Battery terminal and post with rotation inhibiting means

DETAILED DESCRIPTION It is an objective of this invention to provide a battery terminal which when mounted to a battery post resists rotation relative to the post without damaging the post.
It is a further objective of this invention to provide a battery connection wherein a terminal may be quickly and repeatably mounted to a battery post in a predetermined orientation thereto.
These objectives are achieved by a battery connection comprising a battery post having a shaft portion extending generally perpendicularly from a base portion, and a battery terminal having a circular clamp portion for encircling the post shaft and an annular flange projecting radially outward from the lower edge of the clamp portion.
The flange has gripping means formed on its underside to frictionally engage the upper surface of the base of the battery post when the terminal is mounted thereto, and the flange further has alignment means projecting from the underside thereof to engage complementary receptacle means formed in the base when the terminal and post are in a desired orientation relative to one another.
The frictional engagement between the gripping means and the base serves to resist relative rotation between the terminal and the post without damaging the surface of the post shaft, and the engagement between the alignment means and the receptacle means permits the terminal to be repeatably and reliably mounted to the post in the desired orientation as well as resisting rotation.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention disclosed herein, the gripping means comprises a series of radially extending ridges formed on the underside of the flange, and the alignment means comprises two tabs which project downwardly below the underside of the flange.
The battery terminal is slid downward over the post until the flange contacts the upper surface of the battery post base, and the clamping ring is tightened around the shaft.
In this position, the ridges contact the shaft base and provide a frictional grip to inhibit rotation of the terminal relative to the post