JP6673067B2 - Power cable protection structure - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a structure for protecting a power cable that supplies power from a battery to an electric motor mounted on a vehicle.

  2. Description of the Related Art A vehicle equipped with a motor for driving a vehicle, such as a hybrid vehicle, includes a power cable for supplying electric power from a battery to the motor. During a vehicle collision, the power cable may be damaged by being pinched by peripheral devices. In Patent Document 1 below, a protector (12p) is arranged in front of a power cable (power cable 22) to protect the power cable (22) from a device coming from the front. In addition, the code in parentheses is the code used in the following Patent Document 1, and is not related to the code used in the embodiment of the present application.

JP 2013-233836 A

  The power cable may be damaged by being pinched between the front and rear devices during a vehicle forward collision. For example, there is a case where a reserve tank is arranged at the rear and a vehicle-mounted device other than the reserve tank is arranged at the front, and a power cable is located between them. The reserve tank is formed integrally by joining flanges provided at the edges of the openings of the two tank halves. Since the strength of the flange portion is high and the edge of the flange has an edge shape, the possibility of damage to the power cable increases when the power cable is sandwiched between the flange and the in-vehicle equipment in front.

  An object of the present invention is to protect a power cable in which an in-vehicle device and a reserve tank are arranged before and after at the time of a vehicle forward collision.

  The power cable protection structure of the present invention protects a power cable arranged between a vehicle-mounted device and a reserve tank arranged in the front-rear direction of a vehicle. The reserve tank is formed by joining flanges provided at the edges of the openings of the two tank halves. A part of the power cable is arranged to face a part of the jointed flange of the reserve tank. The collision projection is arranged opposite to the flat portion of the tank half near the portion of the flange facing the power cable. When the distance between the in-vehicle device and the reserve tank is reduced due to the collision of the vehicle, the relative movement between the in-vehicle device and the reserve tank causes the collision protrusion to form in the tank half before the power cable is caught between the flanges of the in-vehicle device and the reserve tank. Reach and break the tank half.

  The flange of the reserve tank has high strength, but the flat portion near the flange has relatively low strength and is easily broken. If the structure around the flange breaks, the flange loses support and is less likely to damage the power cable.

  The breakage of the periphery of the flange of the reserve tank can prevent the power cable from being damaged by the flange.

It is a figure showing an example of arrangement of equipment in an engine room of vehicles concerning the present invention. It is a figure showing other examples of arrangement of the equipment in the engine room of the vehicle concerning the present invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an arrangement of devices in an engine room 10 of a hybrid vehicle. In the following description, terms indicating directions such as front, rear, left, right, up, and down indicate directions based on the vehicle unless otherwise specified. The left side in the figure is the front of the vehicle.

  The vehicle of this embodiment is a so-called front engine vehicle in which an engine room 10 is located in front of a passenger compartment. The engine room 10 houses a power unit including a prime mover for driving the vehicle. In the case of a hybrid vehicle, the power unit includes an internal combustion engine and an electric motor as prime movers. Further, the power unit may have a configuration in which the internal combustion engine and the transmission are combined. An electric motor for driving the vehicle (hereinafter simply referred to as an electric motor) can be provided in the transmission. The electric motor is supplied with electric power from a driving battery mounted on the vehicle, and when the electric motor functions as a generator, the generated electric power is charged into the driving battery.

  A power control device 12 is provided on the front side in the engine room 10, a reserve tank 14 is provided on the rear side, and a power cable 16 is arranged between them. Power is transmitted and received between the power control device 12 and the electric motor or between the power control device 12 and the driving battery via the power cable 16. The power control device 12 controls transmission and reception of power between the electric motor and the driving battery. When the motor is a three-phase AC motor, power control device 12 includes an inverter, and the inverter converts DC power from the driving battery into three-phase AC power and supplies the three-phase AC power to the motor. The inverter converts the three-phase AC power generated by the motor into DC power and charges the driving battery. The power control device 12 may include a booster that boosts the voltage supplied from the driving battery and supplies the boosted voltage to the inverter. Furthermore, the power control device 12 may include a step-down device for stepping down the voltage of the driving battery and supplying power to the electric device, for example, a DC-DC converter. Electrical equipment mounted on the vehicle, such as lights such as headlights, acoustic equipment, route guidance devices, and electronic control units (ECUs), has the same voltage (for example, 12 V) as that of a conventional vehicle having only an internal combustion engine as a driving motor. ) Works. This voltage is lower than the electric power supplied to the electric motor for driving the vehicle, and a step-down device is provided to adapt this voltage to the electric equipment. Further, power control device 12 may include a control circuit for controlling the inverter, the booster, and the step-down converter.

  Further, a cooler for cooling the inverter, the booster, and the like can be provided in the power control device 12. The cooler can be liquid-cooled, and circulates a coolant between a separately provided radiator to cool the inverter and the like.

  The power control device 12 integrates the above-described inverter, booster, step-down converter, control circuit, and cooler in a metal, for example, aluminum case. The shape of the case may be substantially a rectangular parallelepiped.

  The reserve tank 14 stores a surplus of the cooling water of the internal combustion engine and the power control device 12, and when the cooling water runs short, the shortage is supplied therefrom. When the cooling system of the internal combustion engine and the cooling system of the power control device 12 are separated, the reserve tank 14 stores the cooling water of either one of the cooling systems.

  The reserve tank 14 is formed by joining two tank halves 18 and 20 made of resin. When it is necessary to distinguish the two tank halves 18 and 20, the upper tank half is referred to as an upper tank half 18, and the lower tank half is referred to as a lower tank half 20. The tank halves 18 and 20 each have a container shape with one surface opened, and flanges 22 and 24 are formed at the edges of the openings, respectively. The openings of the two tank halves 18 and 20 are closed, and the flanges 22 and 24 are joined together by bonding, welding or the like to form the reserve tank 14 integrally. The flanges 22 and 24 are joined and sealed over the entire circumference. The joined flanges 22 and 24 are referred to as joint flange 26 as a whole. At the top of the upper tank half 18, a replenishing port that can be closed by a cap 28 is provided. By closing the cap 28, the reserve tank 14 is sealed.

  The joining flange 26 is made thicker by joining two plate members (flanges 22 and 24), and has higher strength than a single plate member. The thickness direction of the joining flange 26 is the vertical direction, and the front-rear direction is the in-plane direction of the plate member. Therefore, the strength of the joining flange 26 in the front-rear direction is high. On the other hand, the plane portions 30, 32 facing the front of the tank halves 18, 20 have the plate thickness direction in the front-rear direction, and have lower strength than the joining flange 26.

  The power cable 16 is positioned so that a part thereof faces the edge of the joining flange 26. Further, a protection member 34 is disposed between the power cable 16 and the reserve tank 14, particularly, between the connection flange 26. The protection member 34 has a protection plate 36 provided to cover a portion of the joining flange 26 facing the power cable 16, and collision projections 38 and 40 extending from the protection plate 36 toward the reserve tank 14. . The tips of the collision projections 38, 40 face the flat portions 30, 32 of the tank halves 18, 20 near the joining flange 26. Normally, that is, before the collision, the gap between the protection plate 36 and the joining flange 26 is larger than the distance between the tips of the collision projections 38 and 40 and the flat portions 30 and 32 of the reserve tank. Normally, the collision projections 38, 40 can be arranged with their tips separated from the flat portions 30, 32 of the reserve tank.

  At the time of a forward collision, the power control device 12 moves backward, and moves the power cable 16 and the protection member 34 backward. Before the protection plate 36 abuts against the edge of the joining flange 26, the collision projections 38, 40 collide with and break the flat portions 30, 32 of the reserve tank. Since the flat portions 30 and 32 near the joint flange 26 are broken, the joint flange 26 loses a portion supporting the joint flange 26, and the strength of the joint flange 26 and the entire periphery thereof is reduced. Thereafter, the protection plate 36 comes into contact with the joining flange 26. At this time, the strength of the joining flange 26 and its surroundings is reduced, so that the possibility of damaging the power cable 16 is reduced. Further, since the protection plate 36 covers the edge of the joint flange 26, the force is dispersed more than when the edge-shaped joint flange 26 directly contacts the power cable 16, and the power cable 16 may be damaged. Lower.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating another example of the arrangement of the devices in the engine room 10. The same reference numerals are given to the components already described, and the description will be omitted. In this example, the collision projections 42 and 44 are provided directly on the power control device 12. The tips of the collision projections 42 and 44 face the flat portions 30 and 32 of the reserve tank near the joining flange 26. In the state before the collision, the sum of the gap size between the power control device 12 and the power cable 16 and the gap size between the power cable 16 and the edge of the joining flange 26 is determined by the distance between the tips of the collision projections 42 and 44 and the flat portions 30 and 32 Greater than. Normally, the collision projections 42, 44 can be arranged with their tips separated from the flat portions 30, 32 of the reserve tank.

  At the time of a forward collision, the power control device 12 moves rearward, and before the power cable 16 is sandwiched between the power control device 12 and the joining flange 26, the collision protrusions 42, 44 collide with the flat portions 30, 32 of the reserve tank. Break here. Since the flat portions 30 and 32 near the joint flange 26 are broken, the joint flange 26 loses a portion supporting the joint flange 26, and the strength of the joint flange 26 and the entire periphery thereof is reduced. When the power control device 12 moves further backward, the power cable 16 is sandwiched between the power control device 12 and the reserve tank 14. At this time, since the strength of the joining flange 26 and its surroundings is reduced, the power The possibility of damaging the cable 16 is reduced.

  Even when the power cable 16 is located between the on-board equipment other than the power control device 12 and the reserve tank 14, the power cable 16 can be protected by breaking the reserve tank 14 by the collision protrusion as in the above-described example. it can.

Reference Signs List 10 engine room, 12 power control device, 14 reserve tank, 16 power cable, 18 upper tank half, 20 lower tank half, 22, 24 flange, 26 joining flange, 28 cap, 30, 32 plane portion, 34 protection Member, 36 Protective plate, 38, 40, 42, 44 Collision protrusion.

Claims (1)

A structure that protects a power cable arranged between a vehicle-mounted device and a reserve tank arranged in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle,
The reserve tank is formed by joining flanges provided at the edges of the openings of the two tank halves,
A part of the power cable is arranged facing a part of the joined flange of the reserve tank,
A collision projection is arranged facing the flat portion of the tank half near the portion of the flange facing the power cable,
When the distance between the in-vehicle device and the reserve tank is reduced due to the collision of the vehicle, the relative movement between the in-vehicle device and the reserve tank causes the collision protrusion to form in the tank half before the power cable is caught between the flanges of the in-vehicle device and the reserve tank. Reach and break the tank half,
Power cable protection structure.

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