CN221041736U - Connection device for electrode terminal and bus bar of battery pack and battery array - Google Patents

Abstract

According to one aspect of the present utility model, there is provided a connection device for an electrode terminal and a bus bar of a battery pack, comprising: a plug having an insertion end; a socket having a receiving end including a locking portion and an operating portion, the locking portion being elastically disposed at a locking position; the operating portion is configured to bias the locking portion to move the locking portion from the locking position to the releasing position to release the insertion end. According to another aspect of the present utility model, there is also provided a battery array having the connection device for the electrode terminals of the battery pack and the bus bars set forth above.

Description

Connection device for electrode terminal and bus bar of battery pack and battery array

Technical Field

The present application relates generally to the field of vehicle battery technology, and more particularly, to a connection device for an electrode terminal and a bus bar of a battery pack and a battery array.

Background

With the current consumer development in the market for fuel conservation requirements as well as environmental protection requirements for vehicles, various new energy vehicles, including but not limited to, electric-only vehicles (BEV), hybrid vehicles (HEV), and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV), are becoming increasingly popular. These new energy vehicles will become one of the important trends of future development of the automobile industry due to various advantages of fuel saving, more environmental protection, economy and the like.

New energy vehicles are often provided with a battery assembly that is typically electrically connected to one another by a plurality of battery arrays to form a power source for supplying continuous power to the vehicle's electric motor to power the vehicle either alone or in combination with the vehicle's engine. And the electrical connection between the battery arrays is typically accomplished by fastening the bus bars to the terminals of the battery arrays with fasteners.

As the number of battery arrays in a battery assembly increases with the increasing range of electric vehicles required by users, the amount of work required to make electrical connection of the battery arrays via fasteners and bus bars increases, thereby making electrical connection between the battery arrays challenging.

Disclosure of utility model

The present disclosure summarizes aspects of the embodiments and should not be used to limit the claims. Other embodiments may be devised in light of the techniques described herein, which will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following figures and detailed description, and are intended to be included within the scope of the present application.

According to an aspect of the present utility model, there is provided a connection device for an electrode terminal and a bus bar of a battery pack, comprising:

A plug having an insertion end;

A socket having a receiving end including a locking portion and an operating portion, the locking portion being releasably disposed in a locking position;

The operating portion is configured to bias the locking portion to move the locking portion from the locking position to the releasing position to release the insertion end.

In one embodiment, wherein the plug is disposed at an end of the bus bar; and the socket is arranged in the shell or the battery shell body of the battery module or on the battery cell bracket, and the receiving end is electrically connected with the battery module or the battery cell.

In another embodiment, wherein the bus bar includes a body extending in a first direction and an end extending in a second direction, the first direction is different from the second direction. In one embodiment, the first direction is perpendicular to the second direction.

In yet another embodiment, wherein the locking portion has a locking end and an operating end, the locking portion has a guiding ramp, and the locking portion is rotatable about an axis disposed between the locking end and the operating end for movement between the locking position and the release position.

In yet another embodiment, wherein the end of the bus bar has an opening, when the end of the bus bar is inserted into the receiving end, the end slides on the guide ramp to urge the snap end to rotate forward about the shaft and back to the locked position when the snap end engages the opening. In one embodiment, the forward rotation is clockwise and the reverse rotation is counter-clockwise. In another embodiment, the forward rotation is counter-clockwise rotation and the reverse rotation is clockwise rotation.

In yet another embodiment, wherein the receptacle includes a receptacle housing that receives the locking portion and has a socket at an upper end for receiving the insertion end, the operating portion is disposed partially on an outer surface of the receptacle housing.

In a further embodiment, the socket further has a slider which is slidably fitted over the terminals of the battery module in the longitudinal direction, the slider being elastically biased toward the socket.

In yet another embodiment, wherein in the locked position, the insertion end compresses the slider to tightly couple the insertion end with the slider; when the operation portion is operated to push the operation end to reversely rotate, the locking end is disengaged from the opening, and the insertion end is biased toward the socket by the slider to release the locking of the insertion end.

In yet another embodiment, wherein the body of the bus bar has an insulating layer; the insertion end is wrapped by the deformable insulating layer, and the deformable insulating layer can slide on the surface of the insertion end; when the insertion end is inserted into the socket, the deformable insulating layers are stacked at the socket to form an insulating portion.

According to yet another aspect of the present utility model, there is also provided a battery array, wherein,

The battery array comprises a housing having an electrical connection device comprising:

A plug having an insertion end;

a socket having a receiving end including a locking portion and an operating portion, the locking portion being elastically disposed at a locking position;

the operating portion biases the locking portion to move from the locking position to the releasing position to release the insertion end.

Drawings

For a better understanding of the application, reference may be made to the embodiments illustrated in the following drawings. The components in the figures are not necessarily to scale and related elements may be omitted or the proportions may have been exaggerated in some cases in order to emphasize and clearly illustrate the novel features described herein. In addition, the system components may be arranged differently, as is known in the art. Furthermore, in the drawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the several views.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a battery array according to one embodiment of the utility model;

fig. 2 is a schematic view of an electrode terminal connecting device according to an embodiment of the present utility model;

Fig. 3 is a perspective schematic view of the internal structure of a socket of an electrode terminal connecting device according to an embodiment of the present utility model;

FIGS. 4A-4C are schematic cross-sectional views of a bus bar to receptacle connection process according to one embodiment of the utility model;

Fig. 5 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a process of dissociating a bus bar from a socket according to one embodiment of the present utility model.

Fig. 6 is a schematic view of a connection state of a bus bar and a socket according to an embodiment of the present utility model.

Detailed Description

Embodiments of the present disclosure are described below. However, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely examples and that other embodiments may take various alternative forms. The figures are not necessarily to scale; some functions may be exaggerated or minimized to show details of particular components. Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present application. As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, the various features illustrated and described with reference to any one of the figures may be combined with features illustrated in one or more other figures to produce embodiments that are not explicitly illustrated or described. The combination of features shown provides representative embodiments for typical applications. However, various combinations and modifications of the features consistent with the teachings of the present disclosure may be desired for certain specific applications or implementations.

As mentioned in the background art, the inventors of the present utility model have realized that there may be further room for improvement in the assembly of battery modules in the prior art, and thus have provided in the embodiments of the present utility model a connection structure of a battery bus bar with an electrode terminal, and a battery module, which is believed to achieve at least one or more of the following objects: the packaging process of the battery is simplified, the size deviation of the battery assembly in the assembly process is reduced, and the bus bar is more convenient to detach and maintain in the later period. The present utility model provides, in one embodiment, a battery assembly 10. In the embodiment shown in fig. 1, the battery assembly 10 includes at least two battery arrays 11 electrically connected to each other. The battery array 11 is electrically connected to each other by inserting a bus bar 13 into a socket 12 formed at an end of a housing of the battery array 11. Wherein the bus bar 13 has a main body 131 extending in a first direction X and an end 132 extending in a second direction Y, the end 132 integrally forming a plug and having an insertion end, wherein the first direction X is different from the second direction Y. In the present illustrative embodiment, wherein the first direction X is generally perpendicular to the second direction Y. In this or other embodiments, the "ends 132" and "plugs 132" of the bus bar 13 may be used interchangeably. It will be appreciated that in other embodiments, the body and ends of the bus bar 13 may both extend in the same direction, and the number of battery arrays 11 may be electrically connected by the bus bar 13 as is practical to meet the needs of use.

Although in the illustrative embodiment described above the bus bar 13 comprises a plug and the housing of the battery array 11 comprises a socket 12, it is within the purview of one skilled in the art to have the bus bar 13 comprise a socket and the battery array 11 comprise a protrusion that mates with the socket, such alternatives are within the spirit of the application. In addition, although the connection structure of the electrode terminals and the bus bars is described in the context of the battery array 11, it is understood that it is applicable to other designs in which the electrode terminals and the bus bars need to be conveniently detachably mounted. For example, in one non-limiting embodiment, receptacles may be provided in the battery enclosure or on Cell holders provided on the tray of the battery assembly, with the bus bar body portion contacting the electrode terminals of one or more cells by inserting the ends of the bus bar into the receptacles to complete the electrical connection, which would be advantageous for designs of integrated battery packs that do not include housings for battery modules or battery arrays, such as Cell To Pack (CTP) designs.

Referring next to a perspective schematic view of the electrode terminal connection device in the embodiment shown in fig. 2 in combination with the internal structure of the socket shown in fig. 3, the electrode terminal connection device includes a bus bar 13, the bus bar 13 forming a plug 132 at an end portion, a lower end of the plug 132 having an insertion end for inserting into the socket 12. The socket 12 includes a socket housing 121, and the socket housing 121 is for accommodating internal structural members of the socket 12 and is formed on the housing of the battery array 11. In one embodiment, the bus bar 13 is integrally formed with the plug 132. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the plug 132 may be positioned 1/10 to 1/2 from the end of the bus bar 13 without significant limitation from the main body portion 131 of the bus bar 13, and the insertion end may be provided with a contact length and/or a contact area that satisfies the electrical connection requirements with the electrode terminal.

As shown in fig. 3, the locking portion 124 inside the receptacle housing 12 is releasably disposed in the locked position. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the releasable (releasably) arrangement may be achieved in a variety of ways, including but not limited to an elastic connection. For example, in one embodiment, the locking portion 124 may have a certain elasticity (e.g., a reed design) so as to abut against the locking position, and in another embodiment, the locking portion 124 may abut against the locking position by an elastic member (e.g., a spring). In this illustrative embodiment, the locking portion 124 has a guide slope 125, the guide slope 125 is located on a locking end 1241 of an upper portion of the locking portion 124, when the insertion end of the plug 132 is inserted into the socket 122 of the socket 12, the insertion end moves along the guide slope 125 and presses the locking portion 124, the locking portion 124 inside the socket housing 121 is forced to move from the locking position to the releasing position, and when the opening 133 of the insertion end is brought into the corresponding position with further entry of the insertion end, the locking portion 124 moves back to the locking position to be engaged into the opening 133 of the insertion end to complete locking of the plug 132. When it is necessary to unlock the bus bar 13 from the battery array 11, the operator may actuate a portion of the operating portion 123 protruding above the surface of the socket housing 121, in one embodiment, the protruding portion is a button 123, the surface of the button 123 is indicated to the operator in the word "press" or "press unlock", and the operator actuates a structural member provided inside the socket housing 121 by pressing the button 123 to push the locking portion 124 to move from the locking position to the unlocking position, thereby completing unlocking of the bus bar 13 from the socket 12 of the battery array 11.

Next, as shown in the side sectional view of the plug 13 and the receptacle 12 of fig. 4A, the lock portion 124 has a locking end 1241 at an upper portion and an operating end 1242 at a lower portion in the second direction Y. The locking portion 124 is rotatable about a rotation axis (not shown in the drawings) provided between the locking end 1241 and the operating end 1242 to move between a locking position as shown in fig. 4C and a releasing position as shown in fig. 5. The locking portion 124 is provided to be elastically biased to be held in the locking position by a first elastic member, in this embodiment, a spring, fixed to the support portion 127.

Next, as shown in fig. 4A, the socket 12 further includes a sliding block 125 therein, the sliding block 125 being slidably coupled to an extension structure 110 of an electrode terminal (not shown) of the battery array 11, the extension structure 110 extending from the electrode terminal into the socket housing 121, and an end thereof extending in the second direction Y so that the sliding block 125 can be coupled to the extension structure 110. As shown in fig. 3, the slider 125 is biased upward by a second elastic member, in this embodiment, a spring, provided on the bottom of the socket housing 121, and is restrained by a limit structure 1251 on both sides at a position near the top wall of the socket housing 121 as shown in fig. 3. When the plug 132 of the bus bar 13 is inserted from the socket 122 above the socket housing 121, the lower end of the plug 132 is first brought into contact with the slider 125 and pushes the slider 125 to slide downward by a downward force, the latch 124 is pushed as shown in fig. 4B as the slider 125 and the plug 132 slide downward into contact with the latch 124, and the operating end 1242 thereof pushes the first elastic member 128 to be compressed, thereby rotating the latch 124 around the shaft to move from the locking position to the releasing position. With further movement of the slider 125 and the plug 132, when the opening 133 on the plug 132 moves down to a position corresponding to the locking section 1241 of the locking portion 124, the locking portion 124 rotates about the shaft in the opposite direction to cause the locking section 1241 to snap into the opening 133 of the plug 132, i.e., the locking portion 124 moves to the locked position to complete the locking of the plug 132, resulting in a stable locking structure a as shown in the dashed box of fig. 4C.

Next, as shown in fig. 5, when the operator desires to quickly unlock the stable locking structure a shown in fig. 4C, the portion of the operating portion 123 protruding above the socket housing 121, in this embodiment, the button 123, may be manually pressed, and the operating end 1242 of the locking portion 124 is pushed by the button 123 receiving a force toward the right side of fig. 5 and compressing the first elastic member 128 to rotate the locking portion 124 about the rotation axis so as to disengage the locking end 1241 from the opening 133 of the plug 132, and the plug 132 is ejected upward by the second elastic member 126 to achieve quick unlocking.

In one embodiment, the slider 125 shown in the figures is made of an insulating material or is provided with an insulating member or insulating coating at the interface with the initial contact position of the bus bar 13, and when the bus bar 13 is inserted from the socket 122, the insertion end 132 of the bus bar 13 initially contacts the interface, at which time the electrical connection has not yet been established, and with further insertion of the bus bar 13, the contact surface of the insertion end 132 of the bus bar with the extension structure 110 of the electrode terminal begins to form an electrical connection until a stable electrical connection is completed at the locking position described in one or more of the embodiments described above. In the disassembly, the release bus bar 13 is unlocked by pressing the operation part 123, so that the plug 132 is ejected to a position of being disconnected electrically from the electrode terminal by the action of the second elastic member 126 to be disconnected from the extension structure 110 of the electrode terminal.

In various embodiments of the present utility model, the body 131 of the bus bar 13 is covered by an insulating material so that an operator can grasp the insulating portion to quickly complete insertion and release of the bus bar 13. In another embodiment, as shown in fig. 6, the bus bar 13 is covered on the end portion extending in the second direction Y with an insulating layer 134 formed of a deformable insulating material, which may be, for example, polyimide (Kapton), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), aramid fiber paper (Nomex), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), or the like. The insulating layer 134 is slidable on the metal surface of the bus bar 13. When the plug 132 is inserted through the opening 122 in the socket housing 121, the width of the opening 122 is preset to allow only the metal portion of the plug 132 to pass therethrough, and thus, during insertion of the plug 132 into the opening 122, the insulating layer 134 is slid off the metal surface of the bus bar 13 and stacked outside the opening 122 to form a stacked insulating portion 1341 on the upper surface of the socket housing 121, thereby isolating a possible contact of an operator with the metal portion.

By the above-described electrode terminal connecting device, when the electric connection and disconnection of the battery array 11 are achieved through the bus bar 13, the bus bar 13 and the electrode terminals of the battery are fastened together without using fasteners, but the connection of the bus bar 13 and the socket 12 can be completed by directly inserting the same into the socket 12, and the disconnection of the same can be completed by only manually operating the operating portion protruding on the outer surface of the socket housing 121 when the disconnection is performed, thereby saving the assembly time and simplifying the assembly steps.

In the present application, the use of the anti-connotation term is intended to include the connotation term. The use of definite or indefinite articles is not intended to indicate cardinality. In particular, references to "the" object or "a" and "an" object are intended to mean a possible one of a plurality of such objects. Furthermore, rather than a mutually exclusive approach, the conjunction "or" may be used to convey a simultaneous feature. In other words, the conjunctive word "or" is to be understood as comprising "and/or". The term "comprising" is inclusive and has the same scope as "comprising".

The above examples are possible examples of embodiments of the present application and are given only for the purpose of clearly understanding the principle of the present application to those skilled in the art. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that: the above discussion of any embodiment is merely exemplary and is not intended to imply that the scope of the disclosure of embodiments of the application, including the claims, is limited to such examples; the technical features of the above embodiments or in different embodiments can also be combined with each other under the general inventive concept and many other variations of the different aspects of the embodiments of the application as described above are produced, which are not provided in the detailed description for the sake of brevity. Therefore, any omissions, modifications, equivalents, improvements and others that are within the spirit and principles of the embodiments are intended to be included within the scope of the application as claimed.

Claims (10)

1. A connection device for an electrode terminal and a bus bar of a battery pack, comprising:

A plug having an insertion end;

A receptacle having a receiving end including a locking portion and an operating portion, the locking portion being releasably disposed in a locked position;

The operating portion is configured to bias the locking portion to move from the locking position to a release position to release the insertion end.

2. The connection device of claim 1, wherein the plug is disposed at an end of the bus bar;

And the socket is arranged in a shell or a battery shell body of the battery module or on a battery cell bracket, and the receiving end is electrically connected with the battery module or the battery cell.

3. The connection device of claim 2, wherein the bus bar includes a body extending in a first direction and an insertion end extending in a second direction, the first direction being different from the second direction.

4. The connection device of claim 2, wherein the locking portion has a locking end and an operating end, the locking portion including a guide ramp, the locking portion being rotatable about an axis disposed between the locking end and the operating end to move between the locked position and the released position.

5. The connection device of claim 4, wherein the end of the bus bar has an opening that slides over the guide ramp to urge the snap end to rotate forward about the axis and back to the locked position when the snap end engages the opening when the end of the bus bar is inserted into the receiving end.

6. The connection device of claim 1, wherein the socket includes a socket housing that accommodates the locking portion and has a socket at an upper end portion for receiving the insertion end, the operating portion being provided partially at an outer surface of the socket housing.

7. The connection device according to claim 5, wherein the socket further comprises a slider that is slidably fitted over the terminals of the battery module in the longitudinal direction, the slider being elastically biased toward the socket.

8. The connection device of claim 7, wherein in the locked position, the insertion end compresses the slider to tightly connect the insertion end with the slider; when the operation portion is operated to push the operation end to rotate reversely, the locking end is disengaged from the opening, and the insertion end is biased toward the socket by the slider to release the locking of the insertion end.

9. The connection device of claim 6, wherein the body of the bus bar has an insulating layer; the insertion end is wrapped by a deformable insulating layer, and the deformable insulating layer can slide on the surface of the insertion end; when the insertion end is inserted into the socket, the deformable insulating layers are stacked at the socket to form an insulating portion.

10. A battery array, wherein the battery array comprises a housing having an electrical connection device comprising:

A plug having an insertion end;

A socket having a receiving end including a locking portion and an operating portion, the locking portion being elastically disposed at a locking position;

The operating portion biases the locking portion to move from the locking position to the releasing position to release the insertion end.