JPH06310207A - Electric vehicle charging connector - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent a charging connector from being carelessly released even when left in the state connected to a vehicle-side connector. CONSTITUTION:A lock device 30 is built in the grip part 21 of a charger-side connector 20, and the lock device 30 can be locked and unlocked by the ignition key 31 of an electric vehicle in which the charger-side connector 20 is used. When the lock device 30 is in the unlocked state, the rotation of a sleeve and also the releasing operation of the lock mechanism are arrested.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a safety charging connector for charging an electric vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, electric vehicles equipped with a battery have been attracting attention due to social demands such as environment and energy, and some have already been put into practical use. Charging the battery is essential for these electric vehicles, so the battery and charger must be easily connected. Therefore, in the past, it has been general to connect the both by a connector, and the following configuration is considered as an example thereof.

A female connector having, for example, a guide tube portion is fixed to the vehicle body side, a flexible cable is led out from the charger side, and a male connector is provided at the tip thereof. The tip of this male connector is shaped so that it can be inserted into the guide cylinder of the female connector, and by inserting it into this terminal group of both connectors is brought into an electrically conducting state. Since it is dangerous if the connected state of both connectors is easily disengaged by an external force, a lock mechanism is provided to hold the connected state of the connectors. For this, for example, a spiral groove is formed in the guide tube portion of the female connector on the vehicle body side,
On the other hand, a configuration is conceivable in which a sleeve is rotatably provided at the tip of the male connector on the charger side, and an engagement pin that engages with the spiral groove is provided on the sleeve.

[0004]

By the way, charging an electric vehicle requires a relatively long time as compared with refueling a gasoline vehicle, and therefore, there is a circumstance in which the operator cannot always monitor the charging. In particular, when charging the battery at the vehicle owner's home, etc. instead of at a charging station on the street corner, it is difficult to carry out rapid charging by injecting a large current, so for example, for a vehicle parked in a home parking lot at night. It is fully conceivable to charge the battery over a long period of time.
In such a case, there is no choice but to connect the charger-side connector to the vehicle-side connector to start charging, and leave it unattended for a long time in that state.

However, in this type of conventional connector, no safety measure has been taken into consideration regarding the lock mechanism for holding the connector in the connected state. Therefore, for example, an unauthorized intruder into the parking lot may release the lock mechanism of the charger-side connector to remove the connector.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to reliably prevent accidental disconnection even when the vehicle-side connector is left in a connected state. An object is to provide a connector for charging an electric vehicle.

[0007]

A connector for charging an electric vehicle according to the present invention is a connector which is detachably connected to a vehicle-side connector provided on a vehicle body of an electric vehicle.
A connector body electrically connected to the vehicle-side connector,
A lock mechanism that holds the connector body in a state of being connected to the vehicle-side connector and can release the held state, a lock device, and a lock release blocking mechanism that blocks the release operation of the lock mechanism when the lock device is locked. It is characterized in that and are provided (the invention of claim 1).

The key for locking and unlocking the lock device may be an ignition key for a vehicle (the invention of claim 2).

[0009]

According to the invention of claim 1, the connector main body is connected to the vehicle-side connector and held in that state by the lock mechanism,
When the locking device is locked, the unlocking mechanism prevents the unlocking operation of the lock mechanism. Therefore, the connector body cannot be detached from the vehicle-side connector as long as the locking device is in the locked state.

According to the second aspect of the invention, it is possible to lock and unlock the locking device of the connector by the vehicle ignition key.

[0011]

As described above, according to the electric vehicle charging connector of the invention of claim 1, when the locking device is locked, the locking device is accidentally removed from the vehicle side connector. Can be reliably prevented.
According to the electric vehicle charging connector of the invention of claim 2, since the locking device of the connector can be locked and unlocked by the ignition key for the vehicle, a dedicated key is not required and the vehicle is managed. Only the person who can remove the connector is more rational.

[0012]

【Example】

<First Embodiment> A first embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to FIGS. A vehicle-side connector 10 attached to the body of an electric vehicle (not shown) is shown on the left side of FIG. 1, and a charger-side connector 20 to which the present invention is applied is shown on the right side. Of these, the vehicle-side connector 10 is connected to the battery circuit of the electric vehicle, and the charger-side connector 20 is provided at the end of the charging cable 20a pulled out from a charger (not shown).
By connecting both connectors 10 and 20, the battery of the electric vehicle can be charged.

As shown in FIG. 1, the vehicle-side connector 10 includes a guide cylinder 11 and a rectangular flange 12 formed integrally therewith, and a pair of female terminals 13 having a cylindrical shape are formed in the guide cylinder 11. It is provided. The guide tube portion 11 is open at the front end portion, and two spiral grooves 14 are formed on the outer peripheral surface thereof.

On the other hand, the charger side connector 20 has a cylindrical connector body 22 at the tip of a grip portion 21 having a substantially rectangular frame shape.
Is provided so as to form a so-called gun type as a whole, and the charging cable 20a is pulled out from the lower portion of the grip portion 21. The connector body 22 is shown in FIG.
As shown in detail in FIG. 1, a pair of male terminals 2 are provided near the front open end of the cylindrical inner case 23 via an insulating body 24.
5 is provided, the male terminal 25 of the charger side connector 20 is inserted into the female terminal 13 of the vehicle side connector 10 by inserting the inner case 23 into the guide tube portion 11 of the vehicle side connector 10. It is designed to be connected to.

On the outer circumference of the inner case 23 of the connector main body 22, a cylindrical sleeve 26 formed shorter than the inner case 23 is not axially movable with respect to the inner case 23 and is freely rotatable. It is installed in a closed state. The sleeve 26 has a bulged distal end and a large diameter, and is positioned outside the guide cylinder portion 11 when the connector body 22 is inserted into the vehicle-side connector 10. Further, as shown in FIG. 2, an engaging pin 27 is provided on the inner peripheral portion of the distal end of the sleeve 26 so as to project inward, and the engaging pin 27 can be engaged with the spiral groove 14 of the guide tubular portion 11. The engagement pin 27 and the spiral groove 14 cooperate with each other to form a lock mechanism.
When is rotated, the engagement pin 27 moves along the spiral groove 14 to move the sleeve 26 and thus the entire charger-side connector 20 in the axial direction. In the state where the sleeve 26 is fully rotated and the engagement pin 27 is moved to the vicinity of the end of the spiral groove 14, the connector main body 22 can be held in a state of being completely connected to the vehicle side connector 10, and from that state, the sleeve can be held. When 26 is rotated in the opposite direction, the lock is released and the engaging pin 27 can be pulled out from the open end of the spiral groove 14. An operating handle 29 is provided on the sleeve 26 so as to extend in the radial direction in order to easily rotate the sleeve 26.

A locking device 30 is provided near the connector body 22 in the grip portion 21 of the charger side connector 20.
Is built in. The lock device 30 is a well-known cylinder type that can be locked and unlocked by an ignition key 31 of an electric vehicle in which the charger-side connector 20 is used, and as shown in FIG. 1, a key insertion hole 30a.
Is located on the side surface of the grip portion 21. When the lock device 30 is in the unlocked state, the arm 30b is in the position shown by the solid line in FIG. 2, and when the arm 30b is locked by the ignition key 31, the arm 30b is in the position shown by the chain double-dashed line in FIG. Is rotated up to.

A locking rod 32 is held between the locking device 30 and the lock mechanism by a guide portion 33 provided in the grip portion 21 so as to be movable laterally. The tip of the locking rod 32 is the sleeve 2
It corresponds to the locking notch 34 formed at the rear end of 6,
The proximal end is in contact with the arm 30b of the locking device 30. The locking notch 34 is formed at a position corresponding to the locking rod 32 when the sleeve 26 is rotated in the locking direction to lock the locking mechanism. These mechanisms function as a lock release blocking mechanism 35 that blocks the rotation of the sleeve 26 and the unlocking operation of the lock mechanism when the locking rod 32 enters the locking notch 34. The locking rod 32 is provided with a flange portion 32 a, and a spring 36 provided between the flange portion 32 a and the guide portion 33.
The locking rod 32 is always urged in the right direction in the figure by the.

Now, charging the battery of the electric vehicle using the charger side connector 20 of this embodiment is carried out as follows. First, the grip portion 21 of the charger side connector 20 is gripped with one hand, and the tip of the connector body 22 is applied to the guide tube portion 11 of the vehicle side connector 10. Next, the sleeve 26
The operation handle 29 is grasped by the other hand, and the sleeve 26 is rotated clockwise while the entire connector is lightly pushed forward. Then, the engagement pin 27 of the sleeve 26 enters the spiral groove 14 and moves along the spiral groove 14, and the connector body 2
2 moves forward and is inserted into the guide tube portion 11 of the vehicle-side connector 10, and finally the male and female terminals 13 and 25 are electrically connected and the locked state by the lock mechanism is reached. In this state, even if an external force acts on the charger-side connector 20, the connector body 22 does not move to the vehicle-side connector 10.
It does not come off.

In order to prevent the charger side connector 20 from coming off the vehicle side connector 10 after the charging is started in this manner, the vehicle ignition key 31 is inserted into the key insertion hole 30a of the lock device 30, and It can be removed by rotating it in the locking direction. Then, the locking device 30 is locked and the arm 30b is rotated to the position shown by the chain double-dashed line in FIG. 2, so that the locking rod 32 of the unlocking prevention mechanism 35 is pushed by the arm 30b and the spring 36 is rotated. It moves to the left side against the elastic force of, and its tip enters into the locking notch 34 of the sleeve 26. As a result, the sleeve 26 becomes non-rotatable, so that the lock mechanism cannot be released, and eventually the charger-side connector 20 cannot be detached from the vehicle-side connector 10.

As described above, in this embodiment, the charger side connector 20 is connected to the vehicle side connector 10 to start charging,
If the locking device 30 is locked, the charger side connector 20 cannot be removed unless it is unlocked. Therefore, if charging is started and locked, it is possible to reliably prevent, for example, an intruder from disconnecting the charger-side connector 20 without permission, even if the user leaves the place and is left unattended. It's done and safe.

<Second Embodiment> Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 50 denotes a vehicle-side connector fixed to the vehicle body of an electric vehicle, which is a cylindrical connector housing 51.
Inside, a plurality of terminals (not shown) connected to a battery are incorporated. Also, this housing 5
A flip-up lid 52 is openably and closably attached to the opening 1. Further, a pair of protrusions 53 is projected on the outer surface of the housing 51 (only one side is shown in FIG. 3), and as will be described later, it is engaged with the charger side connector 60 at the time of connection operation and the connection operation is performed. Play a role in helping.

The connector 60 on the charger side is formed in a so-called gun shape for facilitating the connecting operation, and the body 61 has a cylindrical connector body 62 at the tip thereof.
Is provided. Inside the connector main body 62, a plurality of terminals corresponding to the respective terminals (not shown) of the vehicle side connector 50 are incorporated.
Further, a front cover 61a is attached to the body 61 so as to cover the connector main body 62, and a flip-up lid 63 similar to the vehicle-side connector 50 is also attached here. Further, the front cover 61a has a certain gap around the connector body 62 into which the tip of the vehicle-side connector 50 can be fitted. Further, on both left and right sides of the front cover 61a, bulging portions 64 having a substantially C-shaped cross section are formed along the lengthwise direction and communicate with the inside. It is inserted as possible.

On the other hand, a grip 66 is provided at the rear of the body 61.
Is formed, and a lever 67 for gripping operation is arranged together with the grip 66 on the front side. Lever 67 is body 6
A support pin 68 pivotally supported at the rear of the first unit is swingably mounted, and a torsion spring (not shown) is wound around the support pin 68 so that the lever 67 is returned to a constant opening state. I am energetic.

A heart-shaped cam groove 69 as shown in FIG. 3 is formed on the bottom plate portion of the grip 66, while the cam groove 69 can always be fitted into the corresponding position on the back surface of the lever 67 and is always present. Is provided with a lock pin (not shown) that is urged downward, and when the lever 67 is operated by gripping from the return position, the slope of one curved portion of the cam groove 69 where the lock pin has a heart shape near its end. The lever 67 is locked in the grip position by riding on the bottom surface and falling into the holes provided in the head-side connecting portions of both curved portions of the cam groove 69 when reaching the end. Then, when the lever 67 is pulled again from this state, the lock pin is pulled out along the bottom surface of the other curved portion of the cam groove 69, and the lever 67 can be returned to the original position by the torsion spring. .

As shown in FIG. 6, both stays 65 described above are used.
The front end side of each of these is inserted into the bulging portion 64, the window part 70 engageable with the projection 53 of the vehicle side connector 50 is opened at the front end side, and the slit 7 is formed at the rear end side.
1 is open, and the shaft portion of the headed pin 72 protruding from the main body side is fitted therein. Further, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, a notch portion 73 is formed in the middle portion of the stay 65, and an engaging convex portion 74 formed on the lever 67 is fitted therein, whereby the notch portion 73 is formed. Lever 6 as shown
By angularly displacing the engaging convex portion 74 by the grip operation of 7, both stays 65 can be retracted (moved in the arrow direction in the drawing). Further, a trapezoidal approaching protrusion 75 is formed by cutting and raising in the rear of the window 70 of the stay 65, and this is a window 76 formed on the front cover 61a.
You can enter inside. Therefore, the stay 65
When the lever 67 is moved backward by the grip operation of the lever 67, the approaching protrusion 75 is pushed by the opening edge of the window 76 and stays 65.
Is displaced toward the connector body 62 side (a direction away from the inner surface of the front cover 61a) (see FIG. 6). Although not shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, a back cover 61b is attached to the rear half of the upper surface of the body 61 so as to be continuous with the front cover 61a (see FIG. 3).

A cylinder type locking device 77 similar to that of the first embodiment is attached to the upper surface of the body 61 of the charger side connector 60 substantially in the center thereof. The locking device 77 has a known structure that can be locked and unlocked by an ignition key (not shown) of an electric vehicle in which the charger side connector 60 is used.
The key insertion hole 77a is located on the upper surface of the body 61 as shown in FIG. When the locking device 77 is in the unlocked state, the arm 77b is at the position shown by the chain double-dashed line in FIG.
When locked by the ignition key, the arm 77b is rotated to the position shown by the solid line in the figure.

A locking rod 78 is held in the upper portion of the body 61 by a guide portion 79 and is movable in a direction orthogonal to the stay 65. This locking rod 78
The front end portion of the above corresponds to the locking hole 80 formed in the middle portion of the stay 65, and the base end portion thereof contacts the arm 77b of the locking device 77. The locking hole 80 is formed at a position corresponding to the locking rod 78 when the lever 67 is squeezed and the stay 65 is fully retracted rearward. In these mechanisms, the tip of the locking rod 78 is the locking hole 8 of the stay 65.
By entering 0, the stay 65 functions as a lock release preventing mechanism that prevents the stay 65 from moving and the connector main body 62 from unlocking. The locking rod 78 is provided with a flange portion 76a, and the spring 81 provided between the flange portion 76a and the guide portion 79 constantly biases the locking rod 78 toward the stay 65.

Next, the operation and effect of this embodiment constructed as described above will be specifically described. First, the flip-up lids 52,
After removing 63, the grip 66 of the charger side connector 60
Is grasped without pulling the lever 67, the connector body 62 thereof is fitted to the housing 51 of the vehicle side connector 50, and the connector body 62 is pressed and fitted as it is. Then, when the lever 67 is operated to be gripped, both stays 65 are retracted in the arrow direction from the position shown in FIG. 4 toward the position shown in FIG. 5 due to the angular displacement of the engaging convex portion 74 accompanying this. Therefore, the stay 65 comes to be displaced toward the connector body 62 side (the direction away from the inner surface of the front cover 61a) (see FIG. 6), and the window portion 70 and the projection 53 of the vehicle side connector 50 are engaged with each other. It becomes a state. When the lever 67 is further gripped and operated, both stays 65 are retracted, and thereby a pulling force acts on the vehicle-side connector 50.
As a reaction force, the charger side connector 60 is pushed and fitted to the vehicle side connector 50 side, and finally both connectors 5
0 and 60 are completely fitted. Then, in this state, the lever 67 is held at the grip position by the cam groove 69 as described above, and the connector main body 62 is fixed to the vehicle side connector 5.
Locked to the connection state to zero.

In order to prevent the charger side connector 60 from coming off the vehicle side connector 50 after the charging is started in this way, the ignition key of the vehicle is inserted into the key insertion hole 77a of the locking device 77 and this is inserted. It can be pulled out by rotating it in the locking direction. Then, the locking device 77 enters the locked state and the arm 77b rotates to the position shown by the chain double-dashed line in FIG. It is pushed by and moves forward against the elastic force of the spring 81, and its tip enters into the locking hole 80 of the stay 65. As a result, the stay 65 cannot be moved, and the lock release operation cannot be performed. Eventually, the charger side connector 60 is connected to the vehicle side connector 50.
Can no longer be removed from.

As described above, also in this embodiment, if the charger side connector 60 is connected to the vehicle side connector 50 to start charging and the locking device 77 is locked, the charger side connector is not unlocked. Since 60 cannot be removed, the same effect as the first embodiment can be obtained.

<Third Embodiment> FIGS. 7 and 8 show a third embodiment of the present invention. This is an example in which an electronic lock device for locking and unlocking by inputting a so-called personal identification number is used as the lock device, and other configurations are basically the same as those of the first embodiment. Therefore, the same portions will be denoted by the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted, and different points will be described. That is, in the charger-side connector 20, the key input portion 90 is provided on the upper surface of the grip portion 21.
Is provided and is provided with a numeral input section of "0" to "9" and a lock / unlock input section. As shown in FIG. 8, an electronic lock circuit 91 that operates based on a signal from the key input unit 90 and a solenoid 93 that operates according to a drive signal from the electronic lock circuit 91 are provided in the grip portion 21. There is. A rod (not shown) of the solenoid 93 corresponds to the locking rod 32 of the first embodiment, and advances when receiving a locking signal from the electronic lock circuit 91 and inside the locking notch 34 of the sleeve 26. And functions as an unlocking prevention mechanism that prevents the sleeve 26 from rotating. When the solenoid 93 receives an unlock signal from the electronic lock circuit 91, the rod moves backward to allow the sleeve 26 to freely rotate.

The electronic lock circuit 91 has a function of outputting a locking signal and an unlocking signal to the solenoid 93 through the drive circuit 92, a memory 94 for storing a password for unlocking, a key input. A buffer 95 for temporarily storing the number input from the section 90 and the memory 9 for storing the personal identification number.
4 has a well-known configuration including a CPU 96 that performs an operation of comparing the data stored in No. 4 with the data in the buffer 95. C
The PU 96 outputs a lock signal to the solenoid 93 when a lock operation is performed in the key input unit 90, and a personal identification number is input in the key input unit 90. At that time, the data in the buffer 95 and a memory for storing the personal identification number. An unlock signal is output to the drive circuit 92 on condition that the data stored in 94 matches.

In order to charge the battery of the electric vehicle using the charger side connector 20 of this embodiment, first, the connector body 22 is connected to the vehicle side connector 10 in the same manner as in the first embodiment, and the sleeve is connected. 26 is rotated to be in a locked state in which the connected state is maintained. After that, a desired number of, for example, four digits is input to the key input unit 90 to operate the lock key. Then, the personal identification number input from the key input unit 90 is temporarily stored in the buffer 95 and then C
It is written in the secret code storage memory 94 by the PU 96, and further, a lock signal is output from the CPU 96 to the drive circuit 92. As a result, the solenoid 93 operates, and the rod enters the locking notch 34 of the sleeve 26 and enters a locked state in which the sleeve 26 is prevented from rotating. In this state, since the sleeve 26 cannot rotate, the charger-side connector 20 cannot be detached from the vehicle-side connector 10, and, for example, an intruder may change the charger-side connector 2 without permission.
It is safe because it can be surely prevented from removing 0.

After that, when charging is completed and the charger-side connector 20 is to be removed, the same personal identification number as that input at the time of locking is input to the key input portion 90 of the charger-side connector 20 to perform the unlocking operation. Should be done. Then, the number is written in the buffer 95, and whether the number is the same as the number stored in the memory 94 for storing the personal identification number is determined by the CPU.
Judged by 96. If these are the same, CP
Since an unlocking signal is output from U96 to the solenoid 93 via the drive circuit 92, the rod of the solenoid 93 retracts and the sleeve 26 is in an unlocked state in which the sleeve 26 can freely rotate,
The charger side connector 20 can be detached from the vehicle side connector 10. Further, at this time, when a person who does not know the personal identification number inputs the number from the key input unit 90, that number does not match the number stored in the personal identification number storage memory 94, so that the unlock signal is sent to the solenoid 93. It will not be given and will not be unlocked.

As described above, also in this embodiment, if charging is started and locked by the electric lock device, even if the place is left unattended, the charger side connector 2 can be used without permission.
It becomes possible to reliably prevent 0 from being removed.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above and shown in the drawings, but a solenoid, for example, is used as a locking mechanism for locking the charger side connector to the vehicle side connector. It can also be applied to a lock mechanism that locks the lock mechanism and the charger-side connector to the vehicle-side connector by rotating it. The mechanism may be provided in association with the lock device.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partially enlarged sectional view of the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a side view showing the cover of the second embodiment with a part thereof removed.

FIG. 5 is a side view showing a state different from FIG.

FIG. 6 is a partial cross-sectional view of the second embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a third embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 ... Vehicle side connector 20 ... Charger side connector 22 ... Connector body 27 ... Engagement pin 30 ... Lock device 30a ... Key insertion hole 31 ... Ignition key 35 ... Lock release prevention mechanism 90 ... Key input part 91 ... Electronic lock circuit 94 ... PIN code memory 95 ... Buffer

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A connector body that is detachably connected to a vehicle-side connector provided on a vehicle body for charging an electric vehicle, the connector body electrically connected to the vehicle-side connector, and the connector body. A lock mechanism that holds the connection state to the vehicle-side connector and can release the held state, a lock device, and a lock release prevention mechanism that prevents the release operation of the lock mechanism in the locked state of the lock device. A connector for charging electric vehicles. 2. The electric vehicle charging connector according to claim 1, wherein the lock device is configured to be locked and unlocked by an ignition key for a vehicle.