Patent ID: 8460817

Claim:
A method of manufacturing battery pouches for the ultrasonically welding together of a stack of battery terminals with an interconnect member to form a battery pack, comprising: providing a plurality of flexible pouches containing energy storage medium and each flexible pouch having a positive terminal and a negative terminal extending therefrom, said terminals having a base and a terminal end portion; supporting the plurality of flexible pouches side by side in a pouch supporting fixture; after supporting the plurality of flexible pouches side by side, clamping each of the terminals against movement by gripping each of the terminals at the bases; after clamping each of the terminals against movement by gripping each of the terminals at the base, bending each of the end portions of the terminals by a die mechanism to provide an offset shape including a lateral bend in each terminal by which when the flexible pouches are subsequently removed from the fixture and stacked adjacent one another the positive terminals will contact one another and the negative terminals will contact one another; after the bending, removing the plurality of flexible pouches from the supporting fixture; after removing the plurality of flexible pouches from the supporting fixture, stacking the flexible pouches within a battery case with the terminals extending outwardly through an opening in the battery case with the positive terminals contacting one another and the negative terminals contacting one another; and then ultrasonically welding the terminals to an interconnect member for electrically connecting the positive terminals and negative terminals of the flexible pouches, said ultrasonic welding including high-speed vibration of the terminals and flexing of the lateral bends of the terminals so that vibratory energy is absorbed within the lateral bends of the terminals and not transmitted into the plurality of flexible pouches.