JP6394983B2 - Automotive battery terminal structure - Google Patents

Description

  The technology disclosed in this specification is a terminal structure formed by caulking an internal terminal to an external terminal in an in-vehicle battery and fixing an insulating member, a gasket, and a lid member therebetween.

In Patent Document 1, in an in-vehicle battery, a gasket, a lid member, an insulating member, and an external terminal are sequentially inserted into a hole formed in a laminated body, and the diameter of the internal terminal protruding on the external terminal is increased. A method of fixing an external terminal, a gasket, and the like formed on the outer peripheral side of the internal terminal by the internal terminal by applying a compressive force in the direction is disclosed. Furthermore, during caulking, a pressing mechanism is inserted into the shaft portion formed in the hole of the laminated body of the internal terminals, and the outer peripheral surface of the shaft portion of the internal terminal is expanded radially, so that the inner periphery of the hole of the external terminal is expanded. Contact with the surface ensures electrical continuity between the internal terminal and the external terminal.

JP2009-37817A

In this background art, it is possible to ensure electrical continuity between the internal terminal and the external terminal, but the outer peripheral surface of the internal terminal is expanded in the radial direction so that the lid member or the like formed on the outer peripheral side of the internal terminal can be used. Excessive pressure is applied. For this reason, in order to maintain the strength of the lid member or the like, structural ingenuity is required, and as a result, the manufacturing is complicated.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-described circumstances, and it is possible to ensure conduction between the internal terminal and the external terminal while avoiding complicated manufacture of the lid member formed on the outer peripheral side of the internal terminal. The technology regarding the terminal structure of a vehicle-mounted battery is provided.

The terminal structure of the present invention covers a case that houses a power generation element from above, a lid member having a first hole, an external terminal provided above the lid member and having a second hole, and the lid member And the external terminal, insulating the lid member and the external terminal, having an insulating member having a third hole, the first hole, the second hole, and the first terminal A shaft portion passing through the three holes, and a caulking portion for caulking the external terminal, and an internal terminal for electrically connecting the external terminal and the power generation element, wherein the external terminal is the In the battery terminal structure formed by caulking from above by the caulking portion, before the caulking, the external terminal has a portion formed in a convex shape upward, and the second hole The inner diameter is larger than the outer diameter of the shaft, and after the caulking The battery terminal is characterized in that the external terminal is in contact with the shaft portion in the radial direction by pressing the convex portion in a direction approaching the insulating member by the caulking portion. Structure.

Since the external terminal has a portion that is convex upward, it is formed in a convex shape when pressure is applied from above to the portion that is convex. The part which has a shape follows an insulating member. At this time, since the external terminal is in a state of extending in the horizontal direction, the vertical length of the undulation when formed in a convex shape extends in the horizontal direction, and the internal side of the external terminal on the hole side is The peripheral surface approaches the center of the hole. Therefore, the inner diameter of the hole of the external terminal is reduced, and the inner peripheral surface of the hole of the external terminal is in contact with the outer peripheral surface of the internal terminal.

According to the terminal structure of the in-vehicle battery of the present invention, it is possible to ensure the continuity between the internal terminal and the external terminal while avoiding complicated manufacture of the lid member formed on the outer periphery of the internal terminal. Is possible.

The upper surface perspective view of the battery which concerns on embodiment. Sectional drawing of the terminal part which concerns on embodiment. Sectional drawing which shows the manufacturing process of the terminal part which concerns on embodiment. Sectional drawing which shows the manufacturing process of the terminal part which concerns on embodiment.

The terminal part 2 of the vehicle-mounted battery according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a top perspective view of a battery according to an embodiment. A battery 100 according to the embodiment is, for example, a prismatic lithium ion secondary battery, and as illustrated in FIG. 1, a lid member 30, a case 60, a terminal portion 2, a positive electrode fastening member 3, a negative electrode fastening member 4, and a safety valve 5. The liquid injection stopper 6 and the terminal part 7 are provided. The case 60 is a housing that has an opening and houses the power generation element of the battery, and the opening is covered by the lid member 30. The safety valve 5 is a member for preventing a sudden rise in the pressure inside the case 60, and the liquid injection plug 6 is a plug for sealing a liquid injection port for injecting the electrolytic solution into the case 60. The terminal portion 2 is formed by the internal terminal 10 and the external terminal 50 on the upper surface of the lid member 30. As will be described later, the internal terminal 10 is pressed against the external terminal 50 from above, thereby fixing the gasket 20, the lid member 30, and the insulating member 40. The terminal part 2 is connected to the negative electrode fastening member 4 via an external terminal 50, and the terminal part 7 is connected to the positive electrode fastening member 3 via an external terminal (not shown). Below, although the terminal part 2 is explained in full detail, it has the structure similar to the terminal part 2 also about the terminal part 7. FIG.

Next, components of the terminal portion 2 will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the terminal portion 2 according to the embodiment, and is an XX cross-sectional view of the terminal portion 2 of FIG. FIG. 3 is an XX cross-sectional view showing a manufacturing process of the terminal portion 2 according to the embodiment, and shows a state where the internal terminal 10 is not inserted into the terminal portion 2 of FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line XX showing the manufacturing process of the terminal unit 2 according to the embodiment, and shows a state before the external terminal 50 is caulked by the internal terminal 10 in the terminal unit 2 of FIG.

The terminal part 2 is demonstrated using FIG. In the terminal portion 2, the gasket 20, the lid member 30, the insulating member 40, and the external terminal 50 are laminated in order, and the internal terminal 10 is inserted so as to pass from the gasket 20 to the external terminal 50. It is formed by caulking. Here, in the gasket 20 and the insulating member 40, the size of the inner diameter of the hole described later is φY, and in the external terminal 50, the size of the inner diameter of the hole described later is φX ′. Hereinafter, a process of forming the terminal portion 2 will be described with reference to FIGS.

First, as shown in FIG. 3, the gasket 20, the lid member 30, the insulating member 40, and the external terminal 50 are stacked in order, and a hole A that penetrates from the gasket 20 to the external terminal 50 is provided inside these. Hereinafter, the side where the external terminal 50 is formed in the terminal portion 2 is the upper surface side, and the side where the gasket 20 is formed is the lower surface side.

The gasket 20 is in contact with the lower surface and inner peripheral surface of the lid member 30 and the lower surface of the insulating member 40, and has a hole whose inner diameter is φY. The gasket 20 is a seal member for improving air tightness and liquid tightness, and is formed so as to be in contact with an inner peripheral surface of the lid member 30 described later, thereby sealing the lid member 30 in a liquid tight manner. Yes. Moreover, the gasket 20 has electrical insulation, and electrically insulates the lid member 30 and an internal terminal 10 to be described later inserted into the hole A. The gasket 20 has a cylindrical head portion 21 having a hole, a center portion 22 having an outer diameter larger than that of the head portion 21 and having a hole diameter equal to that of the head portion 21, and an outer diameter equal to the center portion 22. A bottom portion 23 having a hole with an inner diameter larger than the inner diameter of the holes of the head portion 21 and the central portion 22 is configured by a shape in which the bottom portion 23, the central portion 22, and the head portion 21 are stacked in this order.

  The lid member 30 is in contact with the upper surface of the central portion 22 of the gasket 20, the outer peripheral surface of the head portion 21, and the lower surface of the insulating member 40, and has a hole whose inner diameter is larger than φY. The lid member 30 is a lid of the case 60 and covers the power generation element housed in the case 60.

  The insulating member 40 is in contact with the upper surface of the lid member 30, the upper surface of the head portion 21 of the gasket 20, and the lower surface of the external terminal 50, and has a hole whose inner diameter is φY. The insulating member 40 has electrical insulation, and electrically insulates the lid member 30 and the external terminal 50. The insulating member 40 is formed such that a portion located below a portion where the external terminal 50 is convex, that is, a portion close to the hole is thicker than a portion far from the hole.

The external terminal 50 has a hole, is above the lid member 30, and is in contact with the upper surface of the insulating member 40. Here, the upper direction means that the upper surface side of the external terminal 50 in the terminal portion 2 is the upper side, and the lower surface side of the gasket 20 is the lower side. The material for forming the external terminal 50 is not particularly limited as long as it is a material used in a conventional battery. For example, aluminum is used for a positive electrode and copper is used for a negative electrode. The external terminal 50 is connected to a bus bar (not shown) via the negative electrode fastening member 4 shown in FIG.

A surface of the external terminal 50 protruding upward on the hole A side is defined as an inner peripheral surface D. As shown in FIG. 3, the external terminal 50 has a disc spring shape having a portion in which the inner peripheral surface D is convex upward toward the center of the hole A before caulking, as shown in FIG. doing. The inner diameter φX of the hole A of the external terminal 50 is larger than the inner diameter φY of the hole A of the laminate formed by the insulating member 40 and the lid member 30. The external terminal 50 bends due to pressure from above, and the portion protruding upward has a shape along the insulating member 40 and is deformed to a state extending in the horizontal direction.

The external terminal 50 and the insulating member 40 are in contact with each other in the vertical direction, and no gap exists between the external terminal 50 and the insulating member 40 in a portion far from the hole A. That is, in the portion far from the hole A, it is preferable that the insulating member 40 is formed so as to eliminate the gap between the lid member 30 and the external terminal 50 in accordance with the disk spring shape of the external terminal 50.

Next, how the internal terminal 10 is inserted into the hole A described above will be described with reference to FIG. The material of the internal terminal 10 may be aluminum or copper, as with the material of the external terminal 50, and is formed by the bottom 11 and the head 14. The bottom 11 has a columnar shape, and is electrically connected to the power generation element in the case 60 of FIG. 1 on the lower surface side. The head 14 passes through holes formed in the lid member 30, the insulating member 40, and the external terminal 50, and extends to above the external terminal 50. The head 14 has a shaft portion 12 and a caulking portion 13. The shaft portion 12 has a cylindrical shape, is the upper surface of the bottom portion 11, is formed on the lower surface of the caulking portion 13, and passes through the holes of the lid member 30, the insulating member 40, and the external terminal 50. The caulking portion 13 has a cylindrical shape in which a depression is formed in a concave shape from above. An outer peripheral surface of the shaft portion 12 and the caulking portion 13 is defined as an outer peripheral surface C. The caulking portion 13 is formed on the upper surface of the shaft portion 12, and is formed to extend upward from the inner peripheral surface D of the external terminal 50. Here, the outer diameters of the shaft portion 12 and the caulking portion 13 are equal to the inner diameter φY of the holes of the insulating member 40 and the gasket 20 and are smaller than the inner diameter φX of the external terminal 50.

The bottom portion 11 is in contact with the lower surface and the inner peripheral surface of the gasket 20, and the shaft portion 12 is in contact with the gasket 20 and the insulating member 40 on the outer peripheral surface C. Here, the inner peripheral surface D of the external terminal 50 is positioned so as to protrude upward, and the hole inner diameter φX of the external terminal 50 is larger than the outer diameter of the shaft portion 12 and the caulking portion 13 of the internal terminal 10. Therefore, the inner peripheral surface D of the external terminal 50 is not in contact with the outer peripheral surface C of the internal terminal 10.

  Next, how the terminal portion 2 is formed by caulking the internal terminal 10 to the external terminal 50 will be described. The external terminal 50, the insulating member 40, and the lid are applied between the bottom 11 of the internal terminal 10 and the caulking portion 13 by applying pressure to the caulking portion 13 of the internal terminal 10 shown in FIG. The member 30 and the gasket 20 are pressed down, and the external terminal 50, the insulating member 40, the lid member 30, and the gasket 20 are fixed.

At this time, the external terminal 50 is applied with pressure from above by the caulking portion 13, so that the portion that is convex upward is along the insulating member 40, and the external terminal 50 is in the center of the hole A in the horizontal direction. It becomes the shape extended to. Here, in the external terminal 50, the vertical length of the undulation when formed in a convex shape extends in the horizontal direction. Therefore, when the portion formed in a convex shape is suppressed from above and extends in the horizontal direction, the inner peripheral surface D of the external terminal 50 is due to the center portion of the hole A. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2, the inner diameter of the hole of the external terminal 50 becomes an inner diameter φX ′ smaller than φX, and is slightly smaller than the inner diameter φY of the holes of the insulating member 40 and the gasket 20. Therefore, the inner peripheral surface D of the external terminal 50 is in contact with the outer peripheral surface C of the internal terminal 10.

Since the insulating member 40 is formed so as to be thick at a portion close to the hole, the external terminal 50 extends in the horizontal direction as shown in FIG. It is in contact with the gasket 20. Thereby, the gasket 20 contacts the internal terminal 10.

According to the terminal portion 2 described above, the external terminal 50 is formed in a convex shape upward on the hole side. When pressure is applied from above, the external terminal 50 has a hole in the external terminal 50 as shown in FIG. The inner peripheral surface is in contact with the internal terminal 10. Therefore, since the inner diameter of the hole of the external terminal 50 is reduced, it is not necessary to expand the outer peripheral surface of the internal terminal 10 in order to bring the external terminal 50 and the internal terminal 10 into contact in the radial direction. Therefore, the internal terminal 10 and the external terminal 50 can be brought into contact with each other while ensuring that excessive pressure is not applied to the lid member 30 or the like formed on the outer peripheral side of the internal terminal 10, thereby ensuring electrical continuity. Therefore, it is not necessary to devise a structure in order to maintain the strength of the lid member and the like, and it is possible to suppress the manufacturing from becoming complicated.

Moreover, since the inner diameter of the hole of the external terminal 50 is reduced to φX ′ by pressing the internal terminal 10 against the external terminal 50 from above, the pressure that the internal terminal 10 applies to the external terminal 50 during caulking without using a pressing mechanism. As a result, the internal terminal 10 and the external terminal 50 can be brought into contact in the radial direction to ensure conduction.

  According to the terminal portion 2 described above, the external terminal 50 has a disk spring shape, and in the state before caulking, the inner diameter of the shaft portion 12 of the internal terminal 10 is the inner diameter φX of the hole of the external terminal 50 in FIG. Smaller than. Thus, when the internal terminal 10 is inserted into the hole A, the outer peripheral surface C of the internal terminal 10 does not contact the inner peripheral surface D of the external terminal 50. Thus, since the internal terminal 10 is inserted into the hole A regardless of the press-fitting method, there is a low possibility that a metallic foreign object is generated during insertion. Therefore, the reliability of the battery 1 can be improved.

  In addition, as described above, the insulating member 40 is located below the portion where the external terminal 50 is convex upward, that is, in the present embodiment, at a portion close to the hole A. Is formed thicker than a portion far from the hole A which is the other portion. Therefore, even after the external terminal 50 is caulked by the internal terminal 10, the force transmitted from the internal terminal 10 to the external terminal 50 can be transmitted to the gasket 20 through the insulating member 40, and the shielding property of the gasket 20 is ensured. be able to. More specifically, after the external terminal 50 is caulked to the internal terminal 10 as shown in FIG. 2, a force is exerted to return the external terminal 50 to the disk spring shape before caulking as shown in FIG. . As a result, even when the inner peripheral surface D of the external terminal 50 is deformed so as to have a convex shape upward, the insulating member 40 is formed thick in the portion close to the hole A. Further, the external terminal 50 and the insulating member 40 can be kept in contact with each other even in a portion close to the hole A. Therefore, the pressure applied from the internal terminal 10 to the external terminal 50 is applied to the gasket 20 via the insulating member 40, so that the gap between the internal terminal 10 and the lid member 30 can be sufficiently sealed by the gasket 20.

(Other examples)
Moreover, in the terminal part 2 shown above, although the external terminal 50 was shown as the disk spring shape before caulking, it is not restricted to such a shape. The external terminal 51 may have a hole and protrude in a convex shape so that the tip forms an acute angle from the horizontal direction. According to such an external terminal 51, the convex portion is pressed downward by pressure applied from above the internal terminal 10 during caulking, and the inner peripheral surface of the external terminal 51 is not fixed. It becomes the shape extended toward the hole center part along. As a result, the external terminal 51 extends toward the hole center while the external terminal 50 and the insulating member 40 are in contact with each other, and the inner peripheral surface of the external terminal 51 approaches the center. Therefore, the inner peripheral surface of the external terminal 51 and the internal terminal 10 can be brought into contact with each other.

As mentioned above, although the Example was described in detail, these are only illustrations and do not limit a claim. The technology described in the claims includes various modifications and changes of the specific examples illustrated above. In the embodiment, the lithium ion secondary battery is taken as an example, but the power generation element itself may be an alkaline storage battery system or other battery system.

The technical elements described in this specification or the drawings exhibit technical usefulness alone or in various combinations, and are not limited to the combinations described in the claims at the time of filing.

2 Terminal portion 10 Internal terminal 20 Gasket 30 Lid member 40 Insulating member 50 External terminal 60 Case 100 In-vehicle battery C outer peripheral surface D outer peripheral surface

Claims (2)

A cover member that covers the case that houses the power generation element from above, and has a first hole;
An external terminal provided above the lid member and having a second hole;
An insulating member provided between the lid member and the external terminal, insulating the lid member and the external terminal, and having a third hole;
An internal terminal for electrically connecting the external terminal and the power generation element;
Have
The internal terminal includes a shaft portion that passes through the first hole, the second hole, and the third hole, and a caulking portion that is provided above the shaft portion and caulks the external terminal,
In the battery terminal structure formed by pressing the external terminal from above by the caulking portion,
The inner peripheral part forming the second hole of the external terminal has elasticity,
Wherein before crimping, the inner circumferential portion is formed in a second hole disc spring shape which is bent so as to be convex upward toward the center of,
After the caulking, the inner peripheral portion that has been formed in a convex shape is pressed downward by the caulking portion to form a shape that extends horizontally to the center of the second hole, and the second hole The battery terminal structure is characterized in that the inner peripheral portion presses the shaft portion by reducing the inner diameter of the battery. A gasket is further provided between the lid member and the internal terminal,
Before the caulking, in the insulating member, a portion located near the third hole is thicker than a portion located far from the third hole;
The battery terminal structure according to claim 1.