Attaching Cables to FRC Batteries

[Tristan Lall]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

...because the terminal on the battery and the cable terminal wear against each other and the hardware.

I'm not sure that I quite believe that, Al. In a properly tightened joint, there shouldn't be any appreciable abrasive wear, because the faying surfaces of the terminals aren't ever moving with respect to one another.

(People who pick batteries up by their leads may cause my assumption to be violated, however.)

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

This is not the only effect as constant tightening of the hardware cause the terminals to deform making the conditions worse.

Do you mean that someone is repeatedly retightening the bolt? (If so, my concern above stands. If it's not moving, there's no need to tighten it. If it is moving, it wasn't tight enough.)

If nobody is adjusting the connection, I could still see this being a problem with heavily preloaded joints in materials that exhibit lots of creep—eventually they'll plastically deform to reach an equilibrium between the preload stress and the elastic limit stress. But with the materials we're dealing with, at the temperatures we're operating at, for the lifespan of the part, it shouldn't be a factor.

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

Many will ask about the star washer adding some resistance and this is true.

There's still a flat terminal-to-terminal contact surface, right? (To get a good connection, presumably the washer goes under the nut or the bolt head, not between the terminals.)