JP2823613B2 - Cylindrical sodium-sulfur battery stack - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a cylinder in which one or two or more cylindrical sodium-sulfur batteries having a positive electrode or a negative electrode terminal on the top and bottom surfaces are connected in series. It concerns the structure of the mold stack.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, a collective sodium-sulfur battery device is usually provided as a large-capacity sodium-sulfur battery device by connecting a number of cells in series or in parallel as shown in FIG. Have been. By the way, sodium-sulfur battery 30
A battery that operates by melting the active material at a high temperature of 0 to 350 ° C. The solid electrolyte, metal and ceramics (solid And a battery of a type that is liable to be damaged at the junction of the electrolyte. When this kind of damage occurs, sodium and sulfur react directly to generate abnormal heat, and furthermore, the battery container is destroyed, causing leakage of the active material, sodium sulfide, sulfur, and sulfide, resulting in corrosion. Due to the nature, in the conventional apparatus shown in FIG. 4, even the other sodium-sulfur battery and the container containing the battery are exposed to the danger of destruction. In addition, when these leaked active materials touch a frame or the like fixing the stack, a ground fault may occur. Therefore, various measures have been conventionally taken to minimize the direct reaction between sodium and sulfur when the solid electrolyte of the battery is broken and to prevent the battery container from being broken (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 59-155792).
See the description in Japanese Patent Publication No. ).

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, even with such a devised battery, once the battery container is destroyed, the danger of corrosion spreads to the peripheral batteries and peripheral members, and the leaked activity is also reduced. There is a problem in safely operating a collective sodium-sulfur battery because a ground fault may occur depending on the substance.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In view of the above problems, the present invention prevents the influence of the active material from leaking due to breakage of a battery container to the entire battery device, and simultaneously assembling and connecting batteries. It was made by improving the method to save space and assembling, simplifying disassembly, having a positive electrode terminal or a negative electrode terminal on the top surface with a cylindrical shape,
One sodium-sulfur battery with its counter electrode terminal on the bottom
Or two or more pieces are connected in series and housed in a cylinder, and a connection member is provided at the upper end of the cylinder for conductive connection with a terminal on the upper surface of the battery housed in the cylinder. Is a cylindrical sodium-sulfur battery stack provided with a connection member that is conductively connected to a terminal on the bottom surface of a battery housed in a cylinder through a center hole of a bottom lid that seals a lower portion of the cylinder. Has a flange portion,
A cylinder fixed to the bottom lid via a sealing material at the flange portion, and a side surface between the connection member and the battery bottom surface, the side surface of which is closely fixed to a circumferential portion of the flange portion of the connection member. A bolt for electrically connecting to a terminal on the bottom surface of the battery is screwed into a center of a connection member on a bottom surface of the cylindrical space portion.

EXAMPLES Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the illustrated stack structure of a sodium-sulfur battery as an example.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a main part of a sodium-sulfur battery stack of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a lower portion of FIG. 1, and FIG. FIG.

In this figure, reference numeral (19) denotes a cylinder (4) in which a cylindrical sodium-sulfur battery (1) having a positive electrode terminal or a negative electrode terminal (2) and (3) on the top and bottom surfaces is connected in series.
Is a cylindrical sodium-sulfur battery stack housed in a battery. At the upper end of the stack (19), there is provided a connecting member (5) for conducting connection with the terminal (2) on the upper surface of the sodium-sulfur battery (1) housed in the cylinder (4). At the lower end of (19) is a terminal on the bottom (3)
A connection member (6) electrically conductively connected to the stack is provided at the center hole (10) of the bottom cover (11) for sealing the cylinder (4) so as to pass through the inside and outside of the stack.

The connecting member (6) is made of a conductive metal such as copper, stainless steel, beryllium copper, copper or aluminum which is hardly corroded. An alumina cylinder is adhered to the circumferential portion of the flange portion (9) to form a cylindrical space portion (14) between the cylindrical portion and the bottom surface of the battery. A conductive connecting line (8) for connecting the battery bottom terminal (3) and the connecting member (6) is provided in the cylindrical space (14), and the conductive connecting line (8) is connected to the connecting member (6). ) Is fixed by bolts (15). Here, at least one of the conductive connection line (8) between the terminal (3) on the bottom surface of the battery and the connection member (6) and the conductive connection line (7) between the terminal (2) and the connection member (5) on the top surface of the battery is connected to a thermal fuse. It is preferable to provide a member for protecting the battery, such as a battery, a current fuse, and a bimetal. The central hole (10) of the bottom cover and the portion penetrating the central hole (10) of the connecting member (6) are provided with a large number so that the connecting member (6) does not rotate around when tightening the bolt. It may be formed in a square (for example, a hexagon). Further connecting members (6)
Is fixed to a bottom lid (11) via a sealing material (12) at a flange portion (9) of the bottom lid (11) through which a connecting member (6) penetrates the sealing material (12). Center hole (1
Graseal (natural graphite sheet) is used to prevent the active material from leaking out of the stack from 0). The sealing effect is further improved if the sealing material is double-glazed (16) and a thin plate (17) made of stainless steel is interposed between the seals. In this embodiment, alumina having excellent corrosion resistance to active materials (sodium, sulfur, sulfide) and good electrical insulation was used for the cylinder (4) and the bottom cover (11). May be used. It is necessary to completely seal the bonding portion (18) between the cylinder (4) and the bottom lid (11) by glass bonding or the like so that the active material does not leak out of the stack.

The cylindrical sodium-sulfur battery stack (19) formed in this way is arranged in a large number as shown in the top view of FIG. 3 so as to be in the most effective space arrangement, and beryllium disposed in the gap therebetween. Adjacent stacks are conductively connected by connection conductors (20) made of a material having good thermal conductivity such as copper, copper, and aluminum. That is, the lower end of the connection conductor (20) is conductively connected to the threaded portion of the connection member (6) penetrating the outside of the stack through the center hole (10) of the bottom lid (11) by the nut (21) and tightened and fixed. And the connecting conductor (2
The upper end of (0) is a connection fitting (23) detachable from the connection member (5) at the upper part of the stack adjacent to the stack with the lower end fixed,
(24) is fixed through. In this figure, a connection fitting (23) is screwed into a threaded portion formed at the upper end of the connection conductor (20), and nuts are screwed onto the upper and lower surfaces thereof.
0) and the connecting metal (23) are fixed so that the height can be adjusted. Further, the connecting metal (23) and the connecting member (5) at the upper end of the stack (19) are provided with a connecting metal (24). Both ends of the connection fitting (24) are fixed by bolting. The connection fittings (23) and (24) may be integrally formed, and the material of the connection fitting is preferably a metal having a small electric resistance such as beryllium copper, copper, or aluminum similarly to the connection conductor (20).

(Effect) When the battery container in the stack is damaged and the active materials such as sodium, sulfur, and sulfide leak, the active material that has flowed out is connected to the battery bottom surface and the connecting member (6). ) And a cylindrical space (1) formed by a cylinder (13)
4) In addition, the connecting member (6) and the bottom cover (11)
Is completely sealed by the sealing material (12), so that the active material leaks out of the stack (19) from the center hole (10) of the bottom lid (11) penetrating the connecting member (6). Never.

(Effect of the Invention) As described above, the cylindrical sodium-
In the sulfur battery stack, even if the battery container inside the stack is damaged and the active material flows out, the active material stays in the stack and does not leak out of the stack. There is no danger of corrosion, and the failure of some batteries does not affect the entire battery device. Further, there is no possibility of causing a ground fault accident or a short circuit accident.

Further, since the stack (19) of the present invention is constructed by serially connecting several sodium-sulfur batteries and storing them in the cylinder (4), the connection is simple and reliable.
Further, space can be used more effectively than a conventional battery (see FIG. 4) in which a plurality of batteries are connected side by side.

The connection between the terminal (3) on the bottom surface of the lowermost battery and the connection member (6) is made via a conductive connection wire (8).
The assembly and disassembly of the stack can be easily performed because the operation is performed according to 5).

As described above, the present invention greatly contributes to industrial development as a cylindrical sodium-sulfur battery stack that has eliminated the conventional problems.

[Brief description of the drawings]

1 is a sectional view of an essential part showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a lower part of FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is a top view of an essential part when a stack of the present invention is assembled, FIG. Is a diagram showing a conventional example. (1): sodium-sulfur battery, (2): positive terminal or negative terminal, (3): negative terminal or positive terminal,
(4): cylindrical, (5): connecting member, (6): connecting member,
(9): flange, (10): center hole, (11): bottom lid,
(12): Sealing material, (13): cylindrical, (14): cylindrical space, (15): bolt, (16): glass seal, (1
7): stainless steel sheet, (18): bonded part, (19): cylindrical sodium-sulfur battery stack, (20): connecting conductor.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. One or more sodium-sulfur batteries (1) having a positive electrode terminal or a negative electrode terminal (2) on a top surface and a counter electrode terminal (3) on a bottom surface are connected in series. The battery is housed in a cylinder (4), and a connection member (5) is provided at the upper end of the cylinder to electrically connect with a terminal (2) on the upper surface of the battery housed in the cylinder (4). At the lower end of 4), a connecting member 6 electrically connected to the terminal 3 on the bottom of the battery housed in the cylinder is passed through the center hole 10 of the bottom lid 11 sealing the lower part of the cylinder. In the cylindrical sodium-sulfur battery stack (19) provided as above, the connecting member (6) at the lower end of the cylinder (4) has a flange portion (9), and the sealing material ( 12) and is fixed to the bottom cover (11) via the connection member (6) and the bottom surface of the battery. A cylindrical space portion (14), which is a cylinder (13) whose side surface is closely fixed to the circumferential portion of the flange portion (9) of the connecting member (6), is formed between the cylindrical space portions (14). 14. A cylindrical sodium-sulfur battery stack, wherein a bolt (15) for electrically connecting to the terminal (3) on the battery bottom surface is screwed into the center of the connection member (6) on the bottom surface of 14).