JPH06315205A - Contact conduction unit charging mobile battery - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a contact conduction unit for charging a mobile battery in which desired surface contact can be accomplished even if the posture of sequentially stopping mobile is different one by one. CONSTITUTION:The contact conduction unit comprises a moving side contact member fixed to a mobile, and a power supply side contact mechanism 12 installed at a charging station, wherein the power supply side contact mechanism 12 comprises at least a press contact member 15 having a planar contact material, a slide shaft 16, a drive base 17, a compression spring 18, and a stopper 19. The press contact member 15 is pivoted rockingly through a spherical joint 20 to the projecting tip of the slide shaft 16 inserted loosely into a through hole 17 of the drive base 17 such that the slide shaft 16 can move axially and obliquely. The compression spring 18 is disposed between the drive base 17 and the projecting tip part of the slide shaft 16 so that it can be compressed and the stopper 19 is engaged with the drive base 17 while being stopped at the rear end of the slide shaft 16 with the engaging face being tapered 34.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a contact energizing device used for charging a battery mounted on a mobile vehicle. The term "moving vehicle" mainly refers to an unmanned transport vehicle that travels on a certain taxiway and goes through a charging station, but it also includes vehicles equipped with a battery such as an electric vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An automated guided vehicle that moves along a fixed taxiway on a premises has a battery mounted on itself.
When the battery is wasted after traveling for a certain period of time, the vehicle is temporarily stopped at a charging station installed in the middle of the taxiway for charging.

The proposed contact charging and charging device for charging a battery has a concept of charging for charging by a temporary electrical contact between a power source side contact mechanism installed in a charging station and a contacted member mounted on a truck. The contact between the contact elements on the power source side and the battery and the opening of the contact elements are automatically performed in association with the temporary stop of the truck at the station, and the electrical contact between the contact elements is made during charging. It was a necessary condition to ensure that it was maintained. In addition, for this type of battery charging in recent years, there has been a demand for rapid charging in a short time of about several minutes with a large current of 200 amps to 300 amps,
The above conditions were becoming more and more severe.

The inventors, including some of the present inventors, have proposed a contact charging device for battery charging that makes full use of the wisdom to satisfy the above-mentioned conditions, examples of which are shown in FIG. 4 and subsequent figures.
(For details, refer to the specification of Japanese Patent Application No. 4-94205.) The contact charging device for battery charging shown in FIG. 4 has a contacted member 1 to be mounted on a truck and a power supply side to be installed on the charging station side. Composed of a combination with the contact mechanism 2, the contacted member 1 gives a contacted surface of a wide band by the contact material. On the other hand, the power source side contact mechanism 2 includes a pressing contact member 3 having a surface contact material, a slide shaft 4, a drive base 5, and a compression spring 6. The pressing contact member 3 is pivotally attached to the tip of the slide shaft 4 on the protruding side via a spherical joint 7 so that the slide shaft 4 can pivot on the drive base 5 and a bottomed cylindrical body 8 attached to the base. The compression spring 6 is inserted so as to be slidable in any direction, and is arranged in the bottomed cylindrical body 8 so as to be linked to the bottom of the cylindrical body and the slide shaft 5. A terminal member 9 is electrically connected to the pressing contact member 3 via a flexible conductor.

FIG. 5 shows an example of use of the contact energizing device as described above, in which the contacted member 1 is assembled on the side surface of the automatic guided vehicle X, and the drive base 5 of the power source side contact mechanism 2 is linearly arranged at the charging station. It is connected to and supported by the drive actuator 10. Now, as shown in the figure, the unmanned carrier X is stopped at the charging station. The drive base 5 is pushed out to the dolly side by driving the linear drive actuator 10. Then, the planar contact material of the pressing contact member 3 protruding at the tip is pressed in a state of being in surface contact with the contacted surface of the contacted member on the dolly side, and accordingly, the slide shaft 4 is pushed back and the compression spring 6 ( (See Fig. 4)
The compressed spring force becomes the surface contact pressure between the pressing contact member 3 and the contacted member, so that the contact energization for the predetermined charging is performed. By using a noble metal contact material as the surface contact material and the contact material of the contacted member, the resistance at the time of contact is made small so that it can withstand repeated contact.

By the way, the above-mentioned automatic guided vehicle is
The trolleys that run one after another at a certain distance and waste a battery for a certain period of time stop at the charging station and are used for predetermined charging, but all the trolleys have the same approach angle to the charging station and the inclination of the trolley. Is not always
The position of the contacted member at the time of stopping may deviate from the normal position due to the tire air pressure of the truck or other conditions, and may change each time. Therefore, the pressing contact member 3 has the spherical joint 7
It is attached so that it can be swung by
The pressing contact member 3 is incidentally inclined and pressed by an amount corresponding to the inclination.

[0007]

According to the contact charging device for charging a battery described above, the contact / contact target such as the concavo-convex fitting contact mechanism and the side pressure contact mechanism (chuck method) that have been proposed before. Although high precision was required for centering between the two elements, the drawbacks could be improved and temporary results were obtained.
I needed to make further improvements. That is, the inclination of the automated guided vehicle is pushed by the spherical joint to swing the contact member and the slide shaft is slid in the axial direction. Although it is possible to make surface contact at any position on the surface, the pressing contact member keeps the inclination received during the previous charging work until the next charging after the predetermined charging is completed. In some cases, the pressing contact member, which remains inclined during charging in the next cart, is pressed against the contacted member under different conditions from the previous condition, and the normal surface contact may not be performed.
Although it is possible to conduct electricity even in a point contact state because surface contact cannot be made, abnormal heat generation at the contact portion softens the surrounding insulating material, which could lead to the problem.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to further improve the moving vehicle battery charging contact energizing device proposed as described above, and to obtain a desired surface even if the postures of the moving vehicles that stop one after another are irregular each time. It is an object of the present invention to provide a contact energizing device for charging a battery mounted on a mobile vehicle, which is highly flexible and capable of achieving contact.

[0009]

A contact charging device for charging a battery mounted on a moving vehicle provided by the present invention comprises a moving side contact member attached to a moving vehicle equipped with a battery,
It consists of a power source side contact mechanism installed in the charging station, a moving side contact member forms a wide contact surface with a contact material, and a power source side contact mechanism has at least a pressing contact member with a planar contact material and a slide shaft. And a drive base, a compression spring, and a stopper, and the pressing contact member is pivotally attached to the tip of the slide shaft on the protruding side via a spherical joint so that the slide shaft can be swung in the through hole of the drive base. It is inserted loosely for tilting movement, the compression spring is compressibly linked between the drive base and the protruding tip side part of the slide shaft, and the stopper is driven while being fixed to the rear end of the slide shaft. It is in abutting engagement with the base, with the abutting engagement surface having a taper.

The compression spring is penetrated on the slide shaft, and one end in the compression direction abuts on a surface corresponding to the tapered surface of the drive base and the other end abuts on the casing of the spherical joint. Is practical.

The slide shaft is hollow, and a terminal member is attached to the rear end side of the slide shaft. The terminal member and the pressing contact member are connected by a flexible conductor through the inside of the slide shaft, so that the pressing contact member swings. The power cable can be connected to the terminals without restriction.

[0012]

If the compression spring is linked in a compressed state between the drive base and the protruding tip side portion of the slide shaft,
An axial pushing force is applied to the slide shaft in front of the drive base. On the other hand, in the stopper, the pressure contact force to the drive base is strengthened by the amount of compression of the compression spring as described above, and the taper engagement of the contact engagement surfaces thereof causes
The slide shaft is positioned so as to horizontally project while maintaining a predetermined angle (right angle) with respect to the drive base.

Now, when the mobile vehicle is parked at the charging station and the broadband contact surface of the contact member faces the pressing contact member of the power source side contact mechanism, the drive base of the power source side contact mechanism is moved forward. By pushing, the pressing contact member is pressed into the broadband contact surface of the contact member. At that time, even if the stop position of the moving vehicle is deviated, the contact position is secured by the contact surface of the wide band. When the contacted surface is inclined due to the stationary posture of the moving vehicle, when the pressing contact member is pressed against the contacted surface based on the swing motion of the spherical joint, the contacted surface is additionally inclined and the inclined contacted surface. The surface is contacted by pressing it vertically. When the drive base is further pushed out from that state, the compression spring is compressed and the slide shaft is pushed backward through the loose through hole of the drive base, at which time the stopper also separates from the drive base and has a tapered abutment engagement. Is released, and the slide shaft is tilted (eccentric) in accordance with the tilt of the pressing contact member. In that tilted state, the repulsive force of the compression spring compresses the slide shaft to generate an axial force. The sheet-shaped contact material comes into pressure contact with the contacted surface.

When charging is performed after a predetermined time as described above, the drive base is retracted to
The slide shaft is projected forward by the repulsive force of the compressed compression spring, and the stopper is brought into abutting engagement with the drive base to perform taper engagement, whereby the slide shaft is reset to the original horizontal state. When the drive base is further retracted, the contact pressure of the pressing contact member against the contacted member disappears. Then, when the moving vehicle is moved, the contact energization state is immediately released.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a contact energizing device for charging a battery mounted on a mobile vehicle according to the present invention only by a contact mechanism on the power source side, and FIG.

Reference numeral 11 denotes a contacted member attached to the moving vehicle side, and 12 denotes a power source side contact mechanism installed at a charging station on the ground.

Thus, the contacted member 11 forms a broadband contact surface with the flat plate 13 formed of the contact material, and the flat plate 13 made of the contact material is held by the supporting substrate 14 made of the insulating material. There is. The contacted member is the same as that of FIG. 4 already proposed by the present applicant. Since it is described in detail in the specification of Japanese Patent Application No. 4-94205, the description is also referred to.

On the other hand, the power source side contact mechanism 12, as shown in FIG. 1 in an easy-to-understand manner, has as main components a pressing contact member 15 with a planar contact material, a hollow slide shaft 16, a drive base 17, A compression spring 18 and a stopper 19 are provided, and the slide shaft 16 is slidably inserted into the drive base 17, and the slide shaft 16 protrudes and is pressed against the tip end side of the slide shaft 16 so that the contact member 15 can swing freely through the spherical joint 20. The compression spring 18 is linked to the drive base 17 and a spherical joint 20 which is the tip of the slide shaft 16, and a stopper 19 is attached to the rear end of the slide shaft 16.

The pressing contact member 15 is made of copper or a copper alloy in a rod-like shape and has a main body, and a planar contact material 21 is attached to the end face thereof. The pressing contact member 15 is pivotally attached to the tip of the slide shaft 16 on the protruding side by a spherical joint 20 so as to be swingable. The spherical joint 20 includes a spherical journal 22, a spherical bearing 23 and a casing 2 which have a kinematic relationship with the spherical journal 22.
4, the spherical journal 22 is fitted and fixed to the stepped shaft portion provided in the rod portion of the pressing contact member 15, and the spherical bearing 23 is fixed inside the casing 24. The casing 24 is attached to the outer periphery of the end of the slide shaft 16, and is fixed by a set screw 25 in a state where it does not come off.

The slide shaft 16 is made of a rigid pipe such as a stainless steel pipe. By covering the outer surface with a resin tube 26 such as a fluororesin, at least the outer surface is electrically insulative and has a good sliding property. Therefore, the sliding with respect to the drive base 17 described later can be easily performed.

The drive base 17 is a slide shaft 16
Has a through hole 27 having an inner diameter sufficiently larger than the outer diameter of the slide shaft 16 through which the slide shaft 16 is loosely inserted. Therefore, a positive gap 28 is held in the through hole 27 through which the slide shaft 16 is inserted.

The compression spring 18 is composed of a coil spring and is inserted through the outer periphery of the slide shaft 16, one end of which is in contact with the drive base 17 and the other end of which is in contact with the casing 24 of the spherical joint so that the compression spring 18 is linked between them. Has been done. A counterbore 29 is formed on the drive base 17 to accommodate the end of the compression spring 18, and a counterbore 30 is also formed on the casing 24.
Are formed.

A terminal member 31 and a stopper 19 are fixed to the rear end of the slide shaft 16. Terminal member 3
Reference numeral 1 is provided in the slide shaft and a stopper 19 is provided on the outer periphery of the slide shaft, and is fixed to the slide shaft by a spring pin 32 penetrating these. Reference numeral 33 is a hole through which the spring pin passes.

The stopper 19 has a slide shaft 1
6, an outer diameter increasing portion is formed on the outer periphery of the outer peripheral portion 6, and the tip thereof abuts and engages with the drive base 17, and the taper 34 is formed on the abutment engaging surface.
Are formed. The abutting engagement including the taper 34 is
Its position is determined so that the compression spring 18 is fulfilled in the compressed state. Thereby, the abutting engagement is the compression spring 1
It is held so as to be constantly pressed against each other with a spring force of 8, and the slide shaft 16 is set so as to horizontally project from the drive base 17 at a predetermined angle (right angle) based on the engagement of the taper 34. In this set state,
The slide shaft 16 is centered so as not to touch the through hole 27 of the drive base.

A flexible conductor 35 made of a stranded copper wire or the like is inserted into the slide shaft 16, and the ends thereof are pressed to press the sleeve portion 36 of the contact member 15 and the sleeve portion of the terminal member 31. The compression connection to 37 allows electrical connection between the pressing member 15 and the terminal member 31. The flexible conductor 35 has the pressing contact member 1
5 is allowed to flex so as to allow the swinging motion. Although the conductor 35 is shown as a straight line in the drawing, it may be provided with an appropriate slack so as not to impose an extra restriction on the swinging movement of the pressing contact member 15.

The terminal member 31 includes a slide shaft 16
A plate-like portion 38 protruding from the rear end is provided, and a terminal of a power supply side cable (not shown) is fastened thereto.

In the power source side contact mechanism 12 constructed as described above, the drive base 17 is connected to the linear drive actuator installed on the ground side and the linear drive section of the cylinder mechanism (see FIG. 5). . On the other hand, the contacted member 1
1 is attached so as to be exposed on an appropriate side surface of a mobile vehicle (see FIG. 5) equipped with a battery.

When a moving vehicle which needs charging now stops at a charging station and tries to charge, the contacted member 11 is face-to-face with the extended extension line of the pressing contact member 15 of the power source side contact mechanism 12. Positioned. Then, by pushing the drive base 17 forward, the planar contact material 21 of the pressing contact member 15 that moves forward with it is brought into surface contact with the vicinity of the center of the broadband contact surface of the contact member 13. If the stop position of the moving vehicle is misaligned at this point, the sheet contact material 21 shifts to a position displaced from the center of the contact surface of the wide band and comes into contact with the contact material, thereby allowing such an error. Further, when the contacted surface of the contacted member 13 is inclined at a right angle with respect to the horizontal line as shown in FIG. 2 due to the inclination of the moving vehicle or the like, the pressing contact member 15 is moved by a swinging motion corresponding to the inclination. It is incidentally inclined and tries to come into surface contact with the surface of the contacted member from a direction perpendicular thereto. If the drive base 17 is further pushed out after that state,
The drive base 17 relatively moves with respect to the slide shaft 16 whose axial movement is already suppressed by abutting the distal end, and the compression spring 18 is compressed accordingly, and the taper 34 between the stopper 19 and the drive base 17 The abutting engagement including is lost, the slide shaft 16 released from the horizontal maintaining state is pressed against it, and the tilt (eccentricity) of the contact member 15 is caused according to the pressing, and the slide shaft in this tilted state is generated. 16 is caused to generate an axial force corresponding to the amount of compression of the compression spring 18, and thus the pressing contact member 15
The pressure contact of the contacted member 13 from the vertical direction is achieved under the optimum condition.

If charging is performed for a certain period of time while the predetermined surface contact is achieved as described above, the pressing contact member 15 is moved to the contacted member 13 simply by retracting the drive base 17.
It is possible to leave the car and immediately return to the traveling of the moving vehicle.
When the drive base 17 is retracted as described above, the slide shaft 16 is pulled by the spring repulsive force of the compression spring 18 in a compressed manner so as to slide forward through the through hole 27 of the drive base 17, Then, the stopper 19 abuts and engages with the drive base 17, and the taper 34
As described above, the slid shaft 16 tilted as described above is reset to the original horizontal state, and is horizontally supported until the subsequent charging.

FIG. 3 shows a specific application example of the contact energizing device for contact energizing for charging a battery mounted on a mobile vehicle according to the present invention. In this embodiment, the contact mechanism on the power source side has three phases. Therefore, the three slide shafts 16A, 16
B, 16C and three pressing contact members 15A, 15B, 15C attached thereto are provided. By arranging these three mechanisms so that they are located at the respective vertices of a triangle as shown in the drawing, they can be provided in a space-saving manner with respect to the common drive base 17, and this contributes to downsizing of the device.
In addition, 39 is a hole through which a bolt is inserted, and is used for connecting a linear drive mechanism.

[0031]

According to the contact charging device for charging a battery mounted on a mobile vehicle according to the present invention as described above, Japanese Patent Application No. 4-9 can be used.
The effect of the invention of No. 4205 can be directly followed, and in addition, the slide shaft is loosely inserted so as to be tiltable with respect to the drive base, and the engagement surface between the stopper and the drive base with which the stopper abuts is tapered. Since the compression spring is linked between the drive base and the tip portion of the slide shaft so as to provide the contact engagement surface with a pressure contact force, the slide shaft is charged before charging the moving vehicle. Is set so that it always protrudes horizontally by the engagement of the taper, and when the moving vehicle is parked at a predetermined position and the drive base is pushed out forward when charging, the slide shaft becomes free and the loose through hole It is possible to insert it diagonally with respect to the moving vehicle, and according to the inclination of the contacted member attached to the moving vehicle, the pressing contact member swings and slides. With the tilt of the shaft (eccentricity), it can be pressed and contacted from the direction perpendicular to the surface of the contacted member under optimal conditions, the slide shaft is reset to the original horizontal state after charging, and it is prepared for subsequent charging, It flexibly responds to different stopping postures of a large number of moving vehicles that are stopping one after another, and always enables contact energization by precise surface contact, and thus can sufficiently meet the demand for rapid charging with large current. A device can be provided.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional explanatory view showing an embodiment of a contact charging device for charging a battery mounted on a mobile vehicle according to the present invention only by a power source side contact mechanism.

FIG. 2 is a schematic explanatory view showing an operation example when the contact charging device for charging a battery mounted on a mobile vehicle according to the present invention is used.

3A and 3B show application examples of a contact charging device for charging a battery mounted on a mobile vehicle according to the present invention, in which (A) is a front view and (B) is a side view.

FIG. 4 is a schematic explanatory view showing an example of a contact energizing device for charging a battery mounted on a mobile vehicle, which the applicant previously proposed.

FIG. 5 is a perspective explanatory view showing an example of use of a contact current carrying device for charging a battery mounted on a mobile vehicle in a charging station.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 Contacted Member 12 Power Supply Side Contact Mechanism 13 Contacted Surface 15 Pressing Contact Member 16 Slide Shaft 17 Drive Base 18 Compression Spring 19 Stopper 20 Spherical Joint 21 Surface Contact Material 27 Loose Through Hole 28 Gap 31 Terminal Member 34 Taper Contacting surface)

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A moving side contact member attached to a moving vehicle equipped with a battery, and a power source side contact mechanism installed at a charging station. The moving side contact member has a contact surface of a wide band formed by a contact material. The power source side contact mechanism includes at least a pressing contact member with a planar contact material, a slide shaft, a drive base, a compression spring, and a stopper, and the pressing contact member swings at the tip of the slide shaft on the protruding side through a spherical joint. The slide shaft is loosely inserted in the through hole of the drive base so as to be axially movable and tiltable.
The compression spring is compressibly linked between the drive base and the protruding tip side portion of the slide shaft, and the stopper is abuttingly engaged with the drive base while being fixedly attached to the rear end of the slide shaft. A contact electrification device for charging a battery mounted on a mobile vehicle, characterized in that the engagement surface has a taper. 2. The compression spring is inserted through a slide shaft, and one end in the compression direction abuts a surface corresponding to the taper surface of the drive base and the other end abuts on a casing of the spherical joint. The apparatus according to item 1. 3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the slide shaft is hollow, and a terminal member is attached to the rear end side of the slide shaft, and the terminal member and the pressing contact member are connected to each other through a flexible conductor through the slide shaft.