Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd.

Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Konica Minolta Opto, Inc.

Panasonic Electric Works Co., Ltd.

Naoki Shimizu

Masaki Ikeda

Tatsuya Miwa

Atsumasa Kubota

Norihiro Iwamura

Motoharu Muto

Masaaki Sakaue

Masaaki Okada

Daiki Minamino

Tadatsugu Okumura

Ichiro Miyagawa

Tomohiko Sakai

Kiyoshi Akagi

The battery pack includes a battery cell for supplying electric power to an external device connected thereto, a temperature sensor for sensing a temperature of a place on which the temperature sensor is arranged, a switch member for making and breaking an electric path between the external device and the battery cell; and a controller configured to control the switch member to turn on and off according to the temperature sensed by the temperature sense. The temperature sensor is arranged on a position between the battery cell and the switch member so as to be affected by the temperatures of both of the battery cell and the switch member.

Battery pack

A coating device is provided with: a plurality of inkjet heads () staggered to cover an area to be coated in a width direction of a long-roll supporting body (); a pressure adjusting mechanism () for adjusting the back-pressure of the coating solution to be applied from inkjet heads (); a plurality of solution feeding pipes () for supplying the coating solution from the pressure adjusting mechanism () to inkjet heads (); and storage tank () for storing the coating solution, wherein the feeding volumes of the coating solution from the solution feeding pipes () are adjusted equal (i.e. flow resistances of the piping are made equal), so that equal back-pressures are applied to the coating solution to be jetted from the inkjet heads.

Coating device

A battery pack includes a status detection unit for detecting a status of a battery; a switch unit for interrupting a discharging path of the battery; a notification unit for notifying a user of the status of the battery; an operation unit operable by the user; and control unit for opening and closing the switch unit. The control unit is configured to have the switch unit interrupt the discharging path of the battery when the status of the battery detected by the status detection unit is abnormal. Further, the control unit is configured to have the notification unit notify the user of the availability to restart a discharging operation and close the switch unit in response to an operation signal inputted from the operation unit to make the battery pack dischargeable when the status of the battery detected by the status detection unit is recovered from the abnormal status.

Battery pack including a status detection unit to detect an abnormal status and a notification unit to notify a user of an availability to restart a discharging operation

A battery charger includes an attachment portion capable of being connected to a plurality of battery packs; a connection unit for connecting one of the battery packs connected to the attachment portion to a charging path; a state detection unit for detecting a state of each of the battery packs; a remaining capacity detection unit; and a charging control unit. The remaining capacity detection unit detects a remaining capacity based on the state of the battery pack detected by the state detection unit after each of the battery pack is charged for a specified period of time. Further, the charging control unit assigns priorities to the battery packs such that one whose remaining capacity detected by the remaining capacity detection unit is closer to a fully charged state thereof has a higher priority, and controls the connection unit to charge the battery packs according to the assigned priorities.

Charger

A charging device includes a charging unit; a detection unit for detecting a temperature and a temperature increasing rate of a rechargeable battery; a controller for controlling the charging unit to supply a charging current to the rechargeable battery; and a compensating unit for setting a value of the first threshold to be greater if the temperature of the rechargeable battery at the time of mounting the rechargeable battery on the charging device is equal to or smaller than a second threshold and smaller if otherwise. The charging unit stops supplying the charging current to the rechargeable battery if the temperature increasing rate is equal to or greater than a first threshold.

Charging device

A constant-current battery charger includes a power supply for supplying a charge current to a secondary cell, and a current monitor for monitoring a charge current being supplied to the cell. A controller is included for varying the charge current in accordance with the monitored charge current. The controller calculates a current difference between a predetermined target current and the instant charge current, and generates a demand of varying the charge current at a first charge rate when the current difference is out of a predetermined range, and varying the charge current at a second charge rate when the current difference is within the predetermined range. The controller generates the demand repeatedly at regular or varying intervals for varying the charge current. The first charge rate is set to be higher than the second charge rate in order to make a rapid charging until it comes close to the target current. Since the current difference between the instant charge current and the target current is relied upon to switch the charge rate between the first and second charge rates, the switching can be made at an exact timing truly indicative of the condition of the battery, which enables a rapid charging, yet assuring to complete the charging successfully.

Constant-current battery charger

Growing community of inventors

Hikone, Japan

Naoki Shimizu