Mattel, Inc.

Ark-les Corporation

Chuck J Crofut

Brian L Bienz

Jeffrey W Reynolds

Julian J Bishop

An improved battery for children's ride-on vehicles. The battery includes a sealed housing that contains an internal circuit breaker that disconnects the flow of energy from the battery to the vehicle's one or more motors upon actuation. Upon removal of the actuating event, the circuit breaker automatically resets to reestablish the electrical circuit connecting the battery and the vehicle's one or more motors. The battery may alternatively include a manual reset that is accessible external the housing. Additionally, the battery may also include an internal one-shot fuse to protect against catastrophic failure of the battery.

Children's ride-on vehicle having a battery with an internal circuit breaker

Battery for a children's ride-on vehicle

A battery connector system for use with a powered ride-on vehicle for children, where the vehicle includes an electric motor adapted to drive one or more wheels of the vehicle and a wiring harness adapted to convey power to the motor. The battery connector system includes a plug attached to the wiring harness and has a case substantially enclosing positive and negative plug contacts. The plug further includes a normally-open switch interposed between a switched one of the plug contacts and the wiring harness with the switch having an actuator by which the switch may be closed, whereby the switched plug contact is not electrically connected to the wiring harness until the switch is closed. The system further includes a battery including positive and negative terminals and a socket including housing structure adapted to fit together with the plug case and substantially enclosing positive and negative socket contacts which are respectively connected to positive and negative terminals of the battery. The housing structure is adapted to position the positive and negative socket contacts to respectively engage the positive and negative contacts on the plug when the housing structure and case are fit together. The battery connector also includes a key adapted to engage the actuator and close the switch when the housing structure and case are fit together. A portion of the socket may serve as a charging jack for the battery.

Growing community of inventors

East Aurora, NY, United States of America

Chuck J Crofut