or batteries, e.g. details of voltage sensing terminals, H01M50/569
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 50/209 adapted for prismatic or rectangular cells H01M50/216 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 Energy storage using batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49108 Electric battery cell making

Abstract

Provided are a battery pack manufacturing method, which can prevent a drawback where some of the used secondary batteries constituting a battery pack prematurely come to an end and which can suppress the enlargement of the temporary voltage difference between a used secondary battery at a charging/discharging time (especially in a low-temperature circumstance), and a battery pack. The battery pack manufacturing method includes an acquiring step of acquiring the individual internal resistances of used secondary batteries collected from the market, a selection step of selecting a plurality of the used secondary batteries having the internal resistances close to each other from a group of the used secondary batteries whose internal resistances have been acquired, and an assembling step of combining the used secondary batteries selected, to constitute the battery pack.

Claims

1. A method of manufacturing a reused controller-equipped battery pack, the method comprising the steps of:

acquiring a plurality of batteries consisting of used secondary batteries that have previously been used as power sources for electric vehicles or hybrid electric vehicles, and that still have usable capacity;

measuring an internal resistance value of each of the used secondary batteries at substantially room temperature;

selecting a group of used secondary batteries from the plurality of used secondary batteries based on the measured internal resistance values; and

assembling the group of selected used secondary batteries and a battery controller to constitute the reused controller-equipped battery pack such that during assembly, each battery of the group of selected used secondary batteries is connected in series with the other batteries of the group of selected used secondary batteries;

the group of used secondary batteries being selected so that an internal resistance value of a used secondary battery having a maximum internal resistance value of the group is no more than 20% greater than an internal resistance value of a used secondary battery having a minimum internal resistance of the group, and

the battery controller monitoring abnormalities of the used secondary batteries based on battery voltages of the group.