HELP!: Battery repacking for Dummies like me

[bimmer_88]

hi ! im from the philippines, and im planning to open a bettery repacking center, so far, i've already bought a spot welder machine, what else do i need to know and buy ? im willing to pay for a minimal fee on tutorials regarding the know-hows ( as long as they are useful).... thanks

 

[k7elp60]

I think you are talking about a battery pack rebuilding. Probably for Ni-Cad and Nickle Metal Hydride rechargeable batteries. Besides the spot welder you will need tab material and more than likely some thermostats. It is much easier to use new tab material when spot welding the cells together. Sometimes the battery packs have internal thermostats for over temperature protection. Here again it is sometimes easier to use a new thermostat the use the old one. A charger for the different capacity of cells might be in order. I would charge the rebuilt batteries before giving to the customer. A lot of times the cells are glued together before the tab material is spot welded to the cells. So some kind of glue may be necessary. I have seen hot glue used as well as super glue.

 

[Oznog]

The term is thermal breaker, not thermostat. These are not very common these days.

There is a flat, self-resetting circuit breaker which is very common. Also, many packs these days have at least a thermistor to communicate the pack's internal temperature to the charging circuit, but there is no standard thermistor size or terminal connections for this.

All lithium packs, and many higher end NiMH packs, have "smart charging" boards on the battery itself. The exact functions vary.

Usually simple float-charged cordless phone batteries are just the cells with no circuit breaker or thermistor.