JP2015205629A - Battery unit of electric vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To protect a battery unit body and secure the accessibility in maintenance of a unit component.SOLUTION: A battery unit of an electric vehicle includes: a battery unit body 4 held by a chassis frame 1; a side guard part 5 which protects the battery unit body 4 from the outer side in a vehicle width direction; and a support part 6B which is coupled to a vehicle body side fixing position, supports the side guard part 5, and has an impact absorption structure 8 which absorbs an impact from the outer side in the vehicle width direction. The impact absorption structure 8 includes: a vehicle body side rail 71; a guard side rail 72 which is movable in the vehicle width direction; a fastening member 73 which fastens the vehicle body side rail to the guard side rail and ruptures when being subject to an impact to enable the guard side rail to move to the inner side in the vehicle width direction; and an impact absorber 74 which contacts with the guard side rail moved to the inner side in the vehicle width direction and absorbs the impact.

Description

  The present invention relates to a battery unit for an electric vehicle having a structure for protecting a battery unit main body against a side collision to the vehicle.

  In recent years, electric vehicles such as electric vehicles (including hybrid electric vehicles) have been developed and put into practical use. A heavy battery unit is mounted as a power source on such electric vehicles. An electric vehicle has also been developed in an automobile (hereinafter referred to as a vehicle) having a chassis frame such as a truck.

  In the case of an electric vehicle equipped with a chassis frame, the battery unit is often arranged on the side of the chassis frame. In particular, in the case of a truck, the installation space for the battery unit is restricted due to the structure, and is disclosed in, for example, Patent Document 1. As shown, it must be placed on the side of the chassis frame under the cargo box.

JP 2002-67705 A

  By the way, since the chassis frame of the truck is exposed to the outside, the battery unit disposed on the side of the chassis frame is also exposed to the outside. For this reason, an impact is directly applied to the battery unit at the time of a side collision of the vehicle. Therefore, a dedicated side guard that protects the battery unit from the side of the vehicle is required.

  However, the battery unit is equipped with unit components such as an inverter and a radiator that require maintenance. If the battery unit is covered with the side guard, it will be difficult to access the unit components while the battery unit is mounted on the vehicle, and the entire battery unit must be removed for maintenance of the unit components. As a result, maintainability is impaired.

  The present invention was devised to solve the above-described problems, and is an electric vehicle that protects a battery unit body and can ensure accessibility in maintenance of unit components of the battery unit. It aims to provide a battery unit.

  In order to achieve the above object, a battery unit of an electric vehicle according to the present invention includes a battery unit main body that is held by a chassis frame of the electric vehicle, a side guard portion that protects the battery unit main body from the outside in the vehicle width direction, A support portion having a shock absorbing structure that is coupled to a fixed portion on the vehicle body side, supports the side guard portion, and absorbs an impact applied to the side guard portion from the outside in the vehicle width direction, and the shock absorbing structure includes: A vehicle body side rail coupled to a fixed location; a guard side rail coupled to the side guard portion and movable in the vehicle width direction by engaging with the vehicle body side rail; the vehicle body side rail and the guard side rail; A fastening member that fastens the guard side rail in the vehicle width direction, breaks when the impact is applied, and makes the guard side rail movable inward in the vehicle width direction; It is characterized by having a shock absorber for absorbing the impact the guard rail abuts moved inward in the vehicle width direction by rupture of the fastening member. Note that the “vehicle body side” in the above-mentioned fixed portion on the vehicle body side includes a chassis frame.

  According to the battery unit of the electric vehicle of the present invention, the side guard portion protects against an impact that is about to be applied to the battery unit body from the outside in the vehicle width direction. At this time, if a large impact is applied to the support portion that supports the side guard portion, the fastening member is broken by the impact, and the fastening between the vehicle body side rail and the guard side rail is released, and the guard side rail is moved inward in the vehicle width direction. It moves and comes into contact with the shock absorber to absorb the shock. Thereby, the impact on the battery unit body is avoided or reduced, and the battery unit body is protected.

  Further, according to the battery unit of the electric vehicle of the present invention, when maintaining the unit components attached to the battery unit main body, the side guard portion can be easily removed by removing the fastening member. Accessibility in maintenance of unit components of the unit can be ensured.

It is a perspective view which shows the mounting state to the vehicle of the side guard part and support part of the battery unit of the electric vehicle concerning one Embodiment of this invention. It is a side view which shows the mounting state to the vehicle of the side guard part and support part of the battery unit of the electric vehicle concerning one Embodiment of this invention seen from the vehicle front. It is a top view which shows the mounting state to the vehicle of the side guard part and support part of the battery unit of the electric vehicle concerning one Embodiment of this invention. 1 is a side view of an electric vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a side view explaining the effect | action of the impact absorption structure of the battery unit of the electric vehicle concerning one Embodiment of this invention, (a) shows the state before shock absorption, (b) shows the state at the time of shock absorption.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment according to a battery unit of an electric vehicle of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In this embodiment, a truck configured as a hybrid electric vehicle is assumed as an electric vehicle, and a battery unit is installed on the outer side in the vehicle width direction of one side rail of a pair of left and right side rails of a chassis frame of the truck. Will be explained. The electric vehicle includes an electric vehicle that travels and drives the vehicle with only the electric motor, and a hybrid electric vehicle that includes not only the electric motor but also an internal combustion engine (engine).

  First, the installation position of the battery unit 3 with respect to the electric vehicle (hereinafter simply referred to as a vehicle) according to the present embodiment will be described. As shown in FIG. 4, a vehicle 100 is configured by mounting a van body (packing box) 101 and a cabin 102 on a chassis frame 1, and a side rail 2 of the chassis frame 1 between a front wheel 103 and a rear wheel 104. The battery unit 3 is installed on one side. A side guard 105 is provided between the front wheel 103 and the rear wheel 104 of the vehicle 100 as a measure to prevent the collision object from being caught when turning left or right or side collision, and a side guard portion 5 of the battery unit 3 to be described later. Also functions as part of the side guard.

  1 to 3, the arrow F is the front of the vehicle, the arrow R is the rear of the vehicle, the arrow U is vertically upward, the arrow L is vertically downward, the arrow IN is the vehicle width direction inside (vehicle inside), Arrows OU indicate the vehicle width direction outer side (vehicle outer side), respectively. In the following description, “front and rear” indicate the front and rear of the vehicle, and “left and right” indicate the left and right sides facing the front of the vehicle. Further, vertically downward and vertically upward indicate the direction of gravity and the direction of antigravity when the vehicle is in a horizontal posture. Furthermore, in description of each part concerning a battery unit, each direction in the state installed in the vehicle is demonstrated.

〔Constitution〕
As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, in this embodiment, the battery unit 3 is installed on the vehicle width direction outer side OU of the left side rail 2 constituting the chassis frame 1 of the truck. However, the battery unit 3 may be similarly disposed on the outer side OU of the right side rail 2 in the vehicle width direction. The battery unit 3 is not limited to a truck as long as it is an electric vehicle having a chassis frame, and can be installed on the outer side OU of the chassis frame in the vehicle width direction.

  The battery unit 3 includes a battery unit main body 4, a side guard portion 5, and a support structure 6 that supports the battery unit main body 4 and the side guard portion 5. Unit components such as an inverter 41 and a radiator 42 are mounted on the battery unit body 4. In the present embodiment, the support structure 6 functions as a main body fixing portion 6A that fixes and holds the battery unit main body 4 to the chassis frame 1, and as a guard support portion (support portion) 6B that supports the side guard portion 5. It has both functions.

  The support structure 6 has a plurality of projecting portions 62 and 63 that project from the outer surface 21a of the web portion 21 of the side rail 2 that is a fixed portion on the vehicle body side to the outer side OU in the vehicle width direction. Here, there are provided four projecting portions 62, 63 of a pair of upper projecting portions 62, 62 located above and a pair of lower projecting portions 63, 63 located below, but these projecting portions 62, 63 are provided. It is sufficient that at least three 63 are provided, and the number thereof is not limited as long as the battery unit body 4 can be supported.

  Moreover, each protrusion part 62 and 63 should just be fixed to the side rail 2, and the fixing location and fixing method are not limited. In the present embodiment, the protruding portions 62 and 63 are fixed to the web portion 21 of the side rail 2 via the fixing member 61, but may be directly fixed to the side rail 2 without the fixing member 61. Further, the protrusions 62 and 63 may be fixed to the side rail 2 via an alignment bracket.

  Both the upper protrusion 62 and the lower protrusion 63 are supported by the fixing member 61 and have a vehicle body side member (vehicle body side rail) 71 having a rail function, and the guard side member having a rail function connected to the side guard portion 5. (Guard side rail) 72. The guard side rail 72 is supported by the vehicle body side rail 71 and is configured to be movable with respect to the vehicle body side rail 71 (that is, movable in the vehicle width direction) unless a fixing bolt 73 described later is fastened.

The configuration of the side guard portion 5 is not particularly limited as long as it has an input surface that can receive an external force during a side collision of the vehicle, and can prevent the collision target from being involved in a right / left turn or a side collision. The side guard part 5 may be comprised, for example from the plate-shaped member (not shown), and may be comprised from the some bar-shaped member.
For example, as shown in FIG. 1, the side guard portion 5 is coupled to the vertical portions 51, 51, 54, 54 extending in the vertical directions U, L, and these vertical portions 51, 51, 54, 54. And horizontal portions 52 and 53 extending horizontally in the directions F and R. The horizontal portions 52 and 53 are arranged so as to be substantially continuous with the horizontal member of the side guard 105 and constitute a part of the side guard.

  The outer surfaces of the vertical portions 51 and 54 and the horizontal portions 52 and 53 are arranged on the same or substantially the same surface, and this surface serves as an input surface 50 that receives an external force when the vehicle collides. In the side guard portion 5, the vertical portion 51 is coupled to the base portion 72 a of the guard side rail 72 by welding or bolt fastening. As shown in FIG. 2, a space of a predetermined distance d is formed between the inner surface of the side guard portion 5 and the outer surface of the battery unit body 4 in the vehicle installation state.

  Further, in the present embodiment, the vehicle body side rail 71 and the guard side rail 72 are both formed in a cylindrical shape having a rectangular cross section, and the tip end portion 72 b of the guard side rail 72 is inserted into the vehicle body side rail 71. . Four surfaces of the lower surface, the upper surface, and both side surfaces extend outward in the vehicle width direction on the inner periphery of the vehicle body side rail 71, and four surfaces of the lower surface, the upper surface, and both side surfaces extend on the outer periphery of the guard side rail 72. It extends toward the vehicle width direction outer side OU. Although not shown, the vehicle body side rail 71 and the guard side rail 72 are both formed in a cylindrical shape having a substantially circular cross section, and the tip end portion 72b of the guard side rail 72 is inserted into the vehicle body side rail 71. May be.

  If the bolt 73 described later is not fastened, the tip end portion 72b of the guard side rail 72 inserted into the vehicle body side rail 71 is the inner periphery of the vehicle body side rail 71 corresponding to the four outer surfaces of the guard side rail 72. The four surfaces engage with each other and are supported so as to be movable in the vehicle width direction with respect to the vehicle body side rail 71 while sliding at least the surfaces transmitting the load among these four surfaces. From such a configuration, the vehicle body side rail 71 is also referred to as an outer rail, and the guard side rail 72 is also referred to as an inner rail.

  Moreover, the upper surface part 71b of the outer periphery of the vehicle body side rail 71 of the lower protrusion part 63 is disposed horizontally, and supports the battery unit body 4 from below. The battery unit body 4 is placed on the upper surface portion 71b of the vehicle body side rail 71 of the front and rear lower protrusions 63, 63, and the surface on the inner side IN in the vehicle width direction is directly or indirectly brought into contact with the fixing member 61. It is fixed by a fixing tool (not shown) and supported by the side rail 2. Therefore, the main body fixing portion 6A is constituted by the vehicle body side rail 71 of the front and rear lower protrusions 63 having the upper surface portion 71b, the fixing member 61, a fixture (not shown), and the like.

  The vehicle body side rail 71 and the guard side rail 72 are fastened by bolts 73 and nuts 75, and the guard side rail 72 is fixed to the vehicle body side rail 71 in its movable direction (vehicle width direction). Since the bolts 73 and nuts 75 are normally used, the vehicle body side rail 71, the bracket 61 that supports the vehicle body side rail 71, the guard side rail 72 coupled to the side guard portion 5, and the vehicle body side rail 71 are used. The guard support portion 6 </ b> B is configured by the bolt 73 and the nut 75 that are fastened to the guard-side rail 72.

  In this embodiment, the nut 75 is a weld nut fixed to the inner surface side of the bolt hole on the upper surface portion of the guard side rail 72, and the bolt 73 extends from the bolt hole on the upper surface portion of the vehicle body side rail 71 to the guard side rail. 72 is inserted into the bolt hole and fastened to the nut 75. Thereby, the guard side rail 72 is fixed to the vehicle body side rail 71 in the vehicle width direction. In FIG. 3, the bolt 73 is not originally visible, but is described in another place in order to display the presence.

And this guard support part 6B not only supports the side guard part 5, but has the impact absorption structure 8 which absorbs the impact added to the side guard part 5 from the vehicle width direction outer side OU.
The shock absorbing structure 8 includes a vehicle body side rail 71, a guard side rail 72, a bolt 73 and a nut 75 (fastening member), and a shock absorber 74.

  The bolt 73 and the nut 75 which are fastening members normally fasten the vehicle body side rail 71 and the guard side rail 72 to fix the guard side rail 72 in the vehicle width direction, and are connected to the side guard portion 5 from the vehicle width direction outer side OU. When an impact is applied, the bolt 73 is broken and the guard-side rail 72 can move inward in the vehicle width direction. Further, the impact absorber 74 absorbs the impact applied to the side guard portion 5 by coming into contact with the tip end portion 72b of the guard side rail 72 moved to the vehicle width direction inner side IN.

  The shock absorber 74 may be an elastic body such as rubber or a spring, or may be a special material or special structure such as a resin that absorbs shock while plastically deforming. Further, even if the guard side rail 72 moves inward in the vehicle width direction until the bottom with the shock absorber 74 contracted to the maximum in the vehicle width direction, the guard is provided so that the side guard portion 5 does not press against the battery unit body 4. The maximum movable stroke of the side rail 72 is set within a distance d between the inner surface of the side guard portion 5 and the outer surface of the battery unit body 4.

[Action and effect]
Since the battery unit of the electric vehicle according to the present embodiment is configured as described above, the side guard 5 causes the battery unit main body 4 to react to the impact applied to the battery unit main body 4 from the outside OU in the vehicle width direction. Protect. Further, maintenance of unit components such as the inverter 41 and the radiator 42 can be easily performed.

  That is, in the guard support portion 6B that supports the side guard portion 5, the bolt 73 and the nut 75 fasten the vehicle body side rail 71 and the guard side rail 72, as shown in FIG. Therefore, the guard side rail 72 fixes and supports the side guard portion 5 in the vehicle width direction. Moreover, since the side guard part 5 is comprised as at least one part of the side guard 105 of a vehicle, it prevents the winding of a collision target object at the time of a right / left turn or a side collision.

  Then, as shown in FIG. 5B, an impact force F is applied to the input surface 50 of the side guard portion 5 from the outer side OU in the vehicle width direction, and if the bolt 73 cannot withstand the impact force F, it breaks. The guard-side rail 72, which is separated into a part 73a on the vehicle body side rail 71 side and a part 73b on the guard side rail 72 side and is in a movable state, moves inward in the vehicle width direction.

  By this movement, the tip 72b of the guard side rail 72 comes into contact with the shock absorber 74 and further moves while deforming the shock absorber 74. The impact absorber 74 absorbs impact energy while contracting in the vehicle width direction according to the impact force F. Since the shock absorber 74 absorbs the impact energy in this way, the battery unit body 4 can be protected from the side impact force F without making the support portion (guard support portion) 6B of the side guard portion 5 unnecessarily high in rigidity. Can be protected.

  In addition, even when the impact force F is large and the shock absorber 74 is in a fully contracted bottom state, the inner surface of the side guard portion 5 and the outer surface of the battery unit body 4 are not in pressure contact with each other. The main body 4 can be protected from the impact force F of the side collision. In this case, much of the impact force F is absorbed in the process of bottoming out the shock absorber 74, and the remaining shock force when the shock absorber 74 is in the bottomed state is small. The vehicle body side rail 71 and the guard side rail 72 Can be supported by the axial rigidity.

  Thus, the support portion (guard support portion) 6B of the side guard portion 5 is not unnecessarily high in rigidity, but is configured to absorb the shock by the shock absorbing structure 8 using the shock absorber 74. It is possible to protect the battery unit body 4 against a large impact force F while suppressing an increase in the weight of the part 6B and the side guard part 5.

  In particular, in the case of a small vehicle, a shock can be expected to be absorbed by twisting of the chassis frame 1 or a side skid of the vehicle in the case of a small vehicle, but this effect is expected in the case of a large vehicle. Hard to do. For this reason, in the case of a large vehicle, the application of the shock absorbing structure 8 is more effective. Of course, even in a small vehicle, not only is it expected to absorb impact due to vehicle characteristics, but the battery unit body 4 is more reliably protected by applying the impact absorbing structure 8 and taking positive measures against side collisions. be able to.

  Further, when performing maintenance of the unit components, the guard side rail 72 can be freely detached from the vehicle body side rail 71 if the bolt 73 and the nut 75 are released and the bolt 73 is removed. The side guard part 5 can be removed together with 72, and the unit components can be easily maintained with the battery unit main body 4 attached.

[Modification]
In the battery unit according to the modification, the guard side rail 72 may be an outer rail, and the vehicle body side rail 71 may be an inner rail. Therefore, although not shown, in the shock absorbing structure according to the modified example, the shock absorber 74 is provided in the guard side rail 72 movable in the vehicle width direction. When the impact is applied to the guard rail portion, the guard side rail 72 moves inward in the vehicle width direction, and the impact can be absorbed by the vehicle body side rail 71 and the impact absorber 74 in the guard side rail 72 coming into contact.

[Others]
Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to such embodiments, and such embodiments may be appropriately changed or partially adopted without departing from the spirit of the present invention. Or can be implemented.

  For example, in the above-described embodiment, the support structure 6 is configured to have both functions of the main body fixing portion 6A and the guard support portion 6B, but the main body fixing portion 6A and the guard support portion 6B can be configured independently. . That is, in the above embodiment, the main body fixing portion 6A uses the fixing member 61 and the vehicle body side rail 71 that are also used as the guard support portion 6B, but the fixing member 61 and the vehicle body side rail 71 are used as the guard support portion 6B. In the main body fixing portion 6A, a dedicated fixing member that replaces the fixing member 61 or a dedicated support member that replaces the vehicle body side rail 71 may be separately provided.

  In the above-described embodiment, the guard frame 6B is supported by the chassis frame 1 that supports the battery unit main body 4 and is considered to be most easily configured. When a member exists, the structure which supports the guard support part 6B to such a vehicle body member is also possible.

In any case, the guard support portion 6B includes four (four sets) vehicle body side rails 71 and guard side rails 72 that are provided on the pair of upper protrusions 62 and lower protrusions 63, respectively. These may be at least three, and may be more than four.
In general, the bolt 73 is set to be broken by the impact force F. For example, the nut 75 is broken by the impact force F, and any part of the fastening member is broken by the impact force F. Any configuration may be employed as long as the fastening between the vehicle body side rail 71 and the guard side rail 72 is released.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Chassis frame 2 Side rail 3 Battery unit 4 Battery unit main body 5 Side guard part 6 Support structure 6A Main body fixing | fixed part 6B Guard support part (support part)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 8 Shock absorption structure 21 Web part 21a Web part outer surface 41 Inverter 42 Radiator 61 Fixed member 62 Upper protrusion part 63 Lower protrusion part 71 Vehicle body side member (vehicle body side rail, outer rail)
72 Guard side members (guard side rail, inner rail)
73 Bolt (fastening member)
74 Shock absorber 75 Nut (fastening member)

Claims (1)

A battery unit body held by the chassis frame of the electric vehicle;
A side guard portion for protecting the battery unit body from the outside in the vehicle width direction;
A support portion having an impact absorbing structure that is coupled to a fixed portion on the vehicle body side, supports the side guard portion, and absorbs an impact applied to the side guard portion from the outside in the vehicle width direction;
The shock absorbing structure is
A vehicle body side rail coupled to the fixed portion;
A guard side rail which is coupled to the side guard portion and is movable in the vehicle width direction by engaging with the vehicle body side rail;
A fastening member that fastens the vehicle body side rail and the guard side rail, fixes the guard side rail in the vehicle width direction, breaks when the impact is applied, and makes the guard side rail movable in the vehicle width direction;
A battery unit for an electric vehicle, comprising: an impact absorber that contacts the guard-side rail that has moved inward in the vehicle width direction due to the breaking of the fastening member and absorbs the impact.

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