JP5578968B2 - Car charger - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an automobile charging device.

  In recent years, interest in electric vehicles has increased from the viewpoint of increasing need for oil removal fuel and CO2 emission reduction, and the spread of vehicle charging devices has been demanded.

The vehicle charging device is provided with a charging cable, and a dedicated charging connector for charging by connecting to an electric vehicle is provided at the tip thereof.
Regarding a charging connector and a charging cable for an automobile charging device, a connector housing portion provided on the outer surface of the automobile charging device and a structure for holding the cable in a cable housing cage when not in use (for example, Patent Document 1) are disclosed.

  However, the structure in which the connector storage portion and the cable storage basket provided on the outer surface of the automobile charging device are held when not in use does not have a lock mechanism, and there is a risk of destroying the charging connector due to mischief or the like. Even if a locking mechanism is provided, when the charging connector is housed in the door of the casing of the automobile charging device, it is necessary to unlock the door with a key or the like to remove the charging connector. The position of the charging connector is difficult to visually recognize, and is not suitable for use in an outdoor public space where charging is performed after authenticating a specific user or charging processing. Automobile charging devices are generally planned to be used in a self-installed manner in outdoor public spaces, so that it is possible to effectively prevent equipment loss due to aging and mischief as described above, and to anyone who is charged However, it is required to have workability that can be easily performed.

JP 2009-71899 A

  The object of the present invention is to solve the above problems, and even in the case where a physical locking mechanism is provided in an automobile charging device, it does not impair the visibility of the charging connector and effectively eliminates equipment loss due to aging or mischief. It is an object of the present invention to provide an automobile charging device that can prevent the automobile charging device from being used by a specific user.

In order to solve the above problems, an automobile charging device of the present invention has a power feeding means in a housing, a charging cable for energizing the power feeding means and the electric vehicle, and a locking claw at the tip of the charging cable. An electric vehicle charging device comprising a charging connector for connecting to a vehicle side connection portion of an electric vehicle and a charging connector holding portion for holding the charging connector during non-charging, when the charging connector is held in the charging connector holding portion A lock receiving portion for locking with the lock claw is provided, and the charging connector holding portion covers an upper portion of the lock claw locked to the lock receiving portion, and the lock claw is detached from the lock receiving portion. And a lock mechanism having a restriction piece for restricting movement .

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the vehicle charging apparatus according to the first aspect, the charging connector holding portion includes holding position detecting means for detecting a holding position of the charging connector, and a detection signal from the holding position detecting means. The locking mechanism performs a locking operation.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the automobile charging device according to the second aspect, the detection signal of the holding position detecting means is related to a locking receiving portion provided in the charging connector holding portion by the locking claw of the charging connector. It is a detection signal for detecting that it has stopped.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the automobile charging device according to the first aspect, the lock mechanism is operated by a cylinder that expands and contracts by electric drive.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the automobile charging device according to the fourth aspect, the cylinder is inclined and the cylinder operation is performed by a link mechanism.

  According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the automobile charging device according to the first aspect, the lock mechanism for restricting the movement of the locking claw locked to the locking receiving portion is unlocked in conjunction with the authentication system. It is characterized by doing.

An automobile charging device according to the present invention has a power feeding means in a housing, a charging cable for energizing the power feeding means and the electric vehicle, and a vehicle side connection portion of an electric vehicle provided with a locking claw at the tip of the charging cable. And a charging connector holding portion that holds the charging connector during non-charging. The charging connector holding portion is locked with the locking claw when the charging connector is held. A lock receiving portion is provided, and the charging connector holding portion is provided with a regulating piece that covers the upper portion of the lock claw locked to the lock receiving portion and restricts the movement of the lock claw from the lock receiving portion. It has a locking mechanism.
With such a structure, it is possible to effectively prevent equipment loss due to deterioration over time, mischief, or the like without impairing the visibility of the charging connector. According to the invention of claim 6, wherein, Ki out to complete the authentication of the user in the removal stage of the charging connector from the vehicle charging device, it is used to limit the automobile charging device to a particular user automobile A charging device can be realized.

1 is an overall perspective view of an automobile charging device. It is a cross-sectional explanatory view of the charging connector holding space. It is a principal part enlarged view of this invention. It is a whole perspective view of a charging connector holding part. It is explanatory drawing which looked at the principal part of this invention from the back side.

  Preferred embodiments of the present invention are shown below.

As shown in FIG. 1, the automobile charging device of the present invention has a power feeding means inside a column-shaped casing 1 and includes a charging cable 8 for energizing the power feeding means and the electric vehicle. At the tip of the charging cable 8, there is a charging connector 2 that is connected to a power feeding unit provided in the electric vehicle.
In addition, the charging connector 2 includes a locking claw 21 that engages with the peripheral portion of the automobile-side connection portion when the charging connector 2 connected to the automobile-side connection portion of the electric vehicle is connected.

  A charging connector holding space 7 for storing the charging connector 2 in the casing 1 when not in use is provided on the front surface of the casing 1, and a display device 3 is provided on the upper portion of the casing 1.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the charging connector holding space 7 includes a charging connector holding portion 6 that holds the charging connector 2.

  As shown in FIG. 3, an upper portion of the charging connector holding portion 6 is provided with a locking receiving portion 62 that locks with the locking claw 21 provided at the distal end portion 6 of the charging connector 2. Further, the plug connector holding portion 6 is formed with five plug holes 61 into which the tip plug portion of the charge connector 2 is inserted. These plug holes 61 are used for voltage electrodes, ground wires, and communication wires, respectively.

  The main body of the charging connector 2 is provided with an operation button 22 for operating the locking claw 21. Specifically, when the operation button 22 is pressed, the locking claw 21 rotates about an axis (not shown), and the tip portion can be lifted in the vertical direction or tilted in the horizontal direction.

  In a state where the tip plug portion of the charging connector 2 is simply inserted into the plug hole 61 of the charging connector holding portion 6, the charging connector 2 can be easily detached with a tensile force in the horizontal direction. However, after inserting the tip plug portion into the plug hole 61 of the charging connector holding portion 6 and further pushing in the insertion direction, the locking claw is locked against the force of the urging spring provided on the locking claw. Over the wall surface of the receiving part 62, the locking part 62 is locked. As a result, the charging connector holding portion 6 cannot be detached only by a horizontal pulling force, and before pulling in the horizontal direction, the operation button 22 is pressed to lift the tip end portion of the locking claw 21 in the vertical direction. Therefore, it is necessary to release the engagement with the engagement receiving portion 62.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the upper portion of the charging connector holding portion 6 is provided with a lock mechanism that restricts the movement of the locking claw 21 locked to the locking receiving portion 62 and maintains the locked state. .

The locking mechanism is slidably arranged on the front side from the inside of the housing 1, covers the upper portion of the locking claw 21 locked on the locking receiving portion 62 on the front side, and the locking claw 21 is locked. It consists of a restriction piece 9 that restricts the movement away from the receiving portion 62 and a cylinder 4 that drives the restriction piece 9.
The cylinder 4 is contracted by a drive signal transmitted when authentication is completed by an authentication system (not shown). In addition, it can also be contracted by a drive signal transmitted by billing in conjunction with the billing system.
When the cylinder 4 contracts, the regulating piece 9 is moved inward of the housing 1 via the link 5. Thereby, the restriction piece 9 covering the upper portion of the locking claw 21 is eliminated, and the locking claw 21 can be detached from the locking receiving portion 62 by pressing the operation button 22.

When the locking mechanism is not provided, the locking claw 21 can be removed from the locking receiving portion 62 by pressing the operation button 22, but when the locking mechanism is provided, the locking claw 21 is removed from the locking receiving portion 62. In order to remove, firstly, an unlocking operation for moving the regulating piece 9 to the inside of the housing 1 is required. By linking such an unlocking operation with the user authentication system, the user authentication can be completed at the stage of removing the charging connector 2. Therefore, according to the present invention, an authentication system is added to the automobile charging device, and the movement of the locking claw 21 is physically restricted by the restriction piece controlled by the authentication system, so that the automobile charging device can be identified by a specific user. It is possible to realize an automobile charging device that is used only in the above.
In addition, by adopting a locking mechanism that regulates the locking claw provided at the tip of the charging connector, even when the charging connector is housed in an automobile charging device, most of it is exposed to the outside without impairing visibility. In addition, since the lock mechanism is located on the back side of the charging connector holding space 7, it is possible to effectively prevent equipment loss due to aging or mischief.

  In the present embodiment, the restriction piece 9 is driven by the cylinder 4 via the substantially L-shaped link piece 5. In the present embodiment, the tip of the cylinder 4 is connected to the long hole portion of the link piece 5, and the link piece 5 is pivotally supported by the pivot 13 on the back side wall of the charging connector holding space 7. In addition, the cylinder 4 is disposed above the regulating piece 9 so as to be inclined with respect to the sliding direction of the regulating piece 9, thereby reducing the dimension of the charging stand in the depth direction. However, the present invention is not limited to this embodiment, and the cylinder 4 may be arranged in parallel with the sliding direction of the regulating piece 9. The regulating piece 9 is not limited to a sliding member, and the rotational movement in the vertical direction. It is good also as a structure which covers a latching claw by.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the charging connector holding portion 6 is fixed to a substrate 12 attached to a wall surface on the back side of the charging connector holding space 7 with a flange portion 63 protruding on the outer periphery thereof. FIG. 5 shows an explanatory diagram of the charging connector holding portion 6 and the lock mechanism as viewed from the back side with the substrate 12 removed.

As shown in FIG. 5, on the back side of the collar portion 63, a locking claw 21 is locked and received as a holding position detecting means for detecting that the charging connector 2 is held at an appropriate position of the charging connector holding portion 6. A locking claw detection unit that detects that the unit 62 is locked is provided. The locking claw detection unit detects the slide piece 10 pressed by the tip of the locking claw 21 and the pressing of the slide piece 10 in the depth direction when the charging connector 2 is fixed to the charging connector holding unit 6. And a switch 11.
The slide piece 10 is always urged to the near side by the internal spring, and when the latching claw is not latched by the latch receiving portion 62, the slide piece 10 protrudes to the near side and is limited. The switch 11 is not pressed.

The charging connector 2 is provided with a control unit that outputs a detection signal after the locking claw detection unit detects the position of the locking claw 21 and controls the restriction piece 9 of the lock mechanism to be driven, so that the charging connector 2 is charged. It is possible to prevent the locking mechanism from locking the locking claw 21 before being held at the correct position by the holding unit 6.
That is, when the lock mechanism detects the detection signal, the cylinder 4 expands and the restriction piece 9 moves to the front side of the housing 1 via the link 5. Thus, the upper portion of the locking claw 21 is covered with the restriction piece 9, and the locking claw 21 cannot be removed from the locking receiving portion 62 even when the operation button 22 is pressed.
In addition, in the case where an insertion detector is provided in the vicinity of the connection plug (five) of the charging connector 2 to detect the insertion of the charging connector 2, both the limit switch 11 and the insertion detector detect the target. That is, when the insertion detection unit detects that the charging connector 2 is inserted into the charging connector holding unit 6 and the limit switch 11 detects that the locking claw is locked to the locking receiving unit 62. If the regulating piece 9 is driven, it is possible to reliably prevent malfunction.

  Note that the holding position detection means may be configured only by a means for detecting an insertion of the charging connector 2 by providing an insertion detecting portion in the vicinity of the connection plug of the charging connector 2. That is, after inserting the tip plug portion into the plug hole 61 of the charging connector holding portion 6 and further pushing in the insertion direction, the insertion detecting portion provided in the vicinity of the connection plug is pressed, and the charging connector 2 is connected to the charging connector holding portion. The lock mechanism may be operated by outputting a detection signal when it is held at the appropriate position 6.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Housing | casing 2 Charging connector 21 Locking claw 22 Operation part 3 Display device 4 Cylinder 5 Link piece 6 Charging connector holding part 61 Plug hole 62 Locking receiving part 63 Hook part 7 Charging connector holding space 8 Charging cable 9 Restriction piece 10 Slide Piece 11 Limit switch 12 Substrate 13 Axis

Claims (6)

A power supply means in the housing, and a charging cable for energizing the power supply means and the electric vehicle;
A charging connector for connecting to a vehicle-side connecting portion of an electric vehicle having a locking claw at the tip of the charging cable;
An automobile charging device comprising: a charging connector holding portion that holds the charging connector during non-charging;
The charging connector holding portion is provided with a locking receiving portion that locks with the locking claw when the charging connector is held,
The charging connector holding portion includes a lock mechanism that covers an upper portion of the locking claw locked to the locking receiving portion and has a restriction piece that restricts the movement of the locking claw being detached from the locking receiving portion. An automobile charging device characterized by the above. The charging connector holding unit includes holding position detection means for detecting the holding position of the charging connector,
2. The vehicle charging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the locking mechanism performs a locking operation by a detection signal of the holding position detecting means.   The detection signal of the holding position detecting means is a detection signal for detecting that the locking claw of the charging connector is locked to the locking receiving portion provided in the charging connector holding portion. Car charger.   2. The vehicle charging device according to claim 1, wherein the lock mechanism is operated by a cylinder that expands and contracts by electric drive.   5. The automobile charging device according to claim 4, wherein the cylinder is arranged to be inclined and cylinder operation is performed by a link mechanism.   2. The vehicle charging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the lock mechanism for restricting the movement of the locking claw locked to the locking receiving portion releases the lock in conjunction with the authentication system.

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