MATING APPARATUS FOR BATTERY TERMINALS IN AN ELECTRIC VEHICLE

FIELD OF INVENTION

[0001] The present invention relates to an electric vehicle and more particularly to an improved battery case and panel board structure for facilitating easy charging and replacement of individual batteries.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

[0002] Conventional electric vehicles have co-located batteries interconnected by wires. These set of batteries are assembled to the slid-able frame assembly, which requires separate material handling devices to dismantle the assembly for charging, discharging and for replacement.

[0003] Indian granted patent IN224219 discloses an electrically operated automotive vehicle wherein a battery pack having co-located and interconnected batteries, is slidably connected with the vehicle chassis and a manually operable lever clamps the battery pack to the vehicle chassis. The user can operate the lever to disengage the battery pack, disconnect an electrical connection and slide the battery pack out of the vehicle. Ancillary lifting equipment is required to lift the discharged battery pack and replace with fully charged battery pack.

[0004] Although the system enables the user to extend the vehicle driving range in a given day, the requirement of ancillary lifting equipment makes replacement tedious. It will further be beneficial if individual batteries can be slid, installed and removed by some sliding mechanism on which individual batteries can be slid for installing and removing of the batteries. The interconnection of the batteries and the panel board through use of wires increases the risks of loose connection and also number of hanging parts and size of wire harness is increased.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0005] It is an objective of this invention to provide a new and improved battery terminal with two numbers of three pin female receptacles, which increases the ease of installing, discharging, charging, and replacing of the said batteries into and from the panel board. The panel board has plurality of such three-pin male receptacles. The individual conducting pins of these male receptacles on the panel board are welded to a conducting strip, which in turn are fastened to a common vertical copper plate called "bus bar" by means of a conducting fastener. This bus bar is common for batteries arranged in a single vertical column. Hence, the batteries installed in a vertical line connected through these vertical receptacles are in parallel.

[0006] Each battery consists of two receptacles which are turned opposite with respect to each other. When the battery is turned upside down, the same bus bar connects the batteries and it can be used for charging the battery.

[0007] A further objective of this invention is to provide the new and improved method of connecting the battery terminals in series or parallel by using bus bars on the panel board thus avoiding use of any hanging or loosely connecting wires surrounding the batteries.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0008] Figure 1 Shows an exploded view of the battery case.

[0009] Figure 2 Illustrates the housing of the female receptacles on the battery.

[00010] Figure 3 Shows the copper bus bar.

[00011] Figure 4 Illustrates discharging-mode connections on panel board from the front side of the battery pack assembly structure.

[00012] Figure 5 Shows battery packs structure illustrating battery tray positioning.

[00013] Figure 6 Shows the battery pack along with the panel board connections.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[00014] The present invention is directed to a mating apparatus for battery terminals in a battery pack assembly structure of an electric vehicle. This invention is applicable to any vehicle where battery pack assembly is used.

[00015] The description of the battery case will be first given followed by the descriptions of the bus bar and the panel board. The sliding mechanism of the battery case would also be dealt. In the last, an overview of the discharging process would be provided. The mating apparatus of charging is similar to the discharging process, only different bus bar is taken into line during the charging process.

[00016] Referring to figure 1, it shows an exploded view of a battery case. The battery in the current invention comprises of battery case 12 and battery terminal case 13. Battery case 12 is attached to the battery terminal case 13 with a fastening mechanism. The battery case also comprises of slider plates 11 and 14. These slider plates 11 and 14 slides on a spacer plate 51 as shown in figure 5 and help the battery to get easily slid in the battery tray 58.

[00017] Referring to figure 2, it illustrates the battery 13 terminal case 13 with two female housings 21 and 22; the female housing receptacles 21 and 22 are equipped with three prong receptacles to receive the male prongs for electrical connections. The two individual female housings receptacles on the battery terminal case are inverted with respect to each other. Out of these two female housing receptacles 21 and 22, anyone receptacle can be used for charging purpose and the other to be used for discharging purpose. The female housing receptacles 21 and 22 are aligned, positioned and located in such a way that when the battery is rotated by 180 degrees, the locations of the housing receptacles 21 and 22 can be interchanged symmetrically.

[00018] Referring to figure 3, it illustrates a copper bus bar 30, with holes 32 for fastening this copper bus bar to a panel board. The copper bus bar has a copper strip 33 fastened to the copper bus bar 30 by means of rivet 34. This rivet 34 gives degree of freedom to the copper strip 33 for movement across the rivet 34.

[00019] Referring to figure 4, it shows a panel board 40, with male plugs 41 and 42. The male plug 41 and 42 are inverted about the horizontal axis with respect to each other. The male conducting plug on the axis AA' consists of atleast one plug 42 comprising of atleast two males conducting prongs. All of the right hand side prongs of plug 42 on the vertical axis AA' are connected to a common copper bus bar 30 by means of the conducting strip 33. Similarly, All of the left hand side prongs of plug 42 on the vertical axis AA' are connected to a common copper bus bar 30 by means of a different conducting strip 33. In the described way the right side copper bus bar is connected to a positive terminal of the motor and the left side copper bus bar is connected to the negative terminal of the motor.

[00020] Again referring to figure 4, now considering the axis BB', the copper bus bar on axis BB' is not shown for maintaining the clarity, but in similar way as on the axis AA', connections of bus bar can also be made on male receptacles 41 for both the left side and the right side prongs connectors for electrical connections. As illustrated in Figure 4 the axis CC has been shown with the electrical connections and the axis DD' is left without electrical connections. Not showing of diagrams with electrical connections is only for illustrative purpose and for clarity. While in use, all the axes AA', BB', CC & DD' are connected through the copper strips and bus bars.

[00021] Referring to figure 5, it shows the panel board 40 and battery tray 58 and it also shows the battery spacer plates 51, on which the individual battery is arranged to slide. Figure 5 also shows the separator plate 52 used for separating batteries from the neighboring batteries in the same row. This figure also shows the battery housing 57. The battery is required to be slid into the battery tray and pressed towards the panel board. The female housing receptacles 21 and 22 of the battery terminal case 13 get attached to the male receptacles 41 and 42 corresponding to each individual batteries On the panel board 40. The connections around the AA' axis is for discharging of the batteries. For the charging processes, the battery can be inverted hence the battery female receptacles 21 and 22 as shown in Fig.2 are inverted and their positions is exchanged, hence the same apparatus can also be used for charging of the batteries.

[00022] Figure 6 shows the rear perspective of the battery storing structure 60 with the panel board 40 cum bus bar 30 assembly of the invention for performing electrical connections of batteries 10 and achieving various series parallel combinations of the batteries during charging and discharging process. Figure 6 shows the panel board 40 having the male prong connectors 54 and 55 being connected through copper strips 59 on the panel board from backside. On the front side of the panel board is attached a battery housing 57 in which the individual batteries are slid so that the female housing receptacles 21 and 22 of the individual batteries 10 accommodates the male prongs 41, 42 of the panel board for providing electrical conducting path for both charging and discharging process of the batteries. This stand¬alone system is sufficient to provide both the on board and off board charging. The protruding portion 61 is used as a locking mechanism to lock the individual batteries in the said battery housing by using press fit mechanism.

[00023] The carriage columns 56 are mounted on the vehicle chassis and at various vertical levels, they hold the said battery housings. Hence, the said battery housings 57 hold the batteries while the charging and discharging process, which are eventually, hold by the carriage columns 56.

[00024] In the above figures as explained, the batteries may be arranged in vertical directions as well, hence subsequently the orientation of the panel board bus bars and the battery trays may be changed accordingly as per the requirement. Also, the female housing on battery case terminal and male prong on the panel board is interchangeable. It means it is also disclosed that, if required, the female housing and male prongs on the battery terminal case and the panel board can be interchanged i.e. battery may accompany the male prongs and the panel board may accompany the female housing receptacle.

A battery storing structure (50) for an electric vehicle, the structure comprising: a plurality of carriage columns (56), the said carriage columns being mounted to a vehicle chassis; plurality of batteries (10) wherein the said batteries have separate receptacles for charging (21) and discharging (22); a plurality of battery trays (57), laid horizontally at various vertical levels on the said carriage columns (56), wherein the said battery trays (57) are equipped with a slide-in means (51) for sliding individual batteries (10); the said battery trays and the battery outer body being provided with a locking mechanism (61) for locking the individual batteries (10) in the said individual battery trays (57);a panel board (40), wherein the said panel board (40) comprises of a plurality of bus bars (30); the said bus bars (30) being connected to the charging (21) and discharging (22) terminals of the said batteries in a pre determined pattern to obtain various serial and parallel combinations for charging and discharging of the said batteries (10),wherein every said battery (10) has an outer case, the said outer case comprises atleast one pair of female receptacles, such that one said female receptacle of each pair is inverted with respect to the other receptacle of the same pair; the connection for charging and discharging mode of batteries is achieved by rotating the batteries by 180 degrees, wherein the said rotation causes symmetrical swapping of the electrical connection from charging to discharging or vice versa; and wherein the said panel board comprising of atleast one pair of male prong connectors corresponding to every battery tray on the other side of the panel board, such that one male receptacle of each pair is inverted with respect to the other receptacle of the same pair to exactly mate the battery (10) terminals.

2. The pair of three pin female receptacles (21, 22) as claimed in Claim 1 on each battery (10) wherein one female receptacle is used for charging whereas other female receptacle is used for discharging.

3. The pair of male receptacles as claimed in Claim 1 on the panel board (50) to receive the female receptacles (21,22) of each battery wherein one male receptacle of the said panel board (40) is electrically connected to the said battery (10) for charging whereas other male receptacle is used for discharging.