JPH11120973A - Battery box fitting structure for electric bicycle - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide the fitting structure of a battery box to an electric bicycle increasing the degree of freedom for the fitting direction and fitting position of the battery box to a vehicle body and capable of diversifying the design and type of the electric bicycle. SOLUTION: A battery box 26 having a polyhedron structure is removably fitted to a battery holder fixed to a vehicle body, and an electric bicycle is traveled by the driving force from an electric motor driven by a battery stored in the battery box 26 as a power supply. Fitting sections 31, 32 with the same structure are provided on two different outer faces S3, S6 of the battery box 26, and the battery box 26 can be fitted to the battery holder via any one of the fitting sections 31, 32.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electric bicycle mounting structure for an electric bicycle powered by a battery housed in a battery box.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an electric bicycle that travels by receiving a driving force from an electric motor driven by a battery as a power source, a battery box containing a battery is detachably mounted on a battery holder fixed to a vehicle body. When charging the battery, the battery box is removed from the battery holder fixed to the vehicle body, and when the charging of the battery is completed, the battery box is mounted on the battery holder again.

[0003]

However, since the battery box is conventionally provided with only a single mounting portion, the mounting direction and mounting position of the battery box occupying a relatively large space with respect to the vehicle body are limited. To some extent, it was difficult to diversify the designs and models of electric bicycles.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to increase the degree of freedom of a mounting direction and a mounting position of a battery box with respect to a vehicle body and to diversify designs and models of electric bicycles. It is an object of the present invention to provide a battery box mounting structure for an electric bicycle.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a battery box having a polyhedral structure is removably mounted on a battery holder fixed to a vehicle body. In an electric bicycle that runs by receiving a driving force from an electric motor driven by a battery stored in a battery, a mounting portion having the same structure is provided on at least two outer surfaces of the battery box,
The battery box can be mounted on the battery holder by any mounting portion.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, a plurality of discharge terminal mounting portions are formed on the battery box, and one of the discharge terminal mounting portions is mounted with the discharge terminal.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, a plurality of operating portions are provided on a battery box locking mechanism provided on the battery holder, and the battery box locking mechanism is operated from at least two different directions. It is characterized in that it can be configured.

Therefore, according to the first aspect of the present invention, mounting portions having the same structure are provided on at least two outer surfaces of the battery box having the polyhedral structure, and the battery box is fixed to the vehicle body by any of the mounting portions. Since the battery box can be mounted on the battery holder, the degree of freedom in the mounting direction and the mounting position of the battery box with respect to the vehicle body can be increased, and the design and models of the electric bicycle can be diversified.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, a plurality of discharge terminal mounting portions are formed on the battery box, and the discharge terminal is mounted on one of the plurality of discharge terminal mounting portions. It can be easily handled by replacing one discharge terminal with another mounting portion as it is.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the battery box lock mechanism can be operated from at least two different directions, so that the battery box lock mechanism is always operated with good operability even when the mounting direction of the battery box is changed. be able to.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a side view of an electric bicycle showing an example in which a battery box is placed horizontally, and a schematic configuration of the electric bicycle will be described below with reference to this drawing.

An electric bicycle 1 shown in FIG. 1 is an auxiliary power type electric bicycle which travels by receiving an auxiliary power corresponding to the stepping force of an occupant. The electric bicycle 1 has a head pipe 2 at an upper front part of a vehicle body. , The steering shaft 3 is rotatably inserted. A steering wheel 4 is attached to an upper end of the steering shaft 3, and a front fork 5 is attached to a lower end of the steering shaft 3. A front wheel 6 is rotatable at a lower end of the front fork 5. It is pivoted.

A top tube 7 extends substantially horizontally from the head pipe 2 toward the rear of the vehicle (to the right in FIG. 1), and a down tube 8 is inclined obliquely downward toward the rear of the vehicle. A seat tube 9 erected diagonally upward toward the rear of the vehicle body is attached to these rear ends.

Further, a power unit 10 is attached to the down tube 8 and the seat tube 9 via a sheet metal bracket 11 substantially at the lower center of the vehicle body. The power unit 10 is configured by arranging a human-powered drive system based on the pedaling force of an occupant and an auxiliary power system by an electric motor 12 in parallel, and a crankshaft 13 is rotatably supported. Cranks 14 are attached, and a pedal 15 is rotatably supported at an end of each crank 14. In FIG. 1, 16 is a controller included in the auxiliary power system, and 17 is the top tube 7.
This is the main switch fixed above.

A pair of left and right brackets 18 are attached to the power unit 10, and each bracket 18 is attached to each front end of a pair of left and right chain stays 19 extending substantially horizontally in the front-rear direction. .
A bracket 20 is provided at the rear end of each chain stay 19.
The rear wheels 21 are attached to the left and right brackets 20.
Are rotatably supported.

Further, the bracket 20 and the intermediate portion of the seat tube 9 are connected by a pair of left and right seat stays 22, and a rear carrier 23 is attached to the seat stay 22 and the bracket 20.

By the way, in the electric bicycle 1 according to the present embodiment, a battery holder 25 is fixed to a rear portion of the seat tube 9 below the seat 24, and a battery box 26 is mounted on the battery holder 25. The battery box 26 is detachably mounted in a horizontal state (a state where a surface (a surface S6 to be described later) of the substantially rectangular parallelepiped battery box 26 having a large area is supported by the battery holder 25).

As an example of mounting the battery box 26 in a horizontal state, a battery holder 25 is fixed substantially horizontally on the rear carrier 23 as shown by a chain line in FIG. Battery box 2
A configuration is conceivable in which 6 is detachably mounted.

Here, the configuration of the battery box 26 will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 2 is a front view of the battery box, FIG. 3 is a rear view of the battery box, FIG. 4 is a view in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 2, FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along line BB of FIG. 2 is a view in the direction of arrow C in FIG. 2, and FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along line DD in FIG.

The battery box 26 has a two-part structure as shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 5, a Ni-Cd battery 28 composed of a plurality of shrink-packed single cells 27 is housed in the inside of a substantially rectangular box having S6.

A projection 26a is integrally formed on the upper surface S1 of the battery box 26, and a charging terminal 29 is provided inside the projection 26a as shown in FIGS. A handle 30 is pivotally attached to the projection 26a so as to be able to stand up as shown by a chain line in FIGS. 2 and 4. When the handle 30 is in the housed state as shown in FIGS. The charging terminal 29 is covered and protected. When the battery box 26 is removed from the battery holder 25 and transported, the handle 30 is erected as shown by a chain line in FIGS.

On the other hand, mounting portions 31 and 32 having exactly the same (same structure and same dimensions) are integrally formed on the side surface S3 of the battery box 26 and the surface S6 having a large area. Each of the mounting portions 31 and 32 has a substantially rectangular frame shape with a portion cut out, and engaging ribs 31a and 32a that are bent inward are integrally formed with the mounting portions 31 and 32.
The hooks 47 (see FIG. 8) of a battery box lock mechanism 43, which will be described later, provided on the battery holder 25 are provided at the center in the width direction at one end of the surfaces S3 and S6 where the mounting portions 31, 32 of the battery box 26 are formed. (See FIG. 2) are integrally formed so as to face the openings of the mounting portions 31 and 32, respectively. 2, a rectangular design portion 26e having a plurality of vertical protrusions 26d is formed on the surface S5 of the battery box 26. As shown in FIG.

Further, as shown in FIG. 6, two rectangular openings 33 and 34 having the same shape and the same size are formed in a portion of the surface S2 of the battery box 26 near the mounting portions 31 and 32.

By the way, FIG.
The terminal unit 35 is provided inside the battery box 26, and the terminal unit 35 is provided at two different mounting portions in the battery box 26. By changing the mounting position of the terminal unit 35, the terminal unit 35 is mounted. The three receptacles 36 provided in the openings 33, 34
To any of the above. As shown in FIG. 7, three lead wires 37, 38, and 39 for the positive and negative poles and the fuse are connected to the terminal unit 35.

When the battery box 26 is placed horizontally with respect to the battery holder 25 as shown in FIG. 1, the terminal unit 35 is mounted in the battery box 36 as shown in FIG. To one opening 34 (see FIG. 6), and the other opening 33 is used as a drain hole.

Next, the configuration of the battery holder 25 will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 8 is a plan view of the battery holder, FIG. 9 is a side view of the battery holder, and FIG. 10 is a view in the direction of arrow E in FIG.

As shown, the battery holder 25 is
This is a resin molded product having a divided structure, which has a flat portion 25A and a stopper portion 25B which stands vertically and integrally from one end of the flat portion 25A. A pair of left and right guide portions 40 are provided on the upper surface of the flat portion 25A of the battery holder 25 so as to project in parallel with each other in the length direction, and an engagement rib 40a is formed on an outer edge of each guide portion 40. ing.

On the other hand, three plate-shaped receptacles 41 are provided on the inner end surface of the stopper portion 25B formed on the battery holder 25 so as to project horizontally in the width direction. Via the power unit 10 shown in FIG.

The stopper 25 of the battery holder 25
B, a battery box lock mechanism (hereinafter simply referred to as a lock mechanism) 43 for locking the battery box 26 mounted on the battery holder 25 is provided. 44
Are key holes 45 on both left and right end faces (only one is shown in FIG. 9)
The key 46 can be inserted into the key hole from either the left or right side and can be turned. By turning the key 46, the hook 47 (see FIG. 8) is rotated, and the battery of the battery box 26 is The fixed lock on the holder 25 can be released.

The battery holder 2 configured as described above
5 is fixed to the seat tube 9 or the rear carrier 23 as shown in FIG. 1 by two bolts 48 (see FIG. 8) inserted into the flat portion 25A.

When the battery box 26 is mounted horizontally on the battery holder 25 as shown in FIG. 1, as shown in FIGS. 8 to 10, the surface S2 is first and the surface S6 is Mounting part 3 formed on the surface S6 with
2 into the battery holder 25 (see FIG. 3).
The battery box 26 may be moved to the left in FIGS. Then, the surface S2 of the battery box 26
The receptacle 36 facing the opening 34 (see FIG. 6) formed in the battery box 25 is connected to the receptacle 41 on the battery holder 25 side, and the engaging projection 26c protruding from the surface S6 of the battery box 26 is connected to the hook 47 of the lock mechanism 43. (See FIG. 8) When the hook 47 is engaged with the engagement projection 26c at the time when the vehicle is over, the lock mechanism 43 is turned on, and the mounting of the battery box 26 to the battery holder 25 is completed. Receptacle 36 of battery box 26
1 is connected to the receptacle 41 on the battery holder 25 side, and the power unit 1 shown in FIG.
0 can be supplied.

When the battery box 26 is mounted horizontally on the battery holder 25, the design portion 26e (see FIG. 2) formed on the surface S5 is
6, the unused mounting portion 31 formed on the surface S3 of the battery box 26 has the configuration shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 7, a design plate 49 having the same design as the design portion 26e is inserted, and the unused mounting portion 31 is covered with the design plate 49 to prevent the appearance of the battery box 26 from being deteriorated. It is devised as follows.

In this embodiment, since the mounting portions 31, 32 having the same structure and the same dimensions are provided on the two different surfaces S3, S6 of the battery box 26, as shown in FIG. It can also be stored in a triangular space surrounded by the top tube 7, the down tube 8, and the seat tube 9. In this case, the mounting position of the terminal unit 35 is changed as shown in FIG. 13, and the receptacle 36 is used as a drain hole when the battery box 26 is placed horizontally as shown in FIG. The opening 34 is used as a drain hole. In this case, the battery holder 25 is fixed to the down tube 8 as shown in FIG.

When the battery box 26 is to be mounted vertically on the battery holder 25 as shown in FIG. 11, the surface S2 is first placed, and the surface S3 is turned down as shown in FIG. The battery box 26 may be moved along the battery holder 25 by engaging the engagement rib 31a of the mounting portion 31 formed in S3 with the engagement rib 40a of the guide portion 40 formed on the battery holder 25. .
Then, the battery box 26 can be mounted on the battery holder 25 in the same manner as in the case of the horizontal installation described above. At this time, the receptacle 36 of the battery box 26 is connected to the receptacle 41 on the battery holder 25 side, and The stored Ni-Cd battery 28
Power supply to the power unit 10 shown in FIG. 11 can be performed from (see FIG. 5). In this case, the design portion 26 of the surface S5
e (see FIG. 2) is located on the left side surface of the battery box 26, and the unused mounting portion 32 formed on the surface (right side surface in the mounted state) S6 of the battery box 26 is shown in FIG. As shown, a design plate 49 having the same design as the design portion 26e is inserted, and the unused mounting portion 32 is covered with the design plate 49 so that the appearance of the battery box 26 is prevented from deteriorating. It is devised.

As described above, in this embodiment, the mounting portions 31 and 32 having the same structure are provided on the two different surfaces S3 and S6 of the substantially rectangular parallelepiped battery box 26.
2 allows the battery box 26 to be mounted on the battery holder 25 fixed to the vehicle body, so that the battery box 26 can be mounted horizontally on the battery holder 25 as shown in FIG. As shown in (1), the battery can be mounted vertically on the battery holder 25, the degree of freedom in the mounting direction (mounting posture) and the mounting position (installation position) is increased, and the design and model of the electric bicycle 1 are changed. Diversification can be achieved.

In the present embodiment, two mounting portions for the terminal unit 35 are formed on the battery box 26, and the mounting portion is selected according to the mounting direction (horizontal or vertical) of the battery box 26. Terminal unit 35
Therefore, when the mounting direction of the battery box 26 is changed, the single terminal unit 35 can be easily replaced with another mounting portion without any change.

Further, in this embodiment, since the key holes 45 are provided on both end surfaces of the cylinder 44 of the lock mechanism 43, the lock mechanism 43 can be operated (key operation) from either left or right direction. Even if the mounting direction of the lock 26 is changed, the lock mechanism 43 can always be operated with good operability.

In this embodiment, the battery mounting structure of the auxiliary power type electric bicycle which travels by receiving the auxiliary power according to the pedaling force has been described. However, the present invention is applied to the battery mounting structure of the self-propelled electric bicycle. Of course, the same can be applied to this.

[0040]

As is apparent from the above description, claim 1
According to the invention described above, a mounting portion having the same structure is provided on at least two outer surfaces of a battery box having a polyhedral structure, and the battery box can be mounted on a battery holder fixed to a vehicle body by any mounting portion. Therefore, the degree of freedom of the mounting direction and the mounting position of the battery box with respect to the vehicle body is increased, and the effect that the design and the model of the electric bicycle can be diversified can be obtained.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, a plurality of discharge terminal mounting portions are formed on the battery box, and the discharge terminal is mounted on one of the portions. By replacing one discharge terminal with another mounting portion as it is, it is possible to easily cope with the problem.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the battery box lock mechanism is configured to be operated from at least two different directions, the battery box lock mechanism is always operated with good operability even when the mounting direction of the battery box is changed. The effect that it can be obtained is obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of an electric bicycle showing an example in which a battery box is placed horizontally.

FIG. 2 is a front view of a battery box.

FIG. 3 is a rear view of the battery box.

4 is a view in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along line BB of FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a view in the direction of arrow C in FIG. 2;

FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along line DD of FIG. 2;

FIG. 8 is a plan view of a battery holder.

FIG. 9 is a side view of the battery holder.

FIG. 10 is a view in the direction of arrow E in FIG. 8;

FIG. 11 is a side view of the electric bicycle showing an example in which the battery box is placed horizontally.

FIG. 12 is a front view of a vertically placed battery box.

FIG. 13 is a cross-sectional view of the battery box placed vertically.

FIG. 14 is a front view of a battery holder showing a mounted state of a vertically placed battery box.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Electric bicycle 12 Electric motor 25 Battery holder 26 Battery box 28 Battery 31, 32 Mounting part 35 Terminal unit 36, 41 Receptacle (discharge terminal) 43 Battery box lock mechanism S1-S6 Outer surface of battery box

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A battery box having a polyhedral structure is detachably mounted on a battery holder fixed to a vehicle body,
An electric bicycle that runs by receiving a driving force from an electric motor driven by a battery housed in the battery box as a power source, wherein at least two outer surfaces of the battery box are provided with mounting portions having the same structure. A battery box mounting structure for an electric bicycle, wherein a battery box can be mounted on the battery holder by a mounting portion. 2. The battery box mounting structure for an electric bicycle according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of discharge terminal mounting portions are formed on the battery box, and the discharge terminal is mounted on one of the mounting portions. 3. The battery box lock mechanism provided on the battery holder is provided with a plurality of operation sections, and the battery box lock mechanism can be operated from at least two different directions. Battery mounting structure for electric bicycle.