Cold formed battery terminal
View Patent ↗A method and apparatus for cold forming a battery terminal having a base and an insert. The insert includes a first portion encapsulated within the base and a second portion that extends beyond a first side of the base.
1. A method of cold forming a finished battery terminal comprising:
cold forming a lead or lead alloy slug to form a stop and a chamber with a chamber opening therein;
inserting a male fastener having a head and a shank in the chamber of the slug until the shank extends out of the chamber opening in the slug and the head of the fastener is in retained engagement with a shoulder; and
cold forming the slug with the fastener head therein until the fastener head is embedded in the slug.
2. The method of claim 1 including the step of cold forming an annular fill-in lip around the chamber opening.
3. The method of claim 2 including the step of cold forming the annular lip radially and laterally into the chamber to encapsulate the fastener head therein.
4. The method of claim 1 including the step of inserting the fastener into the chamber until a fastener end face is beyond a plane extending through an exterior surface of the battery terminal.
5. The method of claim 4 including the step of forming a further chamber with an annular extension extending around an opening into the further chamber.
6. The method of claim 5 including the step of forming a set of concentric acid rings in the annular extension around the offset opening.
7. The method of claim 1 including the step of cold forming an extension for carrying a portion of the chamber and the opening on a top face of the battery terminal and for cold forming an extension for carrying acid rings on a bottom face of the slug.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of placing a male fastener in the opening comprises placing a bolt in the battery terminal.
9. The method of claim 1 including the step of inserting the male fastener comprises placing the male fastener with a protrusion thereon and cold forming the lead or lead slug alloy until the cold formed lead engages the protrusion to prevent rotation of the metal fastener as the fastener is secured to an external female connector.