CN113386589A

CN113386589A - Upper guard for electric vehicle battery

Info

Publication number: CN113386589A
Application number: CN202010164272.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 魏志强; A·罗赞科维奇
Original assignee: BMW Brilliance Automotive Ltd
Current assignee: BMW Brilliance Automotive Ltd
Priority date: 2020-03-11
Filing date: 2020-03-11
Publication date: 2021-09-14

Abstract

The present invention relates to an upper guard for an electric vehicle battery, characterized in that the upper guard is formed by hot-pressing mica, which includes one or more layers of mica paper, with an aluminum sheet, which includes one or more layers of aluminum foil, together with the mica, so that a layered structure formed of mica and the aluminum sheet is finally formed.

Description

Upper guard for electric vehicle battery

Technical Field

The present invention relates to an upper guard for an electric vehicle battery, and more particularly, to an upper guard formed by hot-pressing an aluminum sheet with mica paper.

Background

An electric vehicle is a vehicle having an electric motor as one of the drive systems and all or part of the power source provided by a rechargeable battery, such as a lead-acid battery, a nickel-cadmium battery, a nickel-hydrogen battery, or a lithium-ion battery. The main power system of the electric automobile consists of a power battery and a driving motor.

Safety of electric vehicles has been a major concern, and there are many regulations for safety of electric vehicles in different countries and regions, and for batteries of electric vehicles, for example, fire, explosion, and the like are required not to be transmitted from the battery to the outside, that is, from the battery to the inside of the vehicle within 5 minutes of thermal runaway. A heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant protector is generally disposed between the battery and the battery case or the case cover to prevent a fire or explosion from being transmitted to the outside of the battery after the battery is out of control while protecting the battery during normal operation of the electric vehicle.

Since the protection member is provided between the battery and the battery case or the case cover, it is generally necessary to attach the protection member to the battery case or the case cover, particularly for the connection between the protection member and the case cover, and it is desirable to be able to make the connection therebetween in a structurally simple but effective manner.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention proposes an upper guard for an electric vehicle battery for connection with a case lid, which can be designed to be simple in structure and small in volume while still being well attached to the case lid.

The present invention relates to an upper guard for an electric vehicle battery, which is formed by hot-pressing mica, including one or more layers of mica paper, with an aluminum sheet, including one or more layers of aluminum foil, together with an aluminum sheet, so that a layered structure formed of mica and the aluminum sheet is finally formed.

According to one or more embodiments of the invention, where the mica comprises multiple layers of mica paper, the one or more layers of mica paper are pre-placed with an adhesive therebetween prior to hot pressing.

According to one or more embodiments of the present invention, in the case where the aluminum sheet includes a plurality of aluminum foils, an adhesive is previously provided between the plurality of aluminum foils before hot pressing.

According to one or more embodiments of the present invention, an adhesive is previously provided between the mica and the aluminum sheet before the hot pressing.

According to one or more embodiments of the present invention, the upper guard can be attached to the case cover by applying an adhesive on a layer of aluminum sheet formed of an aluminum sheet, with the layer of aluminum sheet being located between the case cover and a layer of mica formed of the mica, the case cover and the battery case cooperating to accommodate the electric vehicle battery therein.

According to one or more embodiments of the invention, the upper guard is shaped to be able to fit to the case lid.

According to one or more embodiments of the invention, the upper guard is provided with a first section, a second section and an intermediate section connecting the first and second sections, wherein the intermediate section has a width smaller than the width of the first and second sections, such that a notch is formed in the upper guard between the first and second sections.

According to one or more embodiments of the invention, the first and second sections are shaped as generally zigzag-shaped plates, the first and second sections being generally zigzag-shaped in side view and the first and second sections being plate-shaped in top or bottom view.

According to one or more embodiments of the invention, the invention relates to a method for manufacturing an upper guard for an electric vehicle battery, characterized in that it comprises the following steps:

the providing step: providing mica having one or more layers of mica paper and an aluminum sheet having one or more layers of aluminum foil;

a stacking step: stacking mica and aluminum sheets together;

hot pressing: the mica and the aluminum sheet stacked together are hot-pressed to form a layered structure formed of the mica and the aluminum sheet.

According to one or more embodiments of the present invention, in the case of multiple layers of mica paper and/or multiple layers of aluminum foil, the providing step further comprises providing an adhesive between the multiple layers of mica paper; and/or providing an adhesive between the layers of aluminum foil.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is an exploded view of a protective assembly for an electric vehicle battery, and a battery box according to the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a battery case for accommodating a battery of an electric vehicle and a case cover for closing the battery case according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a lower guard of the guard assembly for an electric vehicle battery according to the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a lower guard of the guard assembly for an electric vehicle battery according to the present invention;

fig. 5 is a perspective view of an upper guard of the guard assembly for an electric vehicle battery according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an exploded view of an upper guard for an electric vehicle battery according to the present invention;

Detailed Description

The present disclosure will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate several embodiments of the disclosure. It should be understood, however, that the present disclosure may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, the embodiments described below are intended to provide a more complete disclosure of the present disclosure, and to fully convey the scope of the disclosure to those skilled in the art. It is also to be understood that the embodiments disclosed herein can be combined in various ways to provide further additional embodiments.

It should be understood that like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout the several views. In the drawings, the size of some of the features may be varied for clarity.

It is to be understood that the terminology used in the description is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only, and is not intended to be limiting of the disclosure. All terms (including technical and scientific terms) used in the specification have the meaning commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art unless otherwise defined. Well-known functions or constructions may not be described in detail for brevity and/or clarity.

As used in this specification, the singular forms "a", "an" and "the" include plural referents unless the content clearly dictates otherwise. The terms "comprising," "including," and "containing" when used in this specification specify the presence of stated features, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features. The term "and/or" as used in this specification includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. The terms "between X and Y" and "between about X and Y" as used in the specification should be construed to include X and Y. The term "between about X and Y" as used herein means "between about X and about Y" and the term "from about X to Y" as used herein means "from about X to about Y".

In the description, when an element is referred to as being "on," "attached" to, "connected" to, "coupled" to, or "contacting" another element, etc., another element may be directly on, attached to, connected to, coupled to, or contacting the other element, or intervening elements may be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being "directly on," "directly attached to," directly connected to, "directly coupled to," or "directly contacting" another element, there are no intervening elements present. In the description, one feature is disposed "adjacent" another feature, and may mean that one feature has a portion overlapping with or above or below an adjacent feature.

In the specification, spatial relations such as "up", "down", "left", "right", "front", "rear", "high", "low", and the like may explain the relation of one feature to another feature in the drawings. It will be understood that the spatial relationship terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. For example, features originally described as "below" other features may be described as "above" other features when the device in the figures is inverted. The device may also be otherwise oriented (rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the relative spatial relationships may be interpreted accordingly.

Fig. 1 shows an exploded view of a battery case 10, a sheathing assembly 20 for an electric vehicle battery, an electric vehicle battery 30, and a case cover 40 according to the present invention. As can be seen in fig. 1, the guard assembly 20 includes a lower guard 21 and an upper guard 25. When assembled, the upper guard 25, the electric vehicle battery 30, the lower guard 21, and the battery case 10 are disposed in this order from the top down. The battery box is used to accommodate an electric vehicle battery that is sandwiched between the lower guard 21 and the upper guard 25 in the up-down direction so that the guard assembly can protect the battery and the electric vehicle. The protection assembly can prevent the battery from being damaged or the like due to direct transmission of the vehicle body bumping or bumping, and can prevent the battery from being damaged or the like due to direct transmission of the bumping or bumping to the battery, and in addition, when the battery itself is ignited or exploded due to thermal runaway, for example, the protection assembly can prevent the ignition or explosion from being transmitted to the outside of the battery within a certain time (for example, 5min), so as to cause damage to other parts of the electric vehicle, and the structure of the battery box and the protection assembly will be described in detail below.

Fig. 2 shows a perspective view of a battery case 10 and a case cover 40 for accommodating a battery of an electric vehicle according to the present invention. In fig. 2 the battery case is formed to have two housing parts, in the present embodiment two housing parts 11 are provided to be identical, and only one housing part will be described below, and the description of the other housing part will be omitted. Further, it should be understood that the number of the receiving portions is not limited to two, but may be specifically set according to the layout of the automobile battery. A bridge 12 is provided between the two receptacles 11.

The receiving part 11 is formed in a substantially rectangular parallelepiped form because the battery is generally provided in a rectangular parallelepiped form, and thus the design can maximize the use of space and reduce the overall volume of the battery case. The receiving portion 11 has a bottom 111 and four walls extending substantially vertically from the bottom to form a space for receiving the battery, and three bosses 112 are provided on the right wall along the right side, and holes 113, which may be through holes or screw holes, are opened on the bosses, respectively, for connection between the battery case and other components. Similar bosses and holes may also be provided on the left wall on the left side.

The case cover 40 has a left side section 401, a right side section 402 corresponding to the two receiving portions 11, respectively, and a middle section 403 connected between the left side section 401 and the right side section 402, and the width of the middle section 403 is smaller than the widths of the left side section 401 and the right side section 402, and therefore, a notch 404 corresponding to the bridge portion 12 of the battery case and for passing the bridge portion is formed in the case cover 40. The left side section 401 and the right side section 402 are formed in a substantially zigzag plate shape, zigzag in a side view, and flat in a pitch view, with smooth transition at the zigzag transition.

The shield assembly of the present invention will be described below. In order to prevent the spread of fire and explosion to the outside upon the thermal runaway of the battery, the sheathing assembly needs to be made of a material that can withstand high temperature and corrosion and has certain strength. In the present invention, the material is provided as mica. Mica has a higher melting point, is electrically insulating and corrosion resistant, and therefore can better protect the battery. In the invention, the protective component is formed by hot-pressing a plurality of pieces of mica paper together, and the formation has the advantages that compared with a whole piece of mica, the forming performance of the mica material can be improved by hot-pressing a plurality of pieces of mica paper, and the defect of high brittleness of the mica is overcome.

Fig. 3 and 4 respectively show perspective views of the lower guard 21 of the guard assembly for an electric vehicle battery according to the present invention, viewed from both left and right directions. The lower guard 21 is used to engage with the battery case 10. The lower guard pieces 21 are provided as two separate lower guard pieces corresponding to the two receiving portions 11 of the battery case, respectively, in the present embodiment, and the structures of the two lower guard pieces are provided identically. The following description is directed to only one of the lower guard pieces, and the description of the other lower guard piece will be omitted. The lower guard 21 includes a bottom wall 22 and left and

right side walls

23, 24 extending in a generally vertical direction from the bottom wall. The bottom wall 22 is provided with a buffer 221, and when the battery is disposed on the lower guard 21, the buffer 221 is located between the battery and the bottom wall 22. The buffer member is made of an elastic material so as to be capable of making better contact with the bottom surface of the battery and creating greater frictional force, and is capable of being elastically deformed to absorb impact when, for example, collision occurs. The buffer 221 is, for example, a compression foam, which fits very well to the bottom surface of the cell. The buffers 221 are sequentially disposed on the bottom wall 22 in a front-to-rear direction, and a certain interval is provided between the respective buffers 221. In the present embodiment, four buffering members 221 are provided, but it is contemplated that the number of buffering members 221 is not limited to four, and may be correspondingly provided according to actual needs.

As shown in fig. 3, the right sidewall 24 is provided with three bosses, a first boss 241, a second boss 242, and a third boss 243, spaced apart in a rear-to-front direction in the upper portion. The first boss 241 is formed by the lower portion of the right sidewall 24 being deflected in a direction perpendicular to the extending direction of the lower portion (rightward direction) and then being deflected away from the lower portion in a direction parallel to the extending direction of the lower portion (upward direction), that is, the first boss 241 includes a vertical lower portion, a vertical upper portion, and a horizontal portion connecting the vertical lower portion and the vertical upper portion. A recess 2410 is formed in the horizontal portion. Such a shape of the first boss 241 is configured to match the shape of a corresponding boss in the battery case, so that the shape of the lower protection member 21 can conform and match the inner contour of the battery case, reducing the gap therebetween. The recess 2410 is formed to allow for the passage of screws when the battery case, battery and shield assembly are assembled. The second boss 242 and the third boss 243 are formed in a similar manner to the first boss 241, and each include a vertically lower portion, a vertically upper portion, and a horizontal portion connecting the vertically lower portion and the vertically upper portion. In addition, two recesses 2410 are also formed in the second boss 242, which are provided on the front and rear sides of the horizontal portion of the second boss 242, respectively. A recess 2410 is formed in the third boss 243 and is provided on the front side of the horizontal portion of the third boss 243. A smaller boss is formed at a substantially middle portion of an upper portion of the second boss 242. Recesses are formed between the first boss 241, the second boss 242, and the third boss 243 to space the three. As can be seen from fig. 3, a buffer member 231 similar to the buffer member 221 is also provided on the outer side of the upper portion of the left side wall 23, the buffer member 231 being disposed between the protection assembly and the battery case when the battery case, the battery, and the protection assembly are assembled together, so that the battery case and the protection assembly can be more closely fitted and absorb vibration by elastic deformation thereof.

As shown in fig. 4, the left side wall 23 is formed with a substantially continuous boss 231, and the boss 231 is formed by deflecting the lower portion of the left side wall 23 in a direction perpendicular to the extending direction of the lower portion (rightward direction) and then away from the lower portion in a direction parallel to the extending direction of the lower portion (upward direction), similarly to the first boss 241, that is, the boss 231 includes a vertical lower portion, a vertical upper portion, and a horizontal portion connecting the vertical lower portion and the vertical upper portion. Four notches 2310 are formed on the horizontal portion of the boss 231, and the notches also serve to allow screws to pass therethrough when assembling the battery case, the battery, and the sheathing assembly. As can be seen from fig. 4, a buffer member 241 similar to the buffer member 231 is also provided on the outer side of the upper portion of the right sidewall 24, the buffer member 241 being provided between the battery case, the battery and the sheathing assembly when the battery case, the battery and the sheathing assembly are assembled together, so that the battery case and the sheathing assembly can be more closely fitted and absorb vibration by elastic deformation thereof.

Fig. 5 shows a perspective view of the upper guard 25 of the guard assembly for an electric vehicle battery according to the present invention. The upper guard 25 is adapted to engage the cover 40. The upper guard 25 has a left side section 251, a right side section 252 corresponding to the two lower guards 21, respectively, and a middle section 253 connecting between the left side section 251 and the right side section 252, the middle section 253 having a width smaller than that of the left side section 251 and the right side section 252, and therefore, a notch 254 is formed in the upper guard 25, the notch 254 corresponding to the bridge 12 of the battery case and serving to pass the bridge therethrough. The left side section 251 and the right side section 252 are formed in a substantially zigzag plate shape, which is zigzag in side view, and flat in pitch view, with smooth transition at the zigzag transition.

Fig. 6 shows a perspective view of an upper shield 25 of a shield assembly for an electric vehicle battery according to the present invention, in which mica paper 26 and an aluminum sheet (e.g., aluminum foil) 27 are respectively shown. In the present invention, the upper guard 25 is formed by co-heating and pressing mica paper 26 and aluminum sheet 27, while the lower guard is mainly formed by mica stretching or drawing. This is because the lower guard can rest directly on the battery box, can be in close contact with the battery box by means of the battery and its own weight, and the contact between the battery and the lower guard is more secure by the buffer on the outer surface of the side wall of the lower guard, and since the battery box itself is used to accommodate the battery, it has a certain depth, so that various structural improvements can be made, such as through holes or bolt holes reserved on the battery box and the lower guard, which can be used to firmly connect the battery box, the battery and the lower guard as required, and such structural improvements do not result in an overall increase in volume. Since the upper guard has much less weight than the battery and the lower guard, only the weight of the case lid is directly applied to both, resulting in weak engagement. It is therefore necessary to attach tightly to the battery by means of other structures, for example by bolting or gluing or welding, etc. The bolt connection requires a stud or the like to be welded to the upper guard, and the volume of the upper guard is increased more. The adhesion is simpler and more convenient, but for the mica plate, the adhesion is poor due to the characteristics of the mica, so that the adhesion effect is poor when the adhesive is applied between the mica and the box cover, for example, the mica is easy to peel off from the layered mica after the adhesion. Therefore, in the present invention, a technique of hot-pressing mica with an aluminum sheet is adopted, and after hot-press molding, the aluminum sheet layer is located above the mica layer, at which time, the adhesive tape 255 is applied on the aluminum sheet layer, and the upper guard can be firmly attached to the case lid.

The mica paper 26 may have one or more layers, and the aluminum sheet 27 may have one or more layers, and when performing hot pressing, the one or more layers of mica paper are overlapped up and down, and then the one or more layers of aluminum sheets are overlapped on the one or more layers of mica paper, and pressure and heat are applied to the overlapped mica paper and aluminum sheet, so that the two are hot-pressed and formed together. In the hot press molding, an adhesive can be applied between one or more layers of mica paper in advance, or between one or more layers of aluminum sheets, or between mica paper and aluminum sheets, so that the bondability between mica paper and aluminum sheets is stronger. In addition, in the present embodiment, the thickness of each layer of the mica paper may be 0.08mm, and the thickness of the aluminum foil may be about 0.15 mm.

The upper guard formed by co-hot pressing the mica paper and the aluminum sheet according to the present invention can bond the upper guard to the case cover using an adhesive (e.g., a double-sided tape), and has a simple structure and a small volume, while the bonding force is strong enough, so that the overall volume of the battery case for accommodating the battery, the case cover, the battery and the guard after assembly can be finally reduced. Another advantage of the upper protection member formed by co-hot pressing mica paper and aluminum sheet is that by setting the shape of the mold during hot pressing, the upper protection member can be easily hot pressed to fit the inner contour of the case cover, reducing the gap between the two, and also reducing the volume on the one hand, and preventing fire or explosion from being transmitted to the outside of the battery through the gap when the battery is out of thermal control. Another advantage of using an aluminum sheet as the heat press with mica is that the aluminum sheet is excellent in corrosion resistance, moldability, so that the cost is low, and since many parts of the vehicle body, such as the battery case and the case lid, are also made of an aluminum alloy, the aluminum sheet layer and the case lid can be very easily and firmly bonded together after applying the adhesive tape on the aluminum sheet layer.

Although exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure have been described, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made to the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure without substantially departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Accordingly, all changes and modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the present disclosure as defined in the appended claims. The disclosure is defined by the following claims, with equivalents of the claims to be included therein.

Claims

1. An upper guard for an electric vehicle battery, comprising mica having one or more layers of mica paper and an aluminum sheet having one or more layers of aluminum foil, the mica and aluminum sheet being hot pressed together to form a layered structure of mica and aluminum sheet.

2. The upper guard for an electric vehicle battery as set forth in claim 1, wherein in the case where the mica comprises multiple layers of mica paper, an adhesive is disposed between the multiple layers of mica paper.

3. The upper guard for an electric vehicle battery as set forth in claim 1, wherein in the case where the aluminum sheet includes a plurality of layers of aluminum foil, an adhesive is disposed between the plurality of layers of aluminum foil.

4. The upper guard for electric vehicle batteries according to claim 1, characterized in that an adhesive is previously provided between said mica and said aluminum sheet.

5. The upper guard for an electric vehicle battery as set forth in claim 1, wherein the upper guard is attachable to a case lid by applying an adhesive on a layer of aluminum sheet formed of aluminum sheet with the layer of aluminum sheet between the case lid and a layer of mica formed of the mica, the case lid and battery case cooperating to accommodate the electric vehicle battery therein.

6. The upper guard for an electric vehicle battery as claimed in claim 1, wherein the upper guard is shaped to fit to the box cover.

7. The upper guard for an electric vehicle battery as claimed in claim 1, wherein the upper guard is provided with a first section, a second section and an intermediate section connecting the first section and the second section, wherein the intermediate section has a width smaller than the width of the first section and the second section such that a notch is formed in the upper guard between the first section and the second section.

8. The upper guard for an electric vehicle battery as in claim 7, wherein the first and second sections are shaped as generally zigzag plates, the first and second sections being generally zigzag when viewed from side, the first and second sections being plate-like when viewed from top or bottom.

9. A method for manufacturing an upper guard for an electric vehicle battery, the method comprising the steps of:

a stacking step: stacking mica and aluminum sheets together;

10. The method of claim 9, wherein, in the case of multiple layers of mica paper and/or multiple layers of aluminum foil, the providing step further comprises providing an adhesive between the multiple layers of mica paper; and/or providing an adhesive between the layers of aluminum foil.