Patent 8999555 was granted and assigned to Sanyo on April, 2015 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A battery array is provided with a battery stack (5) having a plurality of rectangular battery cells (1) stacked together with intervening separators (2), endplates (3) disposed at the ends of the battery stack, and binding bars (4) extending in the battery cell stacking direction and attached to the endplates in a manner that binds both sides of the battery stack. The binding bars are configured as plates of given width extending along the battery stack surfaces. The binding bars and separators fit together in a linked configuration that limits their relative movement in the up-and-down direction.