The present invention relates to a battery pack and a holder.
Conventionally, an aqueous-solution-based battery such as a lead-acid battery, a nickel-cadmium battery, a nickel-hydrogen battery, or the like has been mainstream in the field of rechargeable secondary batteries. However, a lithium secondary battery with a high energy density has emerged with miniaturization and weight reduction of an electronic device, and research, development, and commercialization of the lithium secondary battery have been conducted rapidly. Meanwhile, automobile manufacturers have developed an electric vehicle (EV) or a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) in which an electric motor assists in driving of the HEV to solve problems such as global warming and fuel depletion, and as a result, a secondary battery with high capacity and high output has become demanded as a power source of the EV or HEV. A non-aqueous-solution-based lithium secondary battery with a high voltage has emerged as a power source satisfying the requirement as described above. In particular, since a prismatic lithium secondary battery has excellent volumetric efficiency when being packed, expectations for development of a prismatic lithium secondary battery for an HEV or EV have become high.
PTL 1 discloses a battery pack including: a battery module including a plurality of battery cells therein; a battery pack case in which the battery modules are disposed in a sealed inner space of the battery pack case; a cell connection main electric conductor connecting the battery cells to each other; an external main electric conductor electrically connecting an outer portion of the battery pack case and an inner portion of the battery pack case to each other; and an electric control component connected between the cell connection main electric conductor and the external main electric conductor through a sub-electric conductor, in which the sub-electric conductor is provided to be exposed in the battery pack case.
PTL 1: JP 2015-062153 A
An object of the invention is to reduce costs for manufacturing a battery pack.
A battery pack provided according to a first aspect of the invention includes: battery groups which are formed by stacking a plurality of battery cells each including a terminal surface having one side in a longitudinal direction including a positive electrode terminal and the other side in the longitudinal direction including a negative electrode terminal, and a pair of stacked surfaces adjacent to the terminal surface so that the terminal surfaces of the plurality of battery cells are directed in the same direction and the positive electrode terminal and the negative electrode terminal are alternately arranged, the stacked surfaces facing each other; and a holder which accommodates two or more kinds of electric components electrically connected to the battery groups and is disposed so that the electric components face a surface in which the positive electrodes and the negative electrodes of the battery groups are arranged. The holder includes a load-side positive electrode terminal and a load-side negative electrode terminal to which a load is connected.
A holder provided according to a second aspect of the invention constitutes the battery pack.
According to the invention, it is possible to reduce costs for manufacturing a battery pack.
Hereinafter, a battery pack according to a first embodiment of the invention will be described with reference to
A signal connector 4 is disposed on a side surface of the battery pack 1. The signal connector 4 is a controller signal connector of the battery pack 1, and, for example, is connected to a controller of a vehicle in which the battery pack 1 is mounted to transmit or receive information to and from a board to be described later or supply power to the board.
A center plate 35 is disposed between the first battery group 21 and the second battery group 22. Side plates 36 are disposed at opposite sides so that the first battery group 21 and the second battery group 22 are interposed between the side plates 36. A pair of narrow-width surfaces adjacent to a terminal surface, a terminal-opposite surface, and a pair of stacked surfaces are provided at opposite end sides of each of the battery cells constituting the first battery group 21 and the second battery group 22, respectively, in the longitudinal direction, that is, at portions coming into contact with the center plate 35 and the side plates 36, respectively. In addition, the battery module 11 includes an upper end plate 33 and a lower end plate 34 which hold the first battery group 21 and the second battery group 22 in the top-bottom direction in the drawing. The upper end plate 33, the lower end plate 34, the center plate 35, and the side plate 36 are fastened by fastening bolts 37.
The positive electrode terminal and the negative electrode terminal which are adjacent to each other are connected by the first inter-cell bus bar 25 and the second inter-cell bus bar 26. That is, six battery cells indicated by reference numerals 211 to 216 are electrically connected to one another in series by the first inter-cell bus bars 25, and six battery cells indicated by reference numerals 221 to 226 are electrically connected to one another in series by the second inter-cell bus bar 26. The inter-group bus bar 24 electrically connects the first battery group 21 and the second battery group 22 to each other in series. In
In addition, arrangement of the positive electrode terminals and the negative electrode terminals of the first battery group 21 is the same as that of the second battery group 22. For example, as illustrated in
The negative electrode-connection bus bar 27 is connected to a terminal which is not connected to any of the first inter-cell bus bar 25 and the inter-group bus bar 24 in the first battery group 21, that is, the negative electrode terminal of the battery cell 211. The positive electrode-connection bus bar 28 is connected to a terminal which is not connected to any of the second inter-cell bus bar 26 and the inter-group bus bar in the second battery group 22, that is, the positive electrode terminal of the battery cell 221. The negative electrode terminal of the battery cell 211 is a terminal having the lowest potential in the first battery group 21 and the second battery group 22 which are electrically connected in series. The positive electrode terminal of the battery cell 221 is a terminal having the highest potential in the first battery group 21 and the second battery group 22 which are electrically connected in series.
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
The voltage sensing board 42 measures a voltage of the battery module 11 by using the shunt resistor 45 and a circuit for monitoring or controller the entire battery pack 1 is mounted. The shunt resistor 45 is apart of the voltage sensing board 42 and is disposed between the battery-side negative electrode terminal 51 and the load-side negative electrode terminal 61 at an upper portion of the holder 41. The relay 43 and the fuse 44 are fixed to the holder 41 by a screw and electrically connected to the load-side positive electrode terminal 62 and the battery-side positive electrode terminal 52.
A descending order of potentials of the members constituting the holder 41 is as follows: the load-side positive electrode terminal 62, the fuse 44, the relay 43, and the battery-side positive electrode terminal 52, the battery-side negative electrode terminal 51, the shunt resistor 45, and the load-side negative electrode terminal 61. As described above, levels of positions at which the members constituting the holder 41 are disposed coincide with levels of the potentials of the members constituting the holder 41, and thus an electrical path is short.
According to the first embodiment described above, the following effects can be obtained.
(1) The battery module 1 includes: the first battery group 21 and the second battery group 22 which are formed by stacking a plurality of battery cells each including a terminal surface having one side in a longitudinal direction including a positive electrode terminal and the other side in the longitudinal direction including a negative electrode terminal, and a pair of stacked surfaces adjacent to the terminal surface so that terminal surfaces of the plurality of battery cells are directed in the same direction and the positive electrode terminal and the negative electrode terminal are alternately arranged, the stacked surfaces facing each other; and the holder 41 which accommodates two or more kinds of electric components electrically connected to the first battery group 21 and the second battery group 22 and is disposed so that the electric components face a surface in which positive electrode terminals and negative electrode terminals of the battery groups are arranged, that is, a surface illustrated in
The positive electrode terminals and the negative electrode terminals of the first battery group 21 and the second battery group 22 which constitute the battery module 11 are arranged in the same surface. Therefore, a degree of freedom in disposition of the electric components is high and it is possible to incorporate a plurality of electric components into the holder 41. As a result, man-hours for mounting components and the number of members for mounting the components such as screws can be reduced, such that costs for manufacturing the battery pack 1 can be reduced.
(2) The electric components included in the holder 41 are two or more of components including a contactor, the fuse, and the voltage sensing board. In general, when a secondary battery is used, the contactor, the fuse, and the voltage sensing board are used in combination. As described above, the holder 41 includes the components selected from the contactor, the fuse, and the voltage sensing board, such that it is possible to reduce the number of electric components to be further combined with the battery pack 1 and reduce costs for manufacturing a product including the battery pack 1.
(3) The battery groups are constituted by the first battery group 21 and the second battery group 22. As illustrated in
Since the arrangement of the positive electrode terminals and the negative electrode terminals of the first battery group 21 is the same as that of the second battery group 22, a length of the inter-group bus bar 24 can be shortened. In addition, since the number of battery cells constituting the first battery group 21 and the number of battery cells constituting the second battery group 22 each are an even number, when the inter-group bus bar 24 is connected to one end in the stacking direction, terminals disposed near the other end in the stacking direction are not connected to those of adjacent battery cells by the first inter-cell bus bar 25 or the second inter-cell bus bar 26. For this reason, the negative electrode-connection bus bar 27 and the positive electrode-connection bus bar 28 can be provided at the center of the battery module 11 in the longitudinal direction without forming a conduction path.
(4) The voltage sensing board 42 includes the shunt resistor 45. The holder 41 further includes the battery-side positive electrode terminal 52 electrically connected to the positive electrode-connection bus bar 28, and the battery-side negative electrode terminal 51 electrically connected to the negative electrode-connection bus bar 27. The battery-side negative electrode terminal 51, the shunt resistor 45, and the load-side negative electrode terminal 61 are disposed in an order of the load-side negative electrode terminal 61, the shunt resistor 45, and the battery-side negative electrode terminal 51 from an end portion of the holder 41 toward the central portion of the holder 41. For this reason, an electrical resistance can be decreased by shortening the conduction path for connecting the load-side negative electrode terminal 61 and the battery-side negative electrode terminal 51 to each other in the holder 41, thereby reducing power consumption and heat generation.
(5) The voltage sensing board 42 and the fuse 44 are included in the electric components included in the holder 41. The fuse 44 and the load-side positive electrode terminal 62 are disposed at one side of the holder 41 in the longitudinal direction, and the voltage sensing board 42 and the load-side negative electrode terminal 61 are disposed at the other side of the holder 41 in the longitudinal direction.
The number of battery cells constituting the first battery group 21 and the number of battery cells constituting the second battery group 22 each are an odd number. In this case, a difference occurs between the embodiment described above and this modified example only in regard to the fact that a length of the inter-group bus bar 24 is lengthened. The length of the inter-group bus bar 24 in this case is a length by which, for example, a positive electrode terminal of the battery cell 215 is connected to a negative electrode terminal of the battery cell 225.
The holder 41 may include any two of the voltage sensing board 42, the relay 43, and the fuse 44, rather than all of those three components. In addition, the holder 41 may further include a pre-charge relay.
In the above description, various embodiments and modified examples have been described, but the invention is not limited to contents thereof. Other aspects considered to be within the technical idea of the invention are included in the scope of the invention.
The disclosure of the following priority application is incorporated herein by reference.
Japanese Patent Application No. 2017-019870 (filed on Feb. 6, 2017)
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2017-019870 | Feb 2017 | JP | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/JP2018/003859 | 2/5/2018 | WO | 00 |