Patent ID: 7368201

Claim:
Box for a set of electric storage batteries, consisting essentially of: two side walls ( 12 , 14 ) extending parallel and defining between themselves a housing for receiving plural batteries on each of a plurality of horizontal levels; the side walls ( 12 , 14 ) consisting of an assembly of vertically stacked modules ( 16 ), each module comprising a pair of wall elements ( 18 , 20 ) mounted opposite each other, wherein, each of the pair of wall elements ( 18 , 20 ) are two horizontally opposed wall elements ( 18 , 20 ) together forming a floor support for the batteries stored therebetween, each of the two horizontally opposed wall elements form at least part of the floor support for one edge of each battery stored therebetween, the two horizontally opposed wall elements are separated from each other by an intervening air space so that the two horizontally opposed wall elements support each battery by opposite base edges of the battery with a base area of the battery between the opposite edges unsupported and exposed to the intervening air space, each wall element ( 18 , 20 ) is in the form of a U section with folded edges that define parallel arms ( 22 , 24 ) pointing inwards into the box toward corresponding coplanar arms of another wall element, the arms of each wall element being spaced apart, by the intervening air space, from the coplanar arms of the another wall element, the U sections are directly stacked on another U section, and the lower arm of the each U section and the lower arm of the another U section together form one of the horizontal levels of the floor support for the batteries, the upper arm of the U section of each wall element abuts the lower arm of the U section of a vertically adjacent wall element and provides a resulting horizontal level of the floor supports having a thickness defined by the abutting upper arm and lower arm, and each floor support is sized and constructed to support batteries that are electric self-propelled vehicle batteries having gas recombination sealed elements and sized for serving as a source of electric motive power for a vehicle; and two end plates ( 28 , 30 ) secured to respective ends of the two side walls, at least one of the two end plates being attached removably to allow for the batteries to be horizontally placed in or removed from each horizontal level, the two side walls being connected to each other only by said end plates, each end plate provided with vertically spaced apart fixing lugs ( 32 ) secured to the wall elements ( 18 , 20 ), each end plate including a different fixing lug for each wall element ( 18 , 20 ) such that each of the two end plates is secured, via a different one of the fixing lugs, to one end of every wall element ( 18 , 20 ).