Battery pack

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A battery pack is a set of any number of (preferably) identical batteries or individual battery cells.^[1][2] They may be configured in a series, parallel or a mixture of both to deliver the desired voltage and current. The term battery pack is often used in reference to cordless tools, radio-controlled hobby toys, and battery electric vehicles.

Components of battery packs include the individual batteries or cells, and the interconnects which provide electrical conductivity between them.^[3] Rechargeable battery packs often contain voltage and temperature sensors, which the battery charger uses to detect the end of charging.^[4] Interconnects are also found in batteries as they are the part which connects each cell, though batteries are most often only arranged in series strings.

When a pack contains groups of cells in parallel there are differing wiring configurations which take into consideration the electrical balance of the circuit. Battery Management System are sometimes used for balancing cells in order to keep their voltages below a maximum value during charging so as to allow the weaker batteries to become fully charged, bringing the whole pack back into balance.^[5] Active balancing can also be performed by battery balancer devices which can shuttle energy from strong cells to weaker ones in real time for better balance.^[5] A well-balanced pack lasts longer and delivers better performance.^[6][1]

For an inline package, cells are selected and stacked with solder in between them. The cells are pressed together and a current pulse generates heat to solder them together and to weld all connections internal to the cell.