Patent Application
20250178256
This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2023-0174418, filed on Dec. 5, 2023, which application is hereby incorporated herein for all purposes by this reference.
The present disclosure relates to an apparatus and method for forming a hydrogen tank and an assembling method thereof.
The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute already known prior art.
The outer shell of the hydrogen tank for hydrogen electric vehicles may be reinforced with a fiber-reinforced composite material with high specific strength and specific rigidity to withstand the internal pressure of compressed gas, and a liner may be inserted into the hydrogen tank to seal the gas.
In addition, when a liner of a hydrogen tank is made of a plastic material such as a high-density polymer, a metal nozzle for connecting an external valve to the hydrogen tank may be applied, and because the plastic liner and the metal nozzle have been made of different materials, it may be difficult to achieve good adhesion at their interface.
In particular, as shown in
Here, because hydrogen molecules are very small, even if various types of highly elastic O-rings or annular special seals 4 and 5 are applied, hydrogen gas may leak through the gap at the interface formed between the plastic liner 2 and the aluminum nozzle 3 under high pressure.
Moreover, the annular special seals 4 and 5 are very expensive, and, because the annular special seals 4 and 5 must be assembled manually on the plastic liner 2, which has been injection molded, excessive man-hours may be required.
In order to resolve the above-described technical problem, as shown in
As shown in
However, in the case of the above-described injection molding method, in the process of taking out the sealless aluminum nozzle 10 from the oven 20 and inserting it into the liner injection molding machine 21, the aluminum nozzle 10 may be cooled below a required temperature.
In particular, when the sealless aluminum nozzle 10 is injection molded with a liner at a temperature of approximately 160° C. or lower, the bonding strength at the interface joint 12 may decrease and hydrogen may be less sealed.
In addition, in the case of the above-mentioned injection molding method, in the step shown in
Moreover, the process of heating the nozzle in
Furthermore, the sealless aluminum nozzle 10 may be produced in various designs, and, each time each design is molded, it is necessary to replace a change core with a change core that matches the design.
For example, as shown in
The information included in this background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of embodiments of the present disclosure and may not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the already known prior art.
The present disclosure relates to an apparatus and method for forming a hydrogen tank and an assembling method thereof. Embodiments relate to an injection mold for a liner of a hydrogen tank, and particular embodiments relate to a change core module of an injection mold for a hydrogen tank and a coupling apparatus therefor, wherein a plastic liner of the hydrogen tank is injection molded while heating a sealless aluminum nozzle to completely seal hydrogen at the interface between the plastic liner and the sealless aluminum nozzle.
Embodiments of the present disclosure can resolve problems occurring in the prior art.
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a change core module of an injection mold for a hydrogen tank, where it may be possible to heat a sealless aluminum nozzle, which has been inserted into the injection mold, to a temperature of approximately 160° C. or higher by inductively heating a change core.
In addition, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a change core module coupling apparatus of an injection mold for a hydrogen tank for the purpose of combining or separating a change core module to easily replace the change core module including upper and lower change cores and a sealless aluminum nozzle inserted therebetween.
A change core module of an injection mold for a hydrogen tank liner according to embodiments of the present disclosure, in which the hydrogen tank liner is injection molded with a sealless nozzle positioned in the injection mold by the change core module, and in which the injection mold comprises upper and lower molds, may include upper and lower change core modules holding the sealless nozzle inside the injection mold and an induction heating unit configured to inductively heat the insert sealless nozzle.
A distance d between the induction heating unit and the insert sealless nozzle may be approximately 10 to 15 mm.
The induction heating unit may heat the insert sealless nozzle to a temperature of approximately 160° C. or higher.
The induction heating unit may arrange a coil in parallel.
The induction heating unit may arrange a coil into two or more parallel channels.
The two or more parallel channels may form a zigzag curve.
A coil of the induction heating unit may be arranged in such a way that there is no variation in vector in a current flow.
When the temperature of the insert sealless nozzle is measured to be approximately 160° C. or higher by an induction heating inlet line that has applied electricity to the induction heating unit, molding of a liner may begin as resin is injected.
A change core module coupling apparatus of an injection mold for a hydrogen tank liner, in which the hydrogen tank liner is injection molded with a sealless nozzle positioned in the injection mold by upper and lower change cores, and in which the injection mold comprises upper and lower molds, may include a horizontal movement pin configured to be built into the lower change core and horizontally moved by an ejector pin on a bottom plate and a vertical movement pin configured to be built into the lower change core, vertically moved by the horizontal movement pin, and inserted into a coupling hole of the upper change core.
A driving slope of the horizontal movement pin and a driven slope of the vertical movement pin may correspond to each other to slide.
The vertical movement pin may be elastically supported by a compression spring.
The vertical movement pin may be radially embedded in the lower change core and move in the radial direction of the lower change core.
A slot hole may be formed at the top of the vertical movement pin.
The upper change core may have a built-in slit bar penetrating the coupling hole thereof in the radial direction.
When the slot hole of the vertical movement pin is inserted into the coupling hole, the slit bar may penetrate the slot hole to fix the vertical movement pin.
The change core module and the coupling apparatus therefor of the injection mold for a hydrogen tank according to embodiments of the present disclosure may have practical effects. That is, it may be possible to better seal hydrogen by increasing the bonding strength at the interface joint between a plastic liner and a sealless aluminum nozzle and to easily replace a change core, significantly improving work efficiency and productivity for injection molding.
The methods and apparatuses of embodiments of the present disclosure have other features and advantages which will be apparent from or are set forth in more detail in the accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein, and the following detailed description, which together serve to explain certain principles of embodiments of the present disclosure.
It may be understood that the appended drawings are not necessarily to scale, presenting a somewhat simplified representation of various features illustrative of the basic principles of embodiments of the present disclosure. The specific design features of embodiments of the present disclosure as included herein, including, for example, specific dimensions, orientations, locations, and shapes, will be determined in part by the particularly intended application and use environment.
In the figures, the same reference numerals refer to the same or equivalent parts of embodiments of the present disclosure throughout the several figures of the drawings.
Because various changes can be made to embodiments of the present disclosure and a range of embodiments can be made for the present disclosure, specific embodiments will be illustrated and described in the drawings. Color versions of the figures can be found in the publication of the Korean priority document. However, this is not intended to limit the present disclosure to the specific embodiments, and it should be understood that the present disclosure includes all changes, equivalents, and substitutes within the technology and the scope of the present disclosure.
The terms “module” and “unit” used in the present disclosure are merely used to distinguish the names of components, and they should not be interpreted as assuming that the components have been physically or chemically separated or can be so separated.
Terms containing ordinal numbers such as “first” and “second” may be used to describe various components, but the components are not limited by the terms. The above-mentioned terms can be used only as names to distinguish one component from another component, and the order therebetween can be determined by the context in the descriptions thereof, not by such names.
The expression “and/or” is used to include all possible combinations of multiple items being addressed. For example, by “A and/or B,” all three possible combinations are meant: “A,” “B,” and “A and B.”
When a component is said to be “coupled” or “connected” to another component, it means that the component may be directly coupled or connected to the other component or there may be other components therebetween.
The terms used herein are only used to describe specific embodiments and are not intended to limit the present disclosure. Expressions in the singular form include the meaning of the plural form unless they clearly mean otherwise in the context. In the present disclosure, expressions such as “comprise” or “have” are intended to indicate the presence of features, numbers, steps, operations, components, parts, or combinations thereof described herein, and they should not be understood as precluding the possibility of the presence or the addition of one or more other features, numbers, steps, operations, components, parts, or combinations thereof.
Unless otherwise defined, all terms used herein, including technical or scientific terms, have meanings commonly understood by a person having ordinary skill in the technical field to which the present disclosure pertains. Terms defined in commonly used dictionaries should be interpreted as having meanings consistent with the meanings they have in the context of the relevant technology, and they should not be interpreted in an ideal or overly formal sense unless explicitly defined in the present disclosure.
In addition, a unit, a control unit, a control device, or a controller is only a term widely used to name devices for controlling a certain function and do not mean a generic function unit. For example, devices with these names may include a communication device that communicates with other controllers or sensors to control a certain function, a computer-readable recording medium that stores an operating system, logic instructions, input/output information, etc., and one or more processors that perform operations of determination, calculation, making decisions, etc. required to control the function.
Meanwhile, the processor may include a semiconductor integrated circuit and/or electronic devices that carry out operations of at least one of comparison, determination, calculation, and making decisions to perform a programmed function. For example, the processor may be any one or a combination of a computer, a microprocessor, a CPU, an ASIC, and an electronic circuit such as circuitry and logic circuits.
Examples of a computer-readable recording medium (or simply called a memory) may include all types of storage devices for storing data that can be read by a computer system. For example, they may include at least one of a memory such as a flash memory, a hard disk, a micro memory, and a card memory, e.g., a secure digital card (SD card) or an eXtream digital card (XD card), and a memory such as a random access memory (RAM), a static ram (SRAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a programmable ROM (PROM), an electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM), a magnetic RAM (MRAM), a magnetic disk, and an optical disk.
Such a recording medium may be electrically connected to the processor, and the processor may load and write data from the recording medium. The recording medium and the processor may be integrated or physically separate.
Hereafter, with reference to the attached drawings, each component in a desirable embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail.
As shown in
In addition, an upper mounting plate 40 may be formed on the upper part of the upper template 42, and an ejector pin 46 supported by a bottom plate 45 may be formed in a space created by a space block 44 between the lower template 43 and a lower mounting plate 41.
In particular, an insert sealless nozzle 100 may be inserted between the upper and lower change cores 50 and 60, and an induction heating unit 70 may be built in the lower change core 60.
In addition, a change core module 80 may include the upper and lower change cores 50 and 60, the sealless nozzles 100 in various designs, which is inserted between the upper and lower change cores 50 and 60, and the induction heating unit 70 built in the lower change core 60.
The change core module 80 may be prepared for each insert sealless nozzle 100 and formed to be simply and easily replaced in the injection mold.
The induction heating unit 70 may be built into the lower change core 60 as shown in
Here, the induction heating unit 70 may perform induction heating to uniformly heat the entire surface of the insert sealless nozzle 100, so the method of arranging a coil may be most important.
In particular, a distance d between the induction heating unit 70 and the insert sealless nozzle 100 may be desirably 10 to 15 mm.
The induction heating unit 70 built into the lower change core 60 may exhibit significant differences in variation, tendency, etc. in heating for the insert sealless nozzle 100 depending on how a coil is arranged.
Embodiments of the present disclosure may be designed to derive a desirable structure in which a coil of the induction heating unit 70 is arranged from experiments thereon.
In Experimental Example 1, a coil 71 may be arranged in series as shown in
The analysis of the heating tendency in such a structure where the coil 71 is arranged shows that, in area A in
In
In Experimental Example 2, the coil 71 may be arranged in series as shown in
The analysis of the heating tendency in such a structure where the coil 71 is arranged shows that, in area A in
In
In Experimental Example 3, the coil 71 may be arranged in series as shown in
The analysis of the heating tendency in such a structure where the coil 71 is arranged shows that, in area A in
In
Results of an Experiment with a Coil Arranged in Series
The analysis of the heating tendency in the structure where the coil 71 is arranged in series as in Experimental Examples 1 to 3 shows that, in area A, the variation in the direction of the current applied to the coil channels adjacent to each other may be approximately 180° and induction heating on a plane surface may not occur, as shown in
In addition, in area B, which is an unheated area, as the distance between the coil channels adjacent to each other becomes shorter, the unheated area may increase.
In Experimental Example 4, as shown in
The analysis of the heating tendency in such a structure where the coils 71 are arranged in parallel shows that, in area A in
Area C, which is an unheated area, may not have been heated as the magnetic field was canceled out due to the variation in the vector in the current direction (0°/180°).
In Experimental Example 5, as shown in
The analysis of the heating tendency in such a structure where the coils 71 are arranged in parallel shows that, in area A in
In area C in
Areas A, B, and C have been all heated to a uniform temperature without variation in heating, so it can be deemed that the coils 71 have been desirably arranged.
In Experimental Example 6, as shown in
The analysis of the heating tendency in such a structure where the coils 71 are arranged in parallel shows that, in area A in
In area C in
Results of an Experiment with a Coil Arranged in Parallel
In Experimental Example 4, as shown in
In particular, in Experimental Example 5, as shown in
In conclusion, Experimental Example 5 can be deemed to suggest a desirable example of how the coils 71 should be arranged for the induction heating unit 70.
As shown in
In addition, when the insert sealless nozzle 100 is heated to a temperature of approximately 160° C. by inductive heating of the induction heating unit 70, as shown in
As shown in
Here, as shown in
As shown in
Here, the change core module coupling apparatus may be designed to couple the upper change core 50 with the lower change core 60 by inserting the four vertical movement pins 63 into the coupling holes 51 of the upper change core 50 while the four horizontal movement pins 61 are moved forward in a horizontal direction.
More specifically, as shown in
Here, in the change core module coupling apparatus, the four vertical movement pins 63 may be provided in the radial direction in the lower change core 60 and may be designed to move in the radial direction.
In particular, the four vertical movement pins 63 may move vertically and elastically while being supported by a compression spring 66 and may be designed to compress the compression spring 66 when moving vertically by the horizontal movement pin 61.
Here, when the vertical movement pin 63 moves vertically and elastically and protrudes out of the outer surface of the lower change core 60 to be inserted into the coupling hole 51 of the upper change core 50, a slit bar 55 may penetrate a slot hole 65 of the vertical movement pin 63.
In other words, when the vertical movement pin 63 moves vertically and elastically and the slot hole 65 is inserted into the coupling hole 51 of the upper change core 50, a magnetic force of a first driving unit 52 built into the upper change core 50 may act on the slit bar 55 through the slot hole 65 and pull the slit bar to allow it to penetrate the slot hole 65.
Here, the first driving unit 52 may be an electromagnet unit and may be designed to drive the slit bar 55 by generating an attractive force for pulling the slit bar 55 or a repulsive force for pushing it.
As such, when the slit bar 55 passes through the slot hole 65 and supports the vertical movement pin 63, even with the horizontal movement pin 61 removed, the vertical movement pin 63 may continue to be inserted into the coupling hole 51 of the upper change core 50 despite the compressive elastic force of the compression spring 66.
As shown in
Here, the driven slope 64 of the vertical movement pin 63 may press the driving slope 62 downward, so that the driving slope 62 may cause the horizontal movement pin 61 to move backward while sliding along the driven slope 64.
In addition, as shown in
Here, a hydraulic or pneumatic cylinder may be applied to the second driving unit 53, and the rod of the hydraulic or pneumatic cylinder may be connected to the slit bar 55 for the slit bar to move back and forth.
Meanwhile, as for the process of replacing a change core module, as shown in
The upper and lower change cores 50 and 60 of the change core module 80 to be substituted may have been coupled to each other by the vertical movement pin 63 as described above, and, after a change core module mounted on an injection mold may be simply detached from the injection mold using a lifting unit, another change core module may be easily inserted into the injection mold using the lifting unit.
Here, as shown in
As such, according to embodiments of the present disclosure, it may be possible to replace the change core module 80 without stopping injection work or disassembling an injection mold, thereby improving work efficiency and productivity for injection molding.
The desirable embodiments of the present disclosure have been examined, and it is obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art that the present disclosure can be embodied in other specific forms in addition to the embodiments described above within its technology or scope. Therefore, the above-described embodiments are to be deemed illustrative and not restrictive, and the present disclosure is not limited to the description but may be modified within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.
The foregoing descriptions of the specific exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure have been presented for the purposes of illustration and description. They are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the present disclosure to the precise forms disclosed, and obviously many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above-described teachings. The exemplary embodiments were chosen and described to explain certain principles of embodiments of the present disclosure and their practical application, to enable others skilled in the art to make and utilize the various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, as well as various alternatives and modifications thereof. It is intended that the scope of the present disclosure be defined by the claims appended hereto and their equivalents.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2023-0174418 | Dec 2023 | KR | national |
