Patent Application
20220140524
This application claims the benefit of the filing date under 35 U.S.C. § 119(a)-(d) of German Patent Application No. 102020128791.7, filed on Nov. 2, 2020.
The invention relates to a cooling fluid guidance housing for guiding a cooling fluid around an electrical connector system and to an electrical connector system comprising a connector and a mating connector and a cooling fluid guidance housing.
In the electrical field (electronics, electrical engineering, electrics, electrical power engineering, etc.) a large number of electrical connector apparatuses or devices, socket, pin and/or hybrid connectors, etc.—hereinafter referred to as (electrical) connectors (also: mating connectors)—are known which serve to transmit electrical currents, voltages, signals, and/or data having a large bandwidth of currents, voltages, frequencies, and/or data rates. In the low, medium, or high voltage and/or current range, and in particular in the vehicle sector, such connectors must ensure a rapid transmission of electrical power, signals, and/or data permanently, repeatedly, and/or after a comparatively long period of inactivity in mechanically stressed, warm, possibly hot, contaminated, humid, and/or chemically aggressive environments. Due to a wide range of applications, a large number of specially designed connectors are known.
Such a connector and possibly its associated (e.g. in the case of a connector apparatus or a connector device) or higher-level (e.g. in the case of a connector device) housing can be attached to an electric line, a cable, a cable harness, etc.—hereinafter referred to as an (electrical) pre-assembled cable-, or on/in an electrical device or apparatus, such as at/in a housing, at/on a lead frame, at/on a printed circuit board, etc., a (power) electrical, electro-optical, or electronic component or a corresponding aggregation, etc. (electrical entity).
If a connector (with/without a housing) is disposed on a cable, a line or a cable harness, respectively, then this is referred to as a floating (plug) connector or a plug, a socket, or a coupling; if it is disposed on/in an electrical, electro-optical, or electronic component, aggregation, etc., then this is referred to as a connector device, such as e.g. a (panel/add-on) connector, a (panel/add-on) plug or a (panel/add-on) socket. Furthermore, a connector on such a device is often referred to as a (connector) receptacle, header socket, pin header, or header. In the context of electrical energy technology (generation, conversion, storage, transportation, and forwarding of high electrical current in electrical grids, with three-phase high-voltage transmission), this is presently referred to as cable fittings due to their comparatively complex configuration.
Such a connector must ensure the flawless transmission of electricity, where corresponding and in part complementary connectors (connector and mating connector) typically comprise locking devices and/or fastening devices for permanent and typically releasable locking and/or fastening the connector on/in the mating connector or vice versa. Furthermore, an electrical connection device for a connector, e.g. having or comprising an actual contact apparatus (terminal; mostly formed materially as one part or integrally, e.g. a contact element etc.) or a contact device (terminal; mostly formed as several parts, two-part, as a single part, materially as one piece or integrally, e.g. a single-part or multi-part (crimp) contact device), must be securely received therein. In the case of a (pre) assembled electrical cable, such a connecting device can be provided as a connector (see above), i.e. without a housing, e.g. in a floating manner.
Efforts are constantly being made to improve electrical connectors and their terminals, in particular to design them more efficiently and to configure and/or manufacture them to be more inexpensive. Increasing hybridization and electrification of a drive train of a vehicle as well as increasing electrification of ancillary units entail, inter alia, thermal loads which can have negative effects, if not addressed. This relates, inter alia, to electrical plug connections in a vehicle. There is an increasing need for cooling, as is known for cable fittings from the field of electrical power engineering.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,926,360 A1 discloses an electrical connection with an active cooling device, where the electrical connection comprises at least one electrical connection composed of a female and a male terminal. The at least one female terminal is optionally surrounded by heat-resistant electrical insulation and is configured in a wall of an electrical device together with a heat sink that conducts heat comparatively well. Furthermore, the female terminal comprises an opening so that heat generated in the female terminal can be dissipated from the female terminal. The heat generated between the female and a male terminal can be transported away from the heat sink and the opening of the female terminal by a fan via ambient air of the electrical connection.
Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 9,287,646 B2 discloses an electrical connection in which an electrical connector is connected to an electrical line assembly, such as a cable. Either the electrical connector or the electrical line assembly is there actively cooled by a heat transport medium which flows substantially along the electrical line assembly and through the electrical connector.
However, the known electrical connector systems have the drawback that a coolant flows through the interior of the connector housing, leaving behind impurities, for example, as dirt particles or moisture, which can be deposited on the contact elements of the electrical connector system. This contamination can lead to corrosion and other damage to the contact elements so that the service life of the electrical connector system is reduced.
A cooling fluid guidance housing guides a cooling fluid around an electrical connector system including a connector and a mating connector. The cooling fluid guidance housing includes a first section in which a support element is arranged, a second section in which an inner wall of the cooling fluid guidance housing follows an outer wall of the connector housing at a predefined distance with the connector received in the cooling fluid guidance housing, and a cooling fluid connection. The support element contacts a connector housing of the connector. The inner wall in the second section defines a cooling channel surrounding at least in part the outer wall, and the cooling fluid is introduced into the cooling channel through the cooling fluid connection.
The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying Figures, of which:
The present invention shall be explained in more detail hereafter with reference to the figures. It is noted that the size ratios in all of the figures and in particular the layer thickness ratios are not necessarily shown true to scale. Furthermore, parts that are not necessary or obstructive for the understanding are not shown. Designations such as connector and mating connector, terminal and mating terminal etc. are to be interpreted synonymously, i.e., possibly interchangeable with each other. Same parts are provided with the same reference numerals and the same component names. Furthermore, some features or combinations of features from the different embodiments shown and described can in themselves represent solutions that are independent, inventive, or according to the invention.
The mating connector 104, in an embodiment, is configured in particular as a low-voltage mating connector, and in an embodiment as a vehicle mating connector for an electrical system of a vehicle. Electrical voltages of less than 5 kV are regarded as being low voltages. Accordingly, the electrical connector system 100 according to the invention can be configured for low voltages up to voltages of 1 kV to 5 kV with, possibly short-term, currents of up to 500A.
Electrical connector 102 comprises a connector housing 110 in which at least one electrical contact element is disposed or can be disposed. Electrical mating connector 104 likewise comprises a mating connector housing 112 in which at least one mating electrical contact element is disposed or can be disposed. Connector housing 110 and mating connector housing 112 are each manufactured from insulating material, such as a plastic material. By plugging connector housing 110 into mating connector housing 112, the at least one contact element can be made to conductively contact the at least one mating contact element at a point of contact, so that an electrical current can flow through the electrical connector system 100.
The connector 102, in an embodiment, has no external shielding (electrically conductive layer, protective cover, etc.) on its connector housing 110 for the removal of surface charges, for field distribution, for electromagnetic shielding, etc. This means that the connector housing 110 is in particular electrically non-conductive on the outside. There is no specially configured Faraday cage inside the connector housing 110; apart from applications for shielded coaxial cables or twisted pair cables which exhibit such due to their particular structure, but do not comprise it separately as is the case with cable fittings.
For cooling electrical connector system 100 by dissipating heat that is generated when current is transported through electrical connector system 100, connector housing 110 is in large part surrounded by a cooling fluid guidance housing 106, as shown in the example in
The cooling section is there not necessarily contiguous, but can consist of a plurality of sub-sections, each of which, for example, defines a separate cooling channel.
In an embodiment, the predefined distance in the second section between the inner wall of the cooling fluid guidance housing 106 and the outer wall of the connector housing 110 differs in an inlet section from that of an outlet section of the at least one cooling channel. In this manner, a ruling section or effective volume of the cooling channel for fluid transportation in an inlet section of the cooling channel (e.g. cooling fluid connection or an adjoining downstream section of the cooling channel) can differ from that of an outlet section of the cooling channel (e.g. cooling fluid connection or an opening in the cooling fluid guidance housing 106 that is permeable to gas or an adjoining upstream section of the cooling channel). The ruling section or the effective volume in the inlet section of the cooling channel be then smaller than in a e.g. comparable section disposed downstream thereof in the outlet section of the cooling channel.
The cooling fluid 114 may be air, but it can also be a different gas, such as e.g. nitrogen. Nitrogen can there be e.g. separated from the ambient air by a pressure swing adsorption process (PSA) on board a vehicle. The term gas is of course also to include the term gas mixture (cf. air). Alternatively, the cooling fluid 114 can also be a coolant such as is already present in the cooling circuit of a vehicle. The cooling fluid can be e.g. a cooling fluid that is pre-cooled by an air conditioning unit or a non-pre-cooled cooling fluid that originates from a fan or a compressor and possibly a radiator.
As further shown in
Fastening elements 122 are shown in
In order to be able to attach cooling fluid guidance housing 106 in a stable manner to electrical connector system 100, the cooling fluid guidance housing 106 has support elements made to contact connector housing 110, mating connector housing 112, or both, and support cooling fluid guidance housing 106.
In order to introduce cooling fluid 114 into cooling fluid guidance housing 106, cooling fluid guidance housing 106 has a cooling fluid connection 108, configured as a connection port 108 in the embodiment shown in
In an embodiment, the cooling fluid connection 108 is formed as an integral component of the cooling fluid guidance housing 106. It is then possible to manufacture the cooling fluid guidance housing 106 from a single original piece (e.g. a blank) or from a single original mass (e.g. plastic melt).
Starting out from an inlet opening in the region of cooling fluid connection 108, the cooling fluid introduced can flow along the outer wall of connector housing 110 until the cooling fluid can again leave the interior of cooling fluid guidance housing 106 at an outlet opening 126. As presently shown in
In an embodiment, cooling fluid guidance housing 106 can comprise at least one additional cooling fluid connection which can serve as an alternative outlet opening in order to enable the heated cooling fluid to be transported away downstream. The cooling fluid guidance housing 106 can have a single, exactly two, or a plurality of cooling fluid connections, so that the cooling channel can be supplied with cooling fluid at several points. Alternatively, however, different cooling fluid connections can each supply one or more of the cooling channels with cooling fluid, so that several cooling channels separated from one another can be defined by the cooling fluid guidance housing 106.
As shall be described below, the inlet opening in the region of cooling fluid connection 108 and outlet opening 126 are connected by a cooling channel which surrounds at least part of the outer wall of connector housing 110. The cooling channel is defined on one side by at least part of the outer wall of connector housing 110 and on the other side at least by the inner wall of cooling fluid guidance housing 106, which together form the cooling channel. A ruling section or an effective volume of the cooling channel for fluid transport can therefore be determined largely by the distance between the outer wall of connector housing 110 and the inner wall of cooling fluid guidance housing 106.
Cooling fluid guidance housing 106 can be manufactured from electrically conductive material, such as, for example, aluminum, for dissipating the heat absorbed by the cooling fluid as efficiently as possible to the environment. Alternatively, cooling fluid guidance housing 106 can also be manufactured from plastic material such as silicone, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polyethylene (PE), or polypropylene (PP) in order to keep the weight caused by cooling fluid guidance housing 106 as low as possible.
As shown in
As can be seen in the embodiment shown in
In an embodiment, cooling fluid guidance housing 106 can comprise a separate cooling channel for each of connector modules 132. An associated cooling fluid connection 108 can be provided for each of the separate cooling channels so that each of connector modules 132 can be cooled as required by the cooling fluid flowing through the respective separate cooling channel. In addition, cavities which accommodate holding element 133 and connecting elements 134 can be provided in cooling fluid guidance housing 106.
As is also shown in
Cooling fluid guidance walls 138, as shown in
Secondly, cooling fluid guidance walls 138 can also serve as partition walls which separate several individual cooling channels from one another. The individual cooling channels can be symmetrically shaped, but can also have different configurations, for example, a predefined distance between the inner wall of cooling fluid guidance housing 106 and the outer wall of connector housing 110 can vary among the different cooling channels.
A configuration of upper shell 118 can analogous to the configuration of lower shell 120.
The resulting cooling channel or channels enables a cooling fluid to be guided around the outside of the connector housing 110 so that the cooling fluid does not need to be passed through the interior of the connector housing 110, where this can lead to contamination and therefore to damage to the electrical lines or contact elements.
The heated cooling fluid can then exit the cooling channel through outlet opening 126 and be transported away from the cooling fluid guidance housing 106. Even if the predominant direction of flow is presently shown in the axial direction in the direction of outlet opening 126 in
As shown in
Even if only one embodiment has been shown so far in which cooling fluid guidance housing 106 surrounds at least in part connector 102, cooling fluid guidance housing 106 can of course also surround at least in part mating connector 104 so that a cooling fluid for cooling can flow through cooling fluid guidance housing 106 at the outside around mating connector housing 110. Furthermore, connector 102 as well as mating connector 104 can each be equipped with a separate cooling fluid guidance housing 106. Once both connectors 102 and 104 have been plugged into one another, the two separate cooling fluid duct housings can there each form a common higher-level cooling fluid guidance housing with shared cooling channels, so that connectors 102 and 104 can be cooled together. Alternatively, the cooling channels formed in two separate cooling fluid guidance housings 106 can also remain separated from one another after both two connectors 102 and 104 have been plugged into one another so that each of connectors 102 and 104 is cooled separately.
The present invention further relates to a method for installing the electrical connector system 100 with the cooling fluid guidance housing 106 for guiding a cooling fluid around the electrical connector system 100, the method comprising the following steps: providing the electrical connector system 100 comprising the connector 102 and the mating connector 104, attaching the cooling fluid guidance housing 106, where the cooling fluid guidance housing 106 is made to contact the connector housing 110 of the connector 102 in a first section in which at least one support element 130 is arranged, an inner wall of the cooling fluid guidance housing 106 in a second section follows an outer wall of the connector housing 110 at a predefined distance, where the inner wall of the cooling fluid guidance housing 106 in the second section defines at least one cooling channel which surrounds at least in part the outer wall of the connector housing 110, and the cooling fluid guidance housing 106 comprises at least one external cooling fluid connection 108 by way of which the cooling fluid can be introduced into the at least one cooling channel.
After reception of mating connector 104, cooling fluid guidance housing 206, formed by an upper shell 218 and a lower shell 220 in
A cooling fluid connection 208 can then be attached to cooling fluid guidance housing 206, for example, in the region of receiving section 242 so that cooling fluid 114 first flows around the outer wall of mating connector housing 112 after entering the cooling fluid guidance housing. Cooling fluid 114 is then guided through the cooling channel on the outside along the outer wall of connector housing 110 until it can exit cooling fluid guidance housing 206 again at one or more outlet openings 226 and can transport away heat that has been absorbed. Outlet opening 226 can again be formed, for example, by an opening in the region of the connections of an electrical cable or an electrical device, such as an electrical unit, so that heat can be transported away efficiently from the point of contact between connector 102 and mating connector 104.
Of course, cooling fluid connection 208 and outlet opening 226 can also be attached such that the cooling channel surrounds connector housing 110 upstream and surrounds mating connector housing 112 downstream.
As is shown schematically in
Alternatively, cooling fluid guidance housing 206 can also be formed integrally and already be mounted on connector 102 (or mating connector 104) before electrical connector system 200 is closed, so that mating connector 104 (or connector 102) is received in cooling fluid guidance housing 206 when electrical connector system 200 is closed.
In the example of
Furthermore, all cross-sectional diameters or cross-sectional dimensions of the cooling channel are to be selected such that the respective sections of the cooling channel (branches, throttling points, etc.) can have cooling fluid 114 flow therethrough as desired. In particular, the distance between the inner wall of cooling fluid guidance housing 206 and the outer wall of connector housing 110 or mating connector housing 112 is to be selected such that flow rates realizable in the respective sections with acceptable fluid pressures and fluid temperatures not to be exceeded, realizable flow resistances and a realizable cooling volume for the cooling fluid flowing around electrical connector system 200 prevail.
The present invention achieves active cooling with minimal additional space requirements by providing the separate cooling fluid guidance housing 106 through which the cooling fluid can flow and which can be attached to the electrical connector system 100. The cooling fluid guidance housing 106 conducts a cooling fluid in an advantageous manner on the exterior along the outer wall of the connector housing 110 in the vicinity of the point of contact (also referred to as a hotspot herein), absorbs the heat generated in the electrical connector system 100 by the electrical connection and transferred to the connector housing 110, and transports it along the outer wall of the connector housing 110 to a respective heat sink. As a result, particularly efficient heat management and consequently efficient energy transfer can be obtained.
In an embodiment, the electrical connector system 100 comprises in particular no field control member, no grounding device, no capacitive divider, no capacitive test point, no sealing plug, no protection for e.g. an underground, in particular buried, place of use, no UV protection, and/or no seizure protection. Furthermore, a contact element of the connector 102, in an embodiment, does not have a thread. A vehicle can be understood to be a land vehicle (road vehicle, off-road vehicle, and/or rail vehicle), a watercraft (displacer and/or glider), and/or an aircraft (propeller-driven aircraft, jet aircraft, helicopter, and/or airship).
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 102020128791.7 | Nov 2020 | DE | national |
