CN116711163A - Electrical connection element and method for producing the same - Google Patents

Abstract

An electrical connection element (10) is disclosed, having an electrically conductive contact bushing (18), which is received in a through-opening (20) of an electrically conductive flat material (12, 22) and which rests with an end-side shoulder (32) on a first surface (34) of the flat material (12, 22). The rod (24) of the contact bush (18) is provided, on the side facing away from the end-side shoulder (32), with an electrically conductive locking sleeve (26) which surrounds the rod (24) at least in sections and with the end-side shoulder (28) rests against a second surface (36) of the electrically conductive flat material (12, 22). There is a form-fitting and force-fitting connection of the locking sleeve (26) with the stem (24) of the contact bush (18). The invention also relates to a method for producing the electrical connection element (10).

Description

Electrical connection element and method for producing the same

Technical Field

The present invention relates to an electrical connection element having the features of independent claim 1. The invention also relates to a method for manufacturing and for assembling an electrical connection element, having the features of the independent method claim.

Background

In order to establish electrical contact between the flexible wires and the rigid connecting or carrier element, different requirements are often fulfilled. In most of the described connections, it is therefore necessary that the flexible wires are not limited in terms of their movement possibilities. In addition, a connection that can withstand mechanical loads should be realized. It is furthermore generally important to provide a sufficient wire cross section in order not to generate an excessively high contact resistance in the contact points thus established.

In general, in electrical contacts through which a significant current is to flow, it is strived for as small a contact resistance as possible in order to keep the transmission losses, in which the current is converted into heat, as small as possible. In particular, the electrical contact is a connecting contact, in which the screw connection ensures both a releasable mechanical connection and a reliable electrical contact with the smallest possible contact resistance.

The simplest variant for establishing an electrical contact between the flexible electrical connection lead and the metal carrier component, for example a metal plate, is that the lead connection is anchored in the metal plate by means of a plate screw. Although a fixed mechanical connection can thus be established, the overall contact between the wire connection and the metal plate cannot always be established with the desired quality and is generally not reproducible in particular. For this reason, higher quality connection possibilities are sought for a variety of applications.

A common variant for producing a screw-on connection is that the threaded bushing is mounted on the planar metal part by means of an ultrasonic welding process, for example by means of a brazing process. In practice, a common variant is also to first place the contact ring on the planar metal part in the manner described and then press the matching threaded bush into it.

Disclosure of Invention

The manufacturing costs required for such stable anchoring of the threaded bushing are inevitably associated with increased manufacturing costs. For this reason, it may be a main object of the invention to provide an anchoring of the wire connection to a carrier element, for example a metal plate or the like, which also achieves as favorable electrical properties as possible, with little effort and relatively low cost.

This object of the invention is achieved by the subject matter of the independent claims. Advantageous further developments of the features of the invention are obtained in the respective dependent claims.

The invention therefore proposes, in order to achieve the object, an electrical connection element having the features of independent claim 1, which should be used primarily for providing a screwable contact possibility in planar metal parts, such as metal plates, strips or the like, which can be established not only quickly and easily, but also for providing advantageous electrical properties.

The electrical connection element according to the invention comprises an electrically conductive contact bushing, which may be configured, for example, as a threaded bushing, and which is received in a through-opening of an electrically conductive flat material, for example, a metal plate, copper plate or the like. The through-opening may be, for example, a hole, punched or otherwise produced in an electrically conductive flat material or in a metal plate, wherein the size or diameter of the through-opening corresponds meaningfully to the size of the threaded bushing, so that the threaded bushing can be received in the through-opening with little or no play when the threaded bushing is inserted therein.

The contact bush is engaged or inserted into the flat material or the metal plate such that the contact bush rests with the shoulder of the end face on the first surface of the flat material, while the rod of the contact bush is provided with an electrically conductive locking sleeve on the side facing away from the shoulder of the end face, wherein the locking sleeve can also be regarded as and referred to as a contact ring.

The locking sleeve or the contact ring surrounds the shaft of the contact bush at least in sections and rests with the end-side shoulder on the second surface of the electrically conductive flat material.

The invention provides a positive and force-fitting connection of the locking sleeve to the shaft of the contact bush, whereby a largely play-free fastening of the two parts in the flat material is ensured in the finished connecting element.

In the electrical connection element according to the invention, the locking sleeve rod can enclose the contact bushing at least in sections with a form-fitting and force-fitting connection, wherein the form-fitting and force-fitting connection can be, in particular, a press-fit connection. By means of the press-fit connection, a largely non-releasable connection is provided by means of a plastic deformation process in the contact region of the two pressed components, which, in the usual use of the connecting element, does not release or release the forces and moments that occur, for example, as a result of tensile or bending forces acting from the outside.

The shaft of the contact bush can be shaped at least in sections in a cylindrical manner, wherein the shaft of the contact bush can be shaped in particular in a hollow cylindrical manner. In this embodiment variant, the inner circumferential surface of the locking sleeve corresponds to the outer circumferential surface of the rod of the contact bush, so that a corresponding contact surface is provided, which can be used for a form-and force-fitting press-fit connection and which provides a contact area sufficient for a connection that can withstand mechanical loads.

In order to adapt the electrical connection element according to the invention for establishing a screwable and thus releasable electrical connection, in a further advantageous configuration, an internal thread may optionally be introduced into the contact bush in the form of a through-hole or in the form of a blind-hole thread.

As described above, the locking sleeve can be formed in an advantageous configuration in the form of a hollow cylinder at least in sections. The shoulder of the locking sleeve facing the second surface of the flat material rests in a planar manner against the second surface of the flat material in the assembled state of the connecting element, so that a sufficiently large contact surface is achieved there, which achieves a very low contact resistance.

The locking sleeve can be connected electrically conductively to the electrically conductive flat material by the extrusion process of the three components, since the three parts are connected to one another in a non-releasable manner by the extrusion process and the shoulders of the components pressed against one another are in planar contact with the flat material from both sides.

The flat material may be, for example, a copper plate or a metal plate composed of a copper alloy or an alloy containing copper, since said material has particularly advantageous conductive properties.

The locking sleeve may also consist of a copper alloy or a copper-containing alloy, wherein a thin metal layer or noble metal layer applied galvanically, by means of vacuum vapor deposition or by means of another suitable coating method may optionally be provided as a sheath. The coating may be, for example, a thin nickel layer, a silver coating or a gold coating or a similar suitable metal coating.

Since it is expedient to coat the copper component to be silver-plated in a multilayer structure, both the locking sleeve and the contact bushing can be provided first with a thin nickel layer, wherein the thickness of the coating can advantageously be between 1 and 3 μm. Furthermore, a further coating with silver can be carried out in a meaningful way with a layer thickness of 2 to 6 μm.

In practice, however, contact with the plastically deformable metal in the region of the press-fit connection is of interest, so that there the coating is usually omitted and the contact between the copper components is given priority.

All these mentioned coating variants can ensure, on the one hand, a reduction of undesired oxidation effects and, on the other hand, a further reduction of the resulting contact resistance, which can take on values of less than 1 micro Ohm (< 1 μohm) in the manner described in the ideal case.

The connecting element as described in the various embodiments described above can be used, for example, in the battery technology field as a universally usable connecting element for a screw-on connection. This is also conventionally referred to as a battery cover, i.e. a contact area which is usually led out from the rechargeable battery and which, for modularity and general usability, is expediently equipped with standardized threaded bushings or bolts, on which the wire connection or contact bridge can be screwed.

The connecting element according to the invention may for example be the threaded bushing. The connecting element can therefore also be regarded or referred to as a so-called module connection. The assembly principle described here can also be regarded or referred to as contact ring connection.

In order to achieve the object indicated above, the invention furthermore proposes a method for producing and for assembling the electrical connection element, wherein the method comprises at least the method steps listed and described below.

In the method, an electrically conductive flat material is first provided, which has at least one opening of defined dimensions and/or defined contours. The electrically conductive contact bushing is inserted there, i.e. into the opening of the electrically conductive flat material, until the contact bushing rests with the end-side shoulder on the first surface of the flat material.

The rod contacting the bushing is then contacted on the side of the shoulder facing away from the end face with an electrically conductive locking sleeve, which surrounds the rod at least in sections.

Finally, the method provides for a positive and, in particular, a permanent connection to be established between the locking sleeve and the rod of the contact bush, wherein the locking sleeve rests with the end-side shoulder on the second surface of the electrically conductive flat material in a planar and electrically conductive manner.

In this method, the form-fitting and force-fitting connection is established in particular by a pressing process in which the locking sleeve is pushed onto the rod contacting the bushing and pressed there, wherein plastic deformation can take place at least in regions between the components pressed against one another.

The method ensures that the locking sleeve is permanently and electrically conductively connected to the electrically conductive flat material by means of a three-component extrusion process, which can be understood in particular as a non-releasable connection of the three parts.

A particular advantage is that an electrical connection which can withstand mechanical loads with very low contact resistance can be achieved, which can be adapted to different purposes.

It is explicitly mentioned here that all aspects and implementation variants described in connection with the electrical connection element according to the invention can relate to or form the same partial aspects of the method according to the invention for producing and for assembling the electrical connection element. The same applies to the method according to the invention if certain aspects and/or dependencies and/or actions are mentioned here in the description of the connecting element according to the invention or also in the definition of the claims. The same applies to the contrary, so that all aspects and embodiment variants described in connection with the method according to the invention for producing and for assembling an electrical connection element can also relate to or be part of the same aspects of an electrical connection element according to the invention. The same applies to the electrical connection element according to the invention if certain aspects and/or dependencies and/or actions are mentioned here in the description of the method according to the invention or also in the definition of the claims.

Drawings

The embodiments, the invention and their advantages are described in detail below with the aid of the figures. The dimensional proportions of the various elements do not always correspond to actual dimensional proportions in the drawings, since some forms are shown simplified and others are shown exaggerated relative to other elements for better illustration.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic perspective view of an embodiment variant of an electrical connection element according to the invention.

Fig. 2 shows a schematic longitudinal section through individual components of the variant shown in fig. 1 of the connecting element.

Detailed Description

For the same or identically acting elements of the invention, fig. 1 and 2 each use the same reference numerals. Furthermore, only the reference numerals necessary for describing the respective drawings are shown in the respective drawings for the sake of brevity. The embodiments shown are merely examples that can be designed as such and are not final limiting. The features described below are also correspondingly not to be understood as being closely related to the further features of the respective embodiments, but can correspondingly be arranged generally or used therefor.

Fig. 1 is a schematic perspective view of an arrangement comprising an embodiment variant of the connecting element 10 according to the invention. The possible applications are thus outlined by way of example, since the connecting element 10 can be used in particular for providing a screwable contact possibility for the wire connection in planar metal sections 12, metal plates, strips or the like. For example, the rigid or flexible electrical lines 16 can be fastened to webs (not shown here) which can be fastened by means of bolts 14. The bolts 14 and the wires 16 are here shown by dashed lines, respectively.

The electrical connection element 10 according to the invention, which is shown here by way of example, comprises an electrically conductive contact bushing 18, which is designed as a threaded bushing and which is received in a through opening 20 of the planar metal section 12 formed by the strip 22. The through openings 20 can be, for example, suitably sized holes or punched holes in the metal section 12 or strip 22.

An electrically conductive locking sleeve 26 is pushed onto the rod 24 of the contact bush 18, said sleeve having an annular collar 28 on the end face, which collar rests on the web 22. The press-fit connection between the locking sleeve 26 and the rod 24 of the contact sleeve 18 allows the element to be secured largely free of play in the planar metal section 12.

The concept of the electrical connection element 10 used here, which is clearly illustrated here purely beforehand, comprises the three mentioned components that interact in the manner described, namely the planar metal section 12 or strip 22, in whose through-openings 20 contact bushings 18 are located, which are secured in the metal section 12 or strip 22 without play by means of locking sleeves pressed onto the rods 24.

The strip 22 can optionally extend in the manner shown in fig. 1 into a multi-curved plate section 30, which can be, for example, part of an electrical contact point of a cell or the like.

The schematic longitudinal section of fig. 2 also shows in particular the components of the embodiment variant of the electrical connection element 10 according to the invention shown here that interact with one another.

As schematically shown in fig. 2, the cylindrical rods 24 may optionally be stepped, wherein steps of a slightly smaller diameter may correspondingly engage each other in the longitudinal extension of the rods 24. The rod 24 has a maximum diameter in the region located in the through opening 20 of the slat 22. The contact bush 18 is held in this position thanks to the end-side flange region 32 which is larger in diameter than the through opening 20, so that the rear face of the end-side flange region 32 of the contact bush 18 bears against the first surface 34 of the strip 22 and the contact bush 18 is thus fixed to the first surface 34.

The rod 24 passing through the through-hole 20 of the contact bush 18 is gradually narrowed in a plurality of steps toward the other end thereof. As can be seen in the schematic longitudinal section of fig. 2, the rod 24, which tapers slightly in diameter in the step, is provided with an electrically conductive locking sleeve 26 in the direction of the end-side flange region 32, the inner circumferential surface of which is shaped such that it surrounds the rod 24 in a form-fitting and force-fitting manner and itself with its end-side flange 28 bears against a second surface 36 of the strip 22, the second surface 36 lying opposite the first surface 34.

In the embodiment described here, the form-fitting and force-fitting connection between the locking sleeve 26 and the rod 24 of the contact bush 18 is realized by means of a press-fit connection. By means of the press-fit connection, a largely undetachable connection is achieved by means of a plastic deformation process in the enclosed region of the two pressed components 24 (rods) and 26 (locking sleeves), which can also withstand large forces which can occur during normal use of the connecting element 10.

Because the contact bush 18 is provided for receiving the threaded bolt 14 (see fig. 1), it is of hollow cylindrical design and is equipped with an internal thread 38.

The current flow 40 occurs with a small contact resistance between the locking sleeve 26 and the slat 22. The contact resistance caused between the locking sleeve 26 and the blade 22 is preferably a maximum of 1 muohm per plug. This is facilitated by at least one of the following features:

the flange 28 of the locking sleeve 26 is in planar contact with the second surface 36 of the slat 22.

Two parts: at least one of the locking sleeve 26 and the strip 22 is provided with a coating at least in the contact region, which contains at least one of the elements Ni, ag and Au in a minimum proportion, preferably nickel in a proportion of at least 30% by mass. The coating is preferably between 0.1 and 10 μm, preferably between 1 and 3 μm thick in the contact area.

>Friction and shear forces are preferably generated when the locking sleeve 26 and the slats 22 are compressed. Preferably, this results in the material of the two parts entering each other, as in a material-fitting connection. This is preferably achieved by the two parts: at least one of the locking sleeve 26 and the strip 22 has a roughness S of at least 1 μm at least before extrusion _a The surface irregularities, protrusions, ridges, depressions, teeth, tips, and/or other penetrating structures. The structure enters into the surface of the counterpart to be connected at the beginning of the pressing, rubs on the counterpart in the relative movement of the pressing movement and cuts or merges into the counterpart. Preferably, the two members have said structure at least between the presses.

The locking sleeve 26 preferably has a toothed flange for this purpose, which is pressed into an opening in the strip 22. The toothing is preferably carried out in the horizontal region of the copper plate.

List of reference numerals

10. Connecting element, electric connecting element

12. Metal section, planar metal section

14. Bolt and screw bolt

16. Wire, electrical connection wire, wire section

18. Contact bushing

20. Wearing mouth

22. Slat

24. Rod

26. Locking sleeve

28 Flange (of locking sleeve)

30 plate section

32 End flange region (of contact bush) and end flange

34 First surface (of planar metal section, of strip)

36 Second surface (of planar metal section, of strip)

38. Internal thread

40. An electric current flows.

Claims (8)

1. An electrical connection element (10) comprising an electrically conductive contact bush (18) which is received in a through-opening (20) of an electrically conductive flat material (12, 22) and which bears with an end-side shoulder (32) against a first surface (34) of the flat material (12, 22), wherein a rod (24) of the contact bush (18) is provided with an electrically conductive locking sleeve (26) on a side facing away from the end-side shoulder (32), which surrounds the rod (24) at least in sections and bears with an end-side shoulder (28) against a second surface (36) of the electrically conductive flat material (12, 22), characterized in that a form-and force-fitting connection of the locking sleeve (26) to the rod (24) of the contact bush (18) is provided.

2. The electrical connection element according to claim 1, wherein the locking sleeve (26) surrounds the stem (24) of the contact bushing (18) at least in sections with a form-fitting and force-fitting connection, in particular a press-fit connection.

3. The electrical connection element according to any one of claims 1 or 2, wherein an inner circumferential surface of the locking sleeve (26) corresponds to an outer circumferential surface of the stem (24) of the contact bushing (18).

4. An electrical connection element according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the stem (24) of the contact bush (18) is shaped at least in sections cylindrically, wherein the stem (24) of the contact bush (18) is shaped in particular cylindrically as a hollow cylinder.

5. The electrical connection element according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the contact bushing (18) has a through hole with an internal thread (38).

6. Electrical connection element according to any one of claims 3 to 5, wherein the locking sleeve (26) is at least sectionally hollow cylindrically shaped.

7. Method for manufacturing and for assembling an electrical connection element (10), comprising at least the following method steps:

providing an electrically conductive flat material (12, 22) having at least one through opening (20) which is dimensioned and/or profiled,

inserting an electrically conductive contact bushing (18) into the through-opening (20) of the electrically conductive flat material (12, 22), wherein the contact bushing (18) rests with an end-side shoulder (32) on a first surface (34) of the flat material (12, 22),

-contacting the rod (24) of the contact bush (18) on the side facing away from the shoulder (32) of the end face with an electrically conductive locking sleeve (26), which surrounds the rod (24) at least in sections, and

-establishing a form-and force-fitting and in particular permanent connection between the locking sleeve (26) and the rod (24) of the contact bush (18), wherein the locking sleeve (26) rests with an end shoulder (28) on the second surface (36) of the electrically conductive flat material (12, 22) in a planar and electrically conductive manner.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the form-and force-fitting connection is established by means of a pressing process, in which the locking sleeve (26) is pushed onto the stem (24) of the contact bush (18) and pressed there.