DE102022210019A1 - Oil module - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to an oil module (1), - with a filter device (2) with a filter element (4) accommodated in a filter housing (3), - with an oil pump (5) with an impeller (7) rotatably mounted in an oil pump housing (6). ), which is sealed from the oil pump housing (6) via a labyrinth seal (8), - at least part of the filter housing (3) and at least part of the oil pump housing (6) being designed as a one-piece plastic injection molded part.

Description

The present invention relates to an oil module. The invention also relates to an electrically operated motor vehicle with a vehicle battery and such an oil module for cooling the vehicle battery.

Oil modules are well known and are used not only in motor vehicles powered by internal combustion engines, but also in electrically powered motor vehicles, in which they are used to control the temperature, in particular to cool, a vehicle battery for a traction motor. The special design of oil modules is that they combine a wide variety of assemblies, such as a filter device, an oil pump and/or an oil cooler, thereby reducing not only a variety of parts and associated storage and logistics costs, but also the space required. Especially with oil pumps, it is crucial for their efficiency that unwanted bypass flows between an impeller of the oil pump and an oil pump housing surrounding it are kept as small as possible. In order to achieve this and thereby keep an undesirable bypass as small as possible and the efficiency of the oil pump as high as possible, the oil pump housing and/or the impellers, usually also called impellers, are often made of metal, in particular aluminum, as this makes them much more precise Gap dimensions and in particular smaller gaps between the impeller and the oil pump housing are possible than would be the case, for example, if plastic components were used. Of course, such metallic oil pump housings must be reworked in the gap area.

However, the disadvantage of the metal oil pump housings known from the prior art is that they have to be reworked to optimize the gap between the impeller and the oil pump housing and thus to reduce a bypass flow or increase the efficiency, which makes the production of such oil pump housings more expensive. In addition, a metallic material is significantly more expensive than, for example, an identical component made of plastic injection molding.

The present invention therefore deals with the problem of specifying an oil module by means of which the disadvantages known from the prior art can be overcome.

This problem is solved according to the invention by the subject matter of independent claim 1. Advantageous embodiments are the subject of the dependent claims.

The present invention is based on the general idea of designing at least part of an oil pump housing of an oil module together with at least part of a filter housing of a filter device of the oil module as a one-piece plastic injection molded part and between the oil pump housing and an impeller, i.e. H. an impeller of the oil pump, a labyrinth seal is to be provided, which on the one hand at least reduces an undesirable bypass flow and thus a reduction in efficiency and on the other hand enables cost-effective production of the oil pump housing with larger tolerable dimensional deviations. The oil module according to the invention has a filter device with a filter element accommodated in a filter housing, for example a ring filter element. Also provided is an oil pump with an impeller rotatably mounted in the oil pump housing, i.e. H. an impeller, with the impeller being sealed from the oil pump housing via a labyrinth seal. In addition, at least part of the filter housing and at least part of the oil pump housing are designed as a one-piece plastic injection molded part. This enables cost-effective production, since the labyrinth seal between the impeller and the oil pump housing also tolerates larger dimensional deviations without increasing the bypass current and greatly reducing the efficiency. By integrating at least part of the filter housing into the oil pump housing or vice versa, i.e. H. Due to the one-piece design of at least part of the two housings as a plastic injection molded part, the filter housing can also be manufactured comparatively inexpensively.

In an advantageous development of the oil module according to the invention, the impeller has at least one ring-like and axially projecting sealing contour, which interacts with a ring-like recess arranged on the oil pump housing in the manner of a labyrinth seal. The ring-like and axially projecting sealing contour can be produced comparatively easily together with the impeller, regardless of whether it is designed as a plastic part or as a metal part. By designing the oil pump housing as a plastic injection-molded part, the ring-like recess arranged there, into which the axially projecting sealing contour of the impeller engages when installed, can also be manufactured comparatively easily. Due to the sealing contour engaging in the recess, a type of labyrinth seal can be produced comparatively easily, which reduces a bypass flow that bypasses the impeller, ie the impeller in the present case, and thereby increases the efficiency of the oil pump. The axially projecting ring-like sealing contour is in line with it free end in the direction of an intake duct from the impeller.

In a further advantageous and alternative embodiment of the oil module according to the invention, the impeller has at least two ring-like and axially projecting sealing contours, which are spaced apart radially from one another and together form at least one U-shaped recess, which has at least one ring-like counter-sealing contour arranged on the oil pump housing, which engages in the at least one U-shaped recess on the impeller, forming a kind of labyrinth seal. With such an embodiment of the labyrinth seal, a further increased efficiency can be achieved since the labyrinth, which is crucial for a bypass flow that may occur, is significantly longer.

In an alternative embodiment of the invention, an impeller with two ring-like and axially projecting sealing contours is expediently provided, which are spaced apart radially from one another and together form a U-shaped recess, with a counter-sealing contour arranged on the oil pump housing and designed in a ring-like manner, which is inserted into at least one U-shaped recess engages and interacts in the manner of a labyrinth seal. A radial sealing web is arranged on one of the two sealing contours of the impeller. Such a radial sealing web thus forms, for example, a sealing web that projects radially outwards from the sealing contour, which increases the length of a labyrinth passage and thus the tightness of such a labyrinth seal. Of course, in this case there are also further embodiments of the individual sealing contours or counter-sealing contours in order to extend a path through the labyrinth seal and thereby increase the sealing effect of the labyrinth seal.

In a particularly preferred embodiment of the oil module according to the invention, the plastic injection molded part is made of polyamide PA 66 or PA 6. Such a plastic has a high resistance to oils and is also hard and abrasion-resistant, which makes it particularly ideal for use in an oil pump housing. In general, polyamide is a synthetic plastic with excellent strength and toughness.

In a further advantageous embodiment, the plastic injection molded part is fiber-reinforced, in particular with 35% glass fibers. Of course, it is also conceivable that other fibers are used to reinforce the plastic injection molded part, such as aramid fibers, natural fibers or carbon fibers. Through such fiber reinforcement of the plastic injection molded part, its toughness and strength can be further increased and, in particular, locally improved in critical areas, with the use of such fiber-reinforced plastics making it possible to reduce any wall thickness that may be required due to the higher strength, which not only saves installation space, but also Resource and weight savings can be achieved, which is particularly advantageous in motor vehicle construction.

The oil module expediently has an oil cooler designed as a stacked disk heat exchanger, with a housing part of the oil cooler being designed in one piece with the filter housing and the oil pump housing. In this case, the oil module not only includes an oil pump and a filter device, but also an oil cooler designed as a stacked disk heat exchanger, whereby another assembly can be integrated into the oil module. By designing the filter housing, the housing part of the stacked disk heat exchanger and the oil pump housing as a one-piece plastic injection molded part, a further reduction in manufacturing costs can be achieved, since separate housings for the individual components with lines in between no longer have to be provided or manufactured and assembled. A particular advantage of such a common housing is that the individual components do not have to be connected to one another, but rather this is accomplished by attaching them to the common housing.

The present invention is further based on the general idea of equipping an electrically operated motor vehicle, for example an electric vehicle or a hybrid vehicle, with a vehicle battery and an oil module according to one of the previous paragraphs, such an oil module then preferably being used in a temperature control circuit, in particular a cooling circuit the vehicle battery is arranged. As a result, the individual advantages previously described for the oil module can be collectively transferred to the electrically operated motor vehicle.

Further important features and advantages of the invention emerge from the subclaims, from the drawings and from the associated description of the figures based on the drawings.

It is understood that the features mentioned above and those to be explained below can be used not only in the combination specified in each case, but also in other combinations or alone, without departing from the scope of the present invention. The above-mentioned and below-mentioned components of a higher-level unit, such as a device, a device or an arrangement, which are designated separately, can form separate parts or components of this unit or can be integral areas or sections of this unit, even if this shown differently in the drawing.

Preferred exemplary embodiments of the invention are shown in the drawings and are explained in more detail in the following description, with the same reference numbers referring to the same or similar or functionally the same components.

• 1 eine Schnittdarstellung durch ein erfindungsgemäßes Ölmodul im Bereich eines Impellers einer Ölpumpe,
• 2 eine Detaildarstellung A aus 1,
• 3 eine Ansicht auf eine mögliche Ausführungsform eines Impellers,
• 4 eine Darstellung wie in 1, jedoch mit einem anders ausgeführten Impeller,
• 5 eine Darstellung wie in 4, jedoch mit einem nochmals anders ausgeführten Impeller,
• 6 eine Darstellung wie in 4, jedoch zusätzlich mit einem anders ausgestalteten Ölpumpengehäuse,
• 7 eine Schnittdarstellung durch das erfindungsgemäße Ölmodul in einer Gesamtansicht.

Show it schematically:

• 1 a sectional view through an oil module according to the invention in the area of an impeller of an oil pump,
• 2 a detailed representation A 1 ,
• 3 a view of a possible embodiment of an impeller,
• 4 a representation like in 1 , but with a differently designed impeller,
• 5 a representation like in 4 , but with a different impeller design,
• 6 a representation like in 4 , but also with a differently designed oil pump housing,
• 7 a sectional view through the oil module according to the invention in an overall view.

According to the 7 , an oil module 1 according to the invention has a filter device 2 with a filter element 4 accommodated in a filter housing 3. Also provided is an oil pump 5 with an impeller 7 rotatably mounted in an oil pump housing 6 (see also the 1 to 6 ), which is sealed from the oil pump housing 6 via a labyrinth seal 8. At least part of the filter housing 3 and the oil pump housing 6 are designed as a one-piece plastic injection molded part, ie such a housing, which is at least partially common, comprises a one-piece area which forms at least parts of the oil pump housing 6 or the filter housing 3.

The oil module 1 according to the invention can be used, for example, in an electrically driven or operated motor vehicle 24 for a vehicle battery 25, which can be tempered, in particular cooled, with the oil module 1.

Due to the labyrinth seal 8 arranged between the impeller 7 and the oil pump housing 6, it is possible to form at least parts of the housing, here the oil pump housing 6, as a plastic injection-molded part, which makes it not only more cost-effective, but also usable with higher tolerable dimensional deviations.

In oil pumps known from the prior art, the oil pump housing and the impeller arranged rotatably therein are usually made of metal, which means that extremely narrow gaps between the impeller and the oil pump housing can be ensured at all operating temperatures. However, such oil pump housings made of metal are more expensive in terms of material and also require complex post-processing in order to be able to achieve the small gaps between the impeller and the oil pump housing and thus a high level of efficiency. High-quality plastic is also not necessary, as the labyrinth seal 8 does not require finely tolerated gap dimensions, use of PPS/PPA requires lower tolerances, higher tolerances are possible for the plastics used in the labyrinth seal 8, e.g. PA6 GF40/PA66 GF30.

By contrast, the labyrinth seal 8 provided according to the invention makes it possible to design at least part of the oil pump housing 6 as a plastic injection-molded part, which would actually not meet the required dimensional tolerances with respect to a gap 9. The labyrinth seal 8, however, ensures that a bypass flow 12 flowing unintentionally through the gap 9 can be kept so low that a high level of efficiency of the oil pump 5 can be achieved despite the oil pump housing 6 being made solely of plastic.

• Entsprechend den 1 und 2, weist der Impeller 7 zumindest eine, hier zwei ringartig und axial abstehende Dichtkonturen 10a, 10b auf, die mit einer am ÖIpumpengehäuse 6 angeordneten und ringartig ausgebildeten Ausnehmung 11 in der Art der Labyrinthdichtung 8 zusammenwirken. Betrachtet man dabei die 2, so kann man erkennen, dass ein Bypassstrom 12 zwei mäandrierende Windungen der Labyrinthdichtung 8 durchlaufen muss, um den Impeller 7 zu umgehen. Hierzu ist die Überwindung eines vergleichsweise großen Strömungswiderstands erforderlich, der dazu beiträgt, den Bypassstrom 12 auf einem erträglichen, niedrigen Niveau zu halten.

In order to realize the labyrinth seal 8, both the impeller 7 and the oil pump housing 6 can have a wide variety of embodiments, which will be discussed in more detail below:

• According to the 1 and 2 , the impeller 7 has at least one, here two ring-like and axially projecting sealing contours 10a, 10b, which interact with a ring-like recess 11 arranged on the oil pump housing 6 in the manner of the labyrinth seal 8. If you look at the 2 , it can be seen that a bypass flow 12 has to pass through two meandering turns of the labyrinth seal 8 in order to bypass the impeller 7. This requires overcoming a comparatively large flow resistance, which helps to keep the bypass flow 12 at a tolerable, low level.

The impeller 7 according to the 1 to 3 and 7 has the described two ring-like and axially projecting sealing contours 10a, 10b, which are spaced radially from one another and together form at least one, here exactly one, U-shaped recess 13, which is arranged in a ring-like manner with at least one on the oil pump housing 6 formed counter-sealing contour 14, which engages in the at least one U-shaped recess 13, interacts in the manner of the labyrinth seal 8.

In contrast, the impeller 7 points accordingly 4 a total of three sealing contours 10a, 10b and 10c arranged or designed in a ring-like manner and radially spaced from one another and projecting in the axial direction 15, which also cooperate with a counter-sealing contour 14 arranged on the oil pump housing 6 and designed in a ring-like manner. The counter-sealing contour 14 engages in the U-shaped recess 13 between the two sealing contours 10a and 10b. The two sealing contours 10b and 10c engage in the recess 11 on the oil pump housing 6, which also results in a comparatively long meandering path through the labyrinth seal 8 and thus a high sealing effect.

If you look at the impeller 7 according to the 5 , it can be seen that this also has two ring-shaped sealing contours 10a, 10b that protrude in the axial direction 15, the two sealing contours 10a and 10b in turn forming a U-shaped recess 13 between them, into which a counter-sealing contour 14 on the oil pump housing side engages. In addition, the sealing contour 10b also has a radial sealing web 16, which is positioned radially outwards in relation to an axis of rotation 17. This radial sealing web 16 extends over almost the entire width of the recess 11 in the oil pump housing 6 and thereby reduces, for example in comparison to that in 2 embodiment shown, the flow cross section for the bypass flow 12, whereby the flow resistance increases in the gap 9 between the impeller 7 and the oil pump housing 6 and the bypass flow 12 decreases overall, so that the efficiency of the oil pump 5 can be increased. In general, a different arrangement of such a radial sealing web 16 or several such radial sealing webs 16 is also conceivable.

Now look at them 6 , you can see that with regard to the impeller 7 this is identical to the illustration in 4 is formed, that is, in this case the impeller 7 also has three radially spaced and ring-shaped sealing contours 10a, 10b and 10c. The counter-sealing contour 14 of the oil pump housing 6 engages between the two sealing contours 10a, 10b in the U-shaped recess 13 and thereby causes a first deflection of the bypass flow 12 in the labyrinth seal 8. On the oil pump housing 6 there is now a further ring-shaped and in Axial direction 15 aligned counter-sealing contour 14a is provided, which engages between the two sealing contours 10b and 10c in the U-shaped recess 13a formed by them. This can in turn force a deflection of the bypass flow 12 in the labyrinth seal 8 and increase the flow resistance and reduce the volume of the bypass flow 12.

For all embodiments of the sealing contours 10a, 10b, 10c or the counter sealing contours 14, 14a, it should be said that these are only shown as examples in terms of thickness and length in the figures, so that of course there are also differently shaped sealing contours or counter-sealing contours, provided that these Reduce bypass current 12, are conceivable.

If you look at the oil module 1 according to the 7 , it can be seen that this additionally has an oil cooler 18 designed as a stacked disk heat exchanger, with a housing part 19 of the oil cooler 18 designed as a stacked disk heat exchanger being formed in one piece with the filter housing 3 and the oil pump housing 6. The oil cooler 18 designed as a stacked disk heat exchanger is arranged between the filter device 2 and the oil pump 5, with channels 20 for the oil flowing through the oil module 1 in the housing part 19 and/or in the filter housing 3 and/or in the oil pump housing 6 and in the housing part 19 additional channels 21 for coolant can also be formed. A part of the filter housing 3, a housing part 19 of the oil cooler 18 and a part of the oil pump housing 6, here with a suction channel 22 and a spiral channel 23, can thus be designed as a one-piece plastic injection molded part, which is possible exclusively through the use of the labyrinth seal 8 according to the invention between the oil pump housing 6 and the impeller 7 Oil pump 5 is possible.

The preferred plastic for this plastic injection molded part can be, for example, polyamide PA 66 or PA 6, which is not only wear and temperature resistant, but also resistant to oils, which ensures long-term, damage-free use in the oil module 1. In order to be able to further increase the strength and wear resistance, the plastic injection molded part can be fiber-reinforced, for example with 35% glass fiber content, although other fibers such as aramid fibers, carbon fibers or natural fibers can of course also be used. Such In particular, fibers can reinforce particularly stressed areas and, due to the increased strength, can also help to make the structural component thinner-walled overall and therefore more resource-saving and also lighter.

With the oil module 1 according to the invention and the labyrinth seal 8 between the impeller 7 and the oil pump housing 6, the oil pump housing 6 can for the first time be designed as a plastic injection molded part with a labyrinth seal 8 in order to be able to compensate for the higher dimensional tolerances in plastic injection molded parts. Compared to oil pump housings made of metal, this offers an enormous cost advantage, especially with regard to the material and the amount of post-processing required.

Claims (9)

oil module (1), - with a filter device (2) with a filter element (4) arranged in a filter housing (3), - with an oil pump (5) with an impeller (7) rotatably mounted in an oil pump housing (6), which is sealed from the oil pump housing (6) via a labyrinth seal (8), - wherein at least part of the filter housing (3) and at least part of the oil pump housing (6) are designed as a one-piece plastic injection molded part. oil module Claim 1 , characterized in that the impeller (7) has at least one ring-like and axially projecting sealing contour (10a, 10b), which interacts with a ring-like recess (11) arranged on the oil pump housing (6) in the manner of the labyrinth seal (8). Oil module according to Claim 1 , characterized in that the impeller (7) has at least two ring-like and axially projecting sealing contours (10a, 10b, 10c) which are radially spaced from one another and together form at least one U-shaped recess (13, 13a) which cooperates with at least one counter-sealing contour (14, 14a) arranged on the oil pump housing (6) and formed in a ring-like manner in the manner of the labyrinth seal (8). oil module Claim 1 , characterized in that the impeller (7) has two ring-like and axially projecting sealing contours (10a, 10b), which are spaced apart radially from one another and together form a U-shaped recess (13) which is arranged in a ring-like manner on the oil pump housing Counter-sealing contour (14) which engages in the U-shaped recess (13) and interacts in the manner of a labyrinth seal (8), with a radial sealing web (16) being arranged on one of the two sealing contours (10, 10b). Oil module according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the plastic injection molded part is made of polyamide PA 66 or PA 6. oil module Claim 5 , characterized in that the plastic injection molded part is fiber-reinforced, in particular with 35% glass fibers. Oil module according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the oil module (1) has an oil cooler (18) designed as a stacked disk heat exchanger, a housing part (19) of the oil cooler (18) being integral with the filter housing (3) and the oil pump housing (6) is trained. oil module Claim 7 , characterized in that the oil cooler (18) is arranged between the filter device (2) and the oil pump (5). Electrically operated motor vehicle (24) with a battery (25) and an oil module (1) according to one of the preceding claims for cooling the battery (25).

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