ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 11 -- United States Patent no. 12,549,018, issued on Feb. 10, was assigned to VEHICLE ENERGY JAPAN INC. (Ibaraki, Japan).
"Battery system" was invented by Hiroshi Morikawa (Hitachinaka, Japan) and Kei Sakabe (Hitachinaka, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "There is fear that some battery cells among battery cells which are serially connected may consume electric power all the time, thereby causing expansion of unbalance in voltage of the battery cells and hindering electric discharge of a battery system. When a second battery has a sufficient voltage, an electric current control board supplies operating power to a battery control unit and a relay via an external minus ...