DE102012205982A1 - Integrated functional central module for motor car e.g. hybrid vehicle, has drive shaft which is provided for transmitting drive torque of motor car, and memories are arranged inside main portion, by which drive unit is fed with power - Google Patents

Abstract

The central module (10) has a rotatably supported drive shaft (12) for transmitting drive torque of the motor car, which is extended in the longitudinal direction of main portion (11) and is located inside the main portion. A number of memories (13a,13b) are arranged inside the main portion, by which the drive unit of motor car is fed with power. The main portion is designed in the form of a center tunnel. The main portion has a closed cross section which is constant along the longitudinal extension or varying along the longitudinal extension. An independent claim is included for motor car.

Description

The invention relates to a functionally integrated central module for a motor vehicle, in particular a functionally integrated central module for a hybrid vehicle.

Motor vehicles with a classic rear-wheel drive, ie with a front engine and a rear axle driven therewith, have drivers that are estimated and advantageous in terms of their physical properties while at the same time having a high utility value, giving this vehicle concept its own character. These include, among other things, a generally more balanced weight distribution compared to vehicles with pure front-wheel drive. The classic rear-wheel drive, however, requires a drive shaft which extends through the vehicle in order to transmit a drive torque of the front engine to the rear axle to be driven, and is usually arranged in a center tunnel of the vehicle provided for this purpose.

However, since a variety of other components is provided in the area of the vehicle underbody, such as strands for brakes, an exhaust system, harnesses, coolant lines and fuel lines and others, this plurality of components leads to very tight space in the area of the adjacent center tunnel, so that a Complex matching of components is required.

This problem is significantly exacerbated especially in hybrid vehicles, which increasingly complement the classic drive form. Since their large number of components again increases significantly, this leads to additional difficulties to create space for the other components of the hybrid drive, such as energy storage, control electronics, cables and cabling.

But not only the development, but also the assembly poses great challenges due to the large number of components and demands a high and cost-intensive effort during the assembly of the vehicle. Although these components can usually be prefabricated individually, but they must then be individually assembled on the vehicle to a final and complex overall structure.

From the prior art it is known to provide so-called basic units or central modules, which combine several components and components of the vehicle drive with each other. These can already be preconfigured and pre-assembled, so that final assembly is considerably facilitated. In addition, a standardization of the components to be installed on the vehicle is made possible and an improved utilization of the available installation space is provided.

From the DE 42 43 455 A1 For example, a basic unit with a support tube is known which comprises a complete vehicle drive. Accordingly, internal combustion engines and electric motors are combined in the basic unit together with manual transmissions, fuel tanks and batteries. On the one hand, this enables a compact and modular implementation, but has the disadvantage that the entire vehicle concept must be matched to this basic unit and is therefore limited by this basic unit. A combination with conventional vehicle structures is thus not possible, whereby known and particularly desirable drive concepts can not be maintained.

Furthermore, from the DE 10 2009 038 834 A1 a motor vehicle with a modular chassis frame known. This includes a front and a rear module, in each of which a separate drive unit can be provided. The respective drive unit is provided exclusively for driving the associated vehicle axle. Both modules are rigidly connected by means of a central module, which serves as a receptacle for a fuel tank and / or batteries. Due to its construction, the arrangement predetermines a fixed drive concept, so that during operation of the drive unit assigned to the front axle, the vehicle has a front wheel drive and, during operation of the drive unit assigned to the rear axle, a rear wheel drive. Depending on the operating strategy is therefore based on a different drive concept and a resulting varying driving behavior.

The object of the invention is therefore to simplify installation of components of the vehicle drive in the vehicle and space-saving, while maintaining essential vehicle and drive concepts, in particular a rear-wheel drive with front engine and at least hereby driven rear wheels or a reverse arrangement. The reverse arrangement comprises at least one front-wheel drive by means of a drive unit arranged in the rear region of the vehicle.

• – einem in einer Längsrichtung erstreckten Hauptkörper, und
• – einer sich innerhalb des Hauptkörpers erstreckenden und drehbar gelagerten Antriebswelle zum Übertragen eines Antriebsmoments des Kraftfahrzeuges und
• – einer Anzahl von innerhalb des Hauptkörpers angeordneten Speichern, aus denen mindestens eine Antriebseinheit des Kraftfahrzeugs mit Energie speisbar ist.

This object is achieved by means of a functionally integrated central module for a motor vehicle

• A main body extended in a longitudinal direction, and
• - One extending within the main body and rotatably mounted Drive shaft for transmitting a drive torque of the motor vehicle and
• - A number of arranged within the main body storage, from which at least one drive unit of the motor vehicle is energized with energy.

Thus, a central module for receiving a plurality of components of the vehicle drive is provided, which on the one hand allows a passage of mechanical power by means of the drive shaft described. This preferably extends through the central module, in particular in its longitudinal direction, and is rotatably supported within the main body preferably one or more times in bearings to support axle and / or drive torques.

In addition, a number of memories for providing drive energy are integrated in the central module. One or more memories may be provided, which are integrated together with the drive shaft described in the central module to a space-optimized unit.

In this way, the space can be used in a vehicle with a running through the vehicle drive shaft in a particularly advantageous manner, as is commonly used in a rear-wheel or all-wheel drive vehicle used. The described arrangement is equally suitable for front-wheel drives or four-wheel drives with a rear engine, which also have a drive shaft extending through the vehicle. However, since such an arrangement is rarely used, the following description is made only on the basis of four-wheel or rear drives, but is not limited to this, but can be applied analogously to the illustrated front wheel drive.

According to a first embodiment, the main body is designed in the form of a center tunnel. This means that the main body comprises a tubular body of basically any cross-sectional shape. Preferably, a substantially rectangular or circular or oval cross-section or a combination thereof, for example, an archway shape according to 1 , for use. The tubular body allows installation in the vehicle analogous to the previously known center tunnel of one of the above-described standard drive arrangements with a drive shaft, so that the existing basic concept for vehicles can be substantially maintained. Depending on the design and dimensioning thus only a size-related adjustment is required.

The main body may also have a closed cross-section, which is formed along the longitudinal extent either constant or along the longitudinal extent varying. For example, a constant cross section can be provided by forming the main body as an extruded profile.

By contrast, by means of a varying cross-sectional profile, that is to say a cross section changing in the longitudinal direction of the central module, the main body and thus the entire central module can be adapted on the one hand to local external space conditions and, on the other hand, to locally required internal spatial conditions. In other words, it is therefore possible to provide a larger or smaller cross-section in individual sections than in other sections in order to provide sufficient installation space for the installation of specific components at the respective location and to take into account the external space conditions.

In particular, the main body may include a closed by the closed cross-section a sealed to the surrounding surface, so that penetration of foreign bodies, gases or liquids can be prevented.

Furthermore, the number of stores may comprise electrical, chemical, mechanical and / or thermal energy stores. Thus, for example, fuel tanks, in particular gasoline, diesel, gas and / or hydrogen tanks, can be provided. Likewise, batteries may be provided as storage for providing electrical energy. Depending on requirements, it is possible to use the respective memory together in the vehicle.

According to a further embodiment, the drive shaft for transmitting a drive torque of a first drive unit and at least one memory of the number of memories are designed for feeding at least one second drive unit of the motor vehicle. This means that at least two drive units are provided in the vehicle, wherein only the first drive unit provides a drive torque for transmission by means of the drive shaft and for this purpose is designed as a front motor at least for driving the rear axle or as a rear engine at least for driving the front axle. For this purpose, the first drive unit is fed from a first energy store. This may belong to the number of memories integrated in the central module. Alternatively, this first memory may be arranged separately outside the central module.

For example, the first drive unit comprises an internal combustion engine and the at least a second drive unit an electric motor. That is, according to one embodiment, the drive torque of the internal combustion engine is provided via the drive shaft as described above for driving the vehicle and independently of this one or more electric motors are fed by the at least one memory from the number of memories. Thus, the proposed central module can be used for example in a hybrid vehicle and there contribute to a compact and modular design.

As an internal combustion engine in the context of this invention, for example, internal combustion engines, ie diesel, gasoline or hydrogen burning engines can be provided.

The central module can be carried out for storage on a vehicle structure vibration decoupling attachable. This means that the central module itself is not a load-bearing part of the entire vehicle or its chassis. Rather, it is designed to be "attached" to the vehicle structure, so chassis or chassis, to secure it to the vehicle while avoiding or at least reduce transmission of vibrations of the central module to the vehicle structure.

Stated differently, the bearing is preferably designed such that on the one hand structure-borne sound paths are avoided by means of the decoupling and on the other hand a sufficient support of the central module on the vehicle structure can take place so that the described axle or drive torques can be supported by means of the central module. Corresponding vibration decoupling measures for the storage of the central module are known, so that their detailed representation is dispensed with.

In addition, the central module can be rigidly connectable with at least one drive unit and / or at least one gear unit of the motor vehicle. The central module can therefore be rigidly connectable to the at least one drive unit or its housing in order to form a common rigid unit. Additionally or alternatively, the central module can be rigidly connected to a housing of the at least one gear unit to form a rigid unit. As a gear unit is either a gear that is assigned to the drive unit, or to understand a coupled via the drive shaft to the drive unit gearbox (transaxle design). Likewise, an axle or transfer case is also to be understood as a transmission unit within the meaning of the invention. Depending on the arrangement, the drive shaft may be rigidly connected to one or more of said gear. By means of the respectively formed rigid unit, a crash load path of the vehicle is additionally provided.

According to a further embodiment, at least one line element for the transmission of electrical, mechanical and / or thermal energy and / or for the passage of fluids is included in the skin body. This means that additional components can be combined in the central module or the main body and thus a further functional and system integration is achieved or a comprehensive pre-assembly and a compact overall module is provided.

By way of example, in this case the at least one line element may comprise at least part of an exhaust line, a wiring harness, an electrical line or a fluid line of a motor vehicle, in particular coolant and / or hydraulic lines.

The compact integration also makes it possible that the line elements can be shielded by means of the main body electromagnetically, and / or thermally to an environment. For this purpose, for example, the main body is coated according to shielding or made of suitable shielding material. It can therefore be achieved a total shielding and thus be dispensed with a single shielding of the many individual components to the environment. Mutual shielding is of course still possible if required, in particular with regard to a mutual thermal influence.

Further, further vehicle and / or drive components can be integrated in a corresponding manner in the central module space and function optimized. Preferably, therefore, a control and / or power electronics can be integrated.

Furthermore, a motor vehicle with a functionally integrated central module is proposed, wherein the central module is designed according to the given description.

According to one embodiment, the central module is rigidly connected to at least one end of the central module with a drive unit and / or with a transmission unit, as well as vibration-decoupled with a vehicle structure of the motor vehicle.

Furthermore, the first and the at least one second drive unit of the motor vehicle may be designed to drive a common axle of the motor vehicle. In particular, thus a hybrid arrangement possible in which, as described above, an internal combustion engine drives the vehicle axle as the first drive unit. In addition, the vehicle axle is associated with one or two electric motors which can apply a common moment or respectively an individual torque to the vehicle axle at least switchably. By means of such an electrification of the vehicle axle, there is the possibility of a versatile drive control, in particular with regard to a drive dynamics. Thus, for example, when assigning a separate electric motor for each driven wheel or the associated output shaft, the so-called "torque vectoring" are provided for a specific torque superposition.

The invention will be explained in more detail below with reference to the drawings with reference to an embodiment. Show here

1 a schematic side view and a sectional view AA of a central module according to the description, and

2 a schematic plan view of the central module according to 1 in installed condition.

The 1 shows a schematic (sectioned) side view and a section AA of a functionally integrated central module 10 for a motor vehicle having a main body extended in a longitudinal direction 11 , and one inside the main body 11 extending and rotatably mounted drive shaft 12 for transmitting a drive torque of the motor vehicle. Also, in the central module 10 several stores 13a . 13b arranged. The first two memories 13a are formed in the illustrated embodiment as batteries and for feeding an electric drive unit (not shown, see. 2 ) of the motor vehicle provided with energy. The second memory 13b is designed in the illustrated embodiment as a fuel tank and for feeding a designed as an internal combustion engine first drive unit (also not shown, see. 2 ) educated.

The drive shaft 12 is inside the central module 10 rotatable or rotatable in bearings 14 stored or supported to transmit a drive torque of the first drive unit.

As seen from the sectional view AA, the main body is 11 formed in the illustrated embodiment as an elongated body in the form of a center tunnel. Here, the main body 11 a closed cross-section with arched cross-sectional shape, that is, a sectional combination of a rectangular and an oval cross-section, which is formed constant along the longitudinal extent. The central module 10 can thus be used in a commonly used vehicle concept of a passenger car with appropriate size adjustment of the center tunnel without the need to change the basic vehicle concept.

Furthermore, optionally one or more line elements 15 . 16 be integrated for the transmission of electrical, mechanical and / or thermal energy and / or for the passage of fluids. The conduit element 15 . 16 For example, include at least a portion of an exhaust line 16 , a wiring harness, an electrical line or a fluid line of a motor vehicle.

Also optional, the line elements 15 . 16 by means of the main body 11 be electromagnetically, and / or thermally shielded from an environment.

Only schematically illustrated are also support ribs 17a for stiffening the central module 10 and for receiving the bearings 14 , According to the illustrated embodiment, these are also for supporting the line elements 15 . 16 formed and are also suitable for subdividing an interior of the hollow body in a number of areas. The subdivision can also be designed for electromagnetic and / or thermal shielding. In addition, partitions can 17b be provided in particular for mutual electromagnetic and / or thermal shielding of individual components. Of course, the representation of the partition 17b or the support ribs 17a merely schematic and exemplary to understand. Particularly effective and optimized arrangements are to be chosen in view of the concrete individual case.

In 2 is a schematic plan view of a vehicle 20 with a functionally integrated central module 10 according to 1 shown in installed condition. The central module 10 is rigid at a first end with a first drive unit 21 connected and represents with this a rigid unit. The first drive unit 21 is configured in the illustrated embodiment as an internal combustion engine, but can of course also be designed as an electric motor. Of course, a transmission can optionally be arranged on the first drive unit. In this case, the central module at the first end is rigidly connected to the housing of the transmission instead of the drive unit.

A second end of the central module opposite the first end 10 is with a gearbox 22 connected. Preferably, this can be the central module 10 rigid with a housing of the transmission 22 be coupled, so that this is integrated into the common rigid unit. The gear 22 can be designed as a rear axle or as a shiftable transmission (transaxle design). The former case is particularly suitable, if the first drive unit 21 , as previously described as an option, already assigned a gear (not shown).

The gear 22 directs the drive torque to a left and a right output shaft 23 to the wheels to be driven 24 further. In the area of the output shafts or a respective output of the transmission 22 is an electric motor 26 provided an extra moment on the output shafts 23 or provide a purely electric drive mode.

Also shown is an exhaust system 25 the first drive unit 21 From this starting in the central module 10 into and through this into a rear vehicle section (rear) extends. The exhaust system 25 is thus at least partially (line element 16 ) in the central module 10 compact and space-saving integrated.

Not shown in 2 a vibration-decoupled storage on a vehicle structure of the vehicle 20 ,

QUOTES INCLUDE IN THE DESCRIPTION

This list of the documents listed by the applicant has been generated automatically and is included solely for the better information of the reader. The list is not part of the German patent or utility model application. The DPMA assumes no liability for any errors or omissions.

Cited patent literature

• DE 4243455 A1 [0007]
• DE 102009038834 A1 [0008]

Claims (14)

Function-integrated central module ( 10 ) for a motor vehicle having - a longitudinally extended main body ( 11 ), and - one within the main body ( 11 ) extending and rotatably mounted drive shaft ( 12 ) for transmitting a drive torque of the motor vehicle and - a number of within the main body ( 11 ) arranged memories ( 13a . 13b ), from which at least one drive unit ( 21 . 26 ) of the motor vehicle can be supplied with energy. Functionally integrated central module according to claim 1, wherein the main body ( 11 ) is designed in the form of a center tunnel. Functionally integrated central module according to one of claims 1 or 2, wherein the main body ( 11 ) has a closed cross-section which is constant along the longitudinal extension or varying along the longitudinal extent. Function-integrated central module according to one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the number of memories ( 13a . 13b ) comprises electrical, chemical, mechanical and / or thermal energy storage. Functionally integrated central module according to one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the drive shaft ( 12 ) for transmitting a drive torque of a first drive unit ( 21 ) is formed and at least one memory ( 13a ) the number of memories ( 13a . 13b ) for feeding at least one second drive unit ( 26 ) of the motor vehicle is formed. Functionally integrated central module according to claim 5, wherein the first drive unit ( 21 ) an internal combustion engine and the at least one second drive unit ( 26 ) comprises an electric motor. Functionally integrated central module according to one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the central module ( 10 ) is designed for storage on a vehicle structure vibration decoupled attachable. Functionally integrated central module according to one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the central module ( 10 ) rigidly connectable with at least one drive unit ( 21 . 26 ) and / or at least one transmission unit ( 22 ) of the motor vehicle is formed. Functionally integrated central module according to one of claims 1 to 8, wherein in the skin body ( 11 ) at least one conduit element ( 15 . 16 ) is included for the transmission of electrical, mechanical and / or thermal energy and / or for the passage of fluids. Functionally integrated central module according to claim 9, wherein the at least one line element ( 15 . 16 ) at least part of an exhaust line ( 16 ), a wiring harness, an electric wire or a fluid line of a motor vehicle. Functionally integrated central module according to claim 9 or 10, wherein the line elements ( 15 . 16 ) by means of the main body ( 11 ) are shielded electromagnetically, and / or thermally against an environment. Motor vehicle with a functionally integrated central module, wherein the central module ( 10 ) is designed according to one of claims 1 to 11. Motor vehicle according to claim 12, wherein the central module ( 10 ) rigidly with at least one end of the central module ( 10 ) with a drive unit ( 21 . 26 ) and / or a transmission unit ( 22 ), as well as vibration-decoupled connected to a vehicle structure of the motor vehicle. Motor vehicle according to one of claims 12 to 13, wherein the first ( 21 ) and the at least one second drive unit ( 26 ) of the motor vehicle ( 20 ) are formed for driving a common axis of the motor vehicle.

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