JP6210808B2 - Busbar module connection structure - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a connection structure of bus bar modules.

  An electric motor such as an electric car or a hybrid car is equipped with a battery pack configured by connecting a plurality of batteries in series. In this type of battery pack, positive and negative electrode terminals (hereinafter, abbreviated as positive and negative electrodes) of a plurality of batteries are alternately arranged adjacent to each other, and the positive and negative electrodes of adjacent batteries are referred to as bus bars, respectively. A battery module is formed by connecting in series with a conductor to form a battery module, and the battery module is housed and used as required. And the positive electrode and negative electrode of the battery of the both ends of a battery module become a DC output of a battery pack. A bus bar module holding a bus bar in a resin case is attached to the battery module.

  When this type of battery module is configured by bundling a plurality of rectangular parallelepiped batteries in which the positive electrode and the negative electrode protrude from one surface, the battery module includes a row of two electrode terminals in which the positive electrode and the negative electrode are alternately arranged. (Hereinafter referred to as an electrode array) is formed. In this battery module, a bus bar module is attached to each electrode row.

  Here, in order to connect a plurality of batteries in series, the electrode terminals of adjacent batteries in one electrode row are connected by a bus bar, and then the bus bar is connected to the other electrode row by one electrode row. The adjacent battery and the electrode terminals of adjacent batteries shifted by one battery are connected by a bus bar. That is, one bus bar module and the other bus bar module are shifted from each other by one battery in the position where the bus bar is mounted. Therefore, when attaching the bus bar module to each electrode row, it is necessary to be careful not to make a mistake in the attachment position.

  In this regard, Patent Document 1 discloses a structure in which two bus bar modules are connected and integrated by a separate resin-made bridging member. By connecting the two bus bar modules in this way, it is possible to prevent a mistake in the installation position when the bus bar module is attached to the battery module, and it is possible to improve work efficiency. Further, by forming the bus bar module and the bridging member as separate members, it is possible to prevent an increase in the size of the mold.

JP2011-181402 (Page 10, FIGS. 19-22)

  By the way, the bridging member of Patent Document 1 has two bus bar modules by forming locking portions at both ends in the longitudinal direction and inserting each locking portion into the locked portion formed in each bus bar module. Are to be connected. However, in this type of connecting structure, for example, a predetermined adjustment margin (gap) is set between the locked portion and the locking portion in order to finely adjust the mounting position of each bus bar module. That is, backlash may occur between the bridging member and the bus bar module. In this case, when the bridging member vibrates with the vibration of the vehicle, the bridging member may come into contact with the fixing member fixed to the bus bar module or the battery module and generate noise.

  The subject of this invention is made | formed in view of such a problem, and exists in suppressing generation | occurrence | production of the noise resulting from the vibration of a bridge | crosslinking member.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, the bus bar module connection structure according to the present invention has a first electrode row and a second electrode row formed in a battery module in which positive and negative electrodes of a plurality of batteries are alternately arranged. A first bus bar module that houses a bus bar connecting adjacent positive and negative electrodes of one electrode row in a first case made of resin, and a bus bar connecting adjacent positive and negative electrodes of the second electrode row is made of resin A second bus bar module housed in a second case made of metal, and a bridging member that couples the first bus bar module and the second bus bar module, wherein the bridging member is the second bus bar module of the first case. 1 latching part and 2nd latching part of the 2nd case, and the elastic member which urges | biases the said battery module respectively It is characterized by having .

  According to this, for example, rattling occurs between the first locked portion and the first locking portion and between the second locked portion and the second locking portion. Even if it is, since the elastic member is urging | biasing the battery module, the backlash of a bridge | crosslinking member can be suppressed. Moreover, the vibration of the bridging member can be absorbed by the elastic member by interposing the elastic member between the bridging member and the battery module. Therefore, generation | occurrence | production of the noise by a bridging member contacting a fixing member and a bus-bar module can be suppressed.

  Specifically, the elastic member biases the battery module along a direction in which the first and second bus bar modules are attached to the first and second electrode rows, respectively.

  In addition, the bridging member is a resin member, and includes a longitudinal member formed so as to bridge the first locking portion and the second locking portion, and the first locking portion And the second locking part hangs down from both ends of the longitudinal member and is formed so as to be accommodated in the first locked part and the second locked part, and the elastic member Is formed so as to protrude from the longitudinal member in a cantilever manner, and is formed so as to be able to bias the battery module downward.

  In these cases, the elastic member may be formed, for example, so as to urge the battery itself constituting the battery module, or a fixing member fixed to the battery as a constituent member of the battery module. Or a pair of end braces provided at both ends of the battery in the arrangement direction so as to sandwich the plurality of batteries, or a fixing member fixed to these end plates, etc. Good.

  According to this invention, generation | occurrence | production of the abnormal noise resulting from the vibration of a bridge | crosslinking member can be suppressed.

1 is an external perspective view of a battery module to which the present invention is applied. It is a top view which shows the whole structure of the bus-bar module to which this invention is applied. It is a perspective view of the bridge member connected to a bus bar module. It is a perspective view which expands and shows the bridge | crosslinking member connected to the bus-bar module.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of a busbar module connection structure according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The connection structure of the present embodiment is used, for example, in a battery pack serving as a direct current power source for driving an electric motor of an electric vehicle. As shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of rectangular parallelepiped batteries 11 are arranged. And applied to the battery module 12 bundled together.

  In the plurality of batteries 11, the positive electrodes and the negative electrodes are alternately arranged next to each other, and the positive electrodes and the negative electrodes of the adjacent batteries 11 are connected in series by conductors called bus bars. The series number of the batteries 11 of the battery module 12 is determined according to a desired DC voltage, and the positive electrode (total positive electrode) and the negative electrode (total negative electrode) of the battery 11 positioned at both ends of the battery module 12 are the DC of the battery module 12. Output. In FIG. 1, an arrow X indicates the arrangement direction of the batteries 11, that is, the longitudinal direction of the battery module 12. In the present embodiment, the right side in FIG. 1 is the rear side in the arrangement direction of the batteries 11, and the left side is the front side in the arrangement direction of the batteries 11. Moreover, the arrow Y shows the width direction of each battery 11 and the battery module 12, and the arrow Z shows the height direction of each battery 11 and the battery module 12. In the present embodiment, the upper side of FIG. These arrows shall be applied similarly to other drawings.

  The positive electrode or the negative electrode of each battery 11 is connected to a columnar positive electrode terminal 13 or a negative electrode terminal 14 protruding from the side surface (upper surface) of the battery, and screws are formed on the outer surfaces of these electrode terminals. The positive electrode terminal 13 and the negative electrode terminal 14 are disposed on one surface of each battery 11. Thereby, the battery module 12 is formed with two electrode rows in which the positive electrode terminals 13 and the negative electrode terminals 14 are alternately arranged along the longitudinal direction, that is, the first electrode row 15 and the second electrode row 16. Is done. These electrode rows are spaced apart from each other and arranged substantially in parallel.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the bus bar 17 connecting the adjacent positive electrode terminal 13 and negative electrode terminal 14 of each electrode row 15, 16 is held in a resin case 18, and the first bus bar module 19 and The second bus bar module 20 is formed. The first bus bar module 19 is attached to the battery module 12 corresponding to the first electrode row 15, and the second bus bar module 20 is attached to the battery module 12 corresponding to the second electrode row 16. .

  Each bus bar module 19, 20 is connected to a plurality of bus bars 17, a plurality of terminals 21 provided so as to overlap each bus bar 17, a case 18 holding each bus bar 17 and each terminal 21, and a terminal 21. An electric wire routing path 22 for routing electric wires is provided. Each bus bar 17 is formed with a pair of holes in accordance with the positions of the positive electrode terminal 13 and the negative electrode terminal 14 of the adjacent battery 11, and one terminal 21 is provided in accordance with the position of the positive electrode terminal 13 or the negative electrode terminal 14. A hole is drilled. Accordingly, the bus bar 17 is fastened to each electrode terminal by inserting the electrode terminal into the hole of the bus bar 17 and the terminal 21 and screwing the nut to the screw of each electrode terminal.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the case 18 is provided with a plurality of surrounding walls 23 that rise in a rectangular tube shape from the bottom surface, and a storage chamber 24 is formed inside the surrounding wall 23. In each storage chamber 24, one bus bar 17 and one terminal 21 are stacked and stored. The surrounding walls 23 are arranged along the longitudinal direction of the battery modules 12, and an electric wire routing path 22 is provided in the vicinity of each surrounding wall 23 along the longitudinal direction of the battery modules 12.

  The first bus bar module 19 and the second bus bar module 20 are connected to each other via a resin bridging member 25. That is, the first bus bar module 19 and the second bus bar module 20 are attached to the battery module 12 in an integrated state via the bridging member 25. Both ends of the bridging member 25 are connected to one end in the longitudinal direction of the bus bar module, for example. As shown in FIG. 3, the bridging member 25 includes a longitudinal member 26, and a first latching portion 27 and a second latching portion 28 that hang substantially perpendicularly from both ends of the longitudinal member 26. The longitudinal member 26 is formed by raising a large number of ribs from the bottom plate in a lattice shape, and is formed so as to bridge the first locking portion 27 and the second locking portion 28. The longitudinal member 26 can be formed in a desired shape such as a straight shape or an arch shape. The first locking portion 27 and the second locking portion 28 are formed with an opening 30 inside the frame body 29.

  The first bus bar module 19 is provided with a rectangular tube-shaped first locked portion 32 that protrudes from an outer wall 31 on the opposite side of the enclosure 23 to the wire routing path 22. The second locked portion 33 having a rectangular tube shape is provided so as to protrude from the outer wall 31 on the opposite side of the enclosure wall 23 from the electric wire routing path 22. In the first locked portion 32 and the second locked portion 33, a notch 34 is formed in a substantially lower half of the surface of the enclosure wall 23 that faces the outer wall 31. The first locked portion 32 is formed such that a part of the first locking portion 27 of the bridging member 25 can be inserted from above, and the second locked portion 33 is a second portion of the bridging member 25. A part of the locking portion 28 is formed to be insertable from above.

  On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 4, the battery module 12 has a pair of end plates 35 for bundling a plurality of batteries 11 (not shown) arranged. Each end plate 35 is formed in a rectangular parallelepiped shape with an insulating material, and is provided at both ends in the arrangement direction of the batteries 11 so as to sandwich the plurality of batteries 11. For example, a metal fixing plate 36 is attached to the side surface of each end plate 35 opposite to the battery 11, and a pair of metal fixing members 37 rising from each fixing plate 36 are connected via a connecting member 38. A pair of bolts (not shown) for connecting and fixing the pair of end plates 35 to each other are connected. That is, the battery module 12 includes a plurality of batteries 11, an end plate 35, a fixing plate 36, a fixing member 37, and the like.

  Next, the connection structure of the bridging member 25 and the noise prevention structure, which are features of the present embodiment, will be described. As shown in FIG. 3, the bridging member 25 of the present embodiment includes a flat tongue piece 39 that extends downward from the lower portion of the frame 29 in the first locking portion 27 and the second locking portion 28. A locking projection 40 is provided so as to protrude from a surface (inner surface) that extends and faces the other tongue piece 39 (only one is shown in FIG. 3). The thickness of the tongue piece 39 is set to be thinner than the thickness of the frame 29. That is, when the first locking portion 27 is inserted into the first locked portion 32 and the locking protrusion 40 presses the inner surface of the first locked portion 32, and the second locking portion When the 28 is inserted into the second locked portion 33 and the locking protrusion 40 presses the inner surface of the second locked portion 33, the tongue piece portions 39 are respectively in the thickness direction of the frame body 29 ( The battery module 12 is elastically deformed in the width direction). In addition, although the latching protrusion 40 does not appear in the figure, it has a taper surface from which the protrusion height from the tongue piece part 39 becomes high as it goes upwards.

  In addition, the bridging member 25 of this embodiment has a pair of elastic members 41. The elastic member 41 is supported in a cantilevered manner extending downward from the side surface of the longitudinal member 26 in the longitudinal direction of the battery module 12 (right side in FIG. 2). The bridging member 25 connected to both the bus bar modules 19 and 20 corresponds to the first electrode row 15 and the second electrode row 16 when the both bus bar modules 19 and 20 are respectively attached to the battery module 12. When installed at the respective positions, the elastic member 41 is elastically deformed to urge the fixing member 37 downward.

  In the bridging member 25 configured in this way, the first locking portion 27 is inserted to the set position of the first locked portion 32, and the second locking portion 28 is the second locked portion. When inserted to the set position of the portion 33, the locking projection 40 protrudes from the notch 34, and the tongue piece portion 39 that has been elastically deformed is elastically restored. Thereby, the 1st latching | locking part 27 is latched with the 1st to-be-latched part 32, and the 2nd latching | locking part 28 is latched with the 2nd to-be-latched part 33, The bridging member 25 and the bus bar modules 19 and 20 are connected (connected) to each other.

  The bus bar modules 19 and 20 integrated in this way are attached to the battery module 12 in accordance with the positions of the positive terminal 13 and the negative terminal 14 protruding from the electrode rows 15 and 16 of the battery module 12, and the bus bar 17 and the terminal 21. By screwing nuts into the screws of the positive terminal 13 and the negative terminal 14 projecting through the holes, the bus bar 17 is fastened to the electrode terminals, and both bus bar modules 19 and 20 are fixed to the battery module 12. .

  On the other hand, the elastic member 41 is configured such that when both the bus bar modules 19 and 20 are attached to the first electrode row 15 and the second electrode row 16 of the battery module 12, respectively, The upper surface 42 is urged downward.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the bridging member 25 connected to the first bus bar module 19 and the second bus bar module 20 is attached to the battery module 12 together with the bus bar modules 19 and 20. Thus, the elastic member 41 biases the fixing member 37 of the battery module 12. For this reason, there is a gap (adjustment allowance) between the first locking portion 27 and the first locked portion 32 and between the second locking portion 28 and the second locked portion 33, respectively. Even when it is set, rattling of the bridging member 25 can be suppressed. Further, since the elastic member 41 is interposed between the fixing member 37 and the bridging member 25, the elastic member 41 can absorb the vibration of the bridging member 25. As a result, the generation of noise due to the bridging member 25 interfering with the fixing member 37 and the bus bar module can be suppressed.

  Further, the elastic member 41 is formed so as to bias the fixing member 37 supported by the end plate 35. However, since the fixing member 37 is a member that is originally disposed at a predetermined position in the battery module 12, By adopting such an existing member as an urging target, it is possible to avoid a complicated structure.

  As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention has been explained in full detail with drawing, said embodiment is only an illustration of this invention and this invention is not limited only to the structure of said embodiment. . Needless to say, even if there is a design change within a range not departing from the gist of the present invention, it is included in the present invention.

  For example, in the present embodiment, the structure in which the first bus bar module 19 and the second bus bar module 20 are connected by the single bridging member 25 has been described. Further, the connecting position of the bridging member 25 is not limited to the end of the bus bar module as in this embodiment. Here, depending on the installation position of the bridging member 25, the elastic member 41 may not be able to bias the fixing member 37 supported by the pair of end plates 35 as in the present embodiment. If it is a component of the battery module 12, it can also form so that other than the fixing member 37 may be urged | biased. That is, the elastic member 41 can be formed, for example, so as to bias the side surface (surface on which the electrode terminal is provided) of the battery 11 to which the bridging member 25 is attached, or other fixing fixed to the battery 11. You may form so that the case 18 etc. of the bus-bar modules 19 and 20 may be urged | biased as a member.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Battery 12 Battery module 13 Positive electrode terminal 14 Negative electrode terminal 15 1st electrode row | line | column 16 2nd electrode row | line | column 17 Bus bar 18 Case 19 1st bus-bar module 20 2nd bus-bar module 21 Terminal 22 Electric wire wiring path 25 Bridging member 26 Longitudinal member 27 First locking portion 28 Second locking portion 32 First locked portion 33 Second locked portion 34 Notch 35 End plate 37 Fixing member 40 Locking protrusion 41 Elastic member

Claims (6)

A battery module in which positive and negative electrodes of a plurality of batteries are alternately arranged is formed with a first electrode row and a second electrode row, and a bus bar connecting the adjacent positive and negative electrodes of the first electrode row is made of resin. A first bus bar module housed in a first case; a second bus bar module housing a bus bar connecting adjacent positive and negative electrodes of the second electrode array in a second case made of resin; 1 busbar module and a bridging member for connecting the second busbar module;
The bridging member includes a first locking portion and a second locking that are respectively locked with the first locked portion of the first case and the second locked portion of the second case. And a bus bar module connection structure having an elastic member for urging the battery module.   2. The bus bar module connection structure according to claim 1, wherein the elastic member urges the battery module along a direction in which the first and second bus bar modules are attached to the first and second electrode rows, respectively. The bridging member is a resin member, and includes a longitudinal member formed to bridge the first locking portion and the second locking portion, and the first locking portion and the The second locking portion is formed so as to be able to be accommodated in the first locked portion and the second locked portion while hanging from both ends of the longitudinal member,
The bus bar module connection structure according to claim 1, wherein the elastic member is formed so as to protrude from the longitudinal member in a cantilevered manner so as to be able to bias the battery module downward.   The bus bar module according to claim 1, wherein the elastic member is formed so as to bias the battery.   The bus bar module according to claim 1, wherein the elastic member is formed so as to bias a fixing member fixed to the battery.   The said elastic member is formed so that the fixing member fixed to a pair of end braces provided in the both ends of the arrangement direction of this battery so that the said several battery may be pinched | interposed may be urged | biased. The connection structure of the bus-bar module in any one of.

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