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EP-4063812-B1 - TEMPERATURE SENSOR INTEGRATION TO MONITOR OVER-HEATING OF TERMINALS

EP4063812B1EP 4063812 B1EP4063812 B1EP 4063812B1EP-4063812-B1

Inventors

  • GUILLANTON, ERWAN
  • MENARD, Pascal

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20220324

Claims (9)

  1. A terminal assembly (1) having at least one terminal (12, 150) maintained by a terminal housing header (15), and a thermal sensor system (26) having - a flexible thermally conductive component (23), - a temperature sensor (23c) in contact with the flexible thermally conductive component (23), wherein the thermal sensor system (26) further has: - a compressing mechanism arranged to compress the flexible thermally conductive component (23), characterized in that the compressing mechanism is arranged to compress the flexible thermally conductive component (23) in a compression direction, whereas the flexible thermally conductive component (23) is compressed onto said at least one terminal (12, 150) in a contact direction perpendicular to the compression direction.
  2. The terminal assembly (1) according to claim 1, wherein the flexible thermally conductive component (23) is a liquid silicone rubber, LSR.
  3. The terminal assembly (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 2, wherein the compressing mechanism has a plunger part (21) arranged for being latched in a supporting body (20) of the compressing mechanism.
  4. The terminal assembly (1) according to claim 3, wherein the plunger part (21) has a slope (22s) arranged to be introduced in the supporting body (20) and an abutting portion (22a) arranged to be engaged with the supporting body (20).
  5. The terminal assembly (1) according to claim 3 or 4, wherein the supporting body (20) has a fixing portion (25) arranged to be fixed to an anchoring portion (24) of the terminal (12, 150).
  6. The terminal assembly (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the temperature sensor (23c) is selected from the group of a negative temperature coefficient sensor, a positive temperature coefficient sensor or a resistance temperature detector.
  7. The terminal assembly (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the temperature sensor (23c) is embedded in the flexible thermally conductive component (23).
  8. The terminal assembly (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 7, having at least two terminals (12), and wherein the thermal sensor system (26) is arranged between the two terminals (12, 150).
  9. The terminal assembly (1) of claim 8, wherein the flexible thermally conductive component (23) is compressed between the two terminals (12, 150).

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates to an electrical terminal assembly intended for use in a vehicle, such as an electric vehicle or hybrid electric vehicle. BACKGROUND The document CN208171458U discloses a temperature sensor heat conduction subassembly and a connector. In order to charge an electric battery mounted in a vehicle such as an electric vehicle, hybrid electric vehicle, etc., the vehicle is provided with a charging inlet device. During an electric charging operation of the battery, a charging connector (or charging outlet device) of a charging station is mated with the charging inlet device of the vehicle and high charging currents are transmitted. This may result in a high thermal power dissipation in the charging inlet device or in the charging connector. For safety reasons, it is required to monitor the temperature of the charging inlet device and/or the charging connector in order to detect any overheating. In case that an important rise of temperature is detected, the charging current can be reduced or even switched off. Further, for temperature control, conventional solutions use temperature sensors that monitor temperature around potential heating points like terminals connections, for potential current limitation. Prior art sensors are thermal / temperature sensors near the heating point or attached to insulation wires (but with less thermal effectiveness) or overmolding sensors covered by high conductivity thermal conductivity gap filler, that allows direct contact with overmolded thermal sensor. An important drawback is that conventional solutions may require overmolded terminals, which is not easy for some terminal shapes. Other conventional solutions take advantage of block seal presence to insert temperature sensors inside, but still require some gap filler, as adhesion between thermal sensor and block seal is not efficient. However, simply removing overmolding around the high voltage terminals is not efficient as there is a risk to have thermal gap filler that unsticks from these terminals and create defects due to thermal insulation of air layer. This risk increases with strong vibrations environment, or when screwing process of terminals creates strains on terminal connection with gap filler. In that case reliability of information send by thermal sensor is affected. Still further, the document WO 2020/039344 A1 discloses an electrical connector including a housing having a terminal channel with a power terminal in the terminal channel, and a temperature sensor assembly. The temperature sensor assembly includes a sealing pad holding the power terminal and a thermal shunt held by the sealing pad. The sealing pad is electrically insulative to electrically isolate the temperature sensor assembly from the power terminal, and thermally conductive. It is thermally coupled to the power terminal and to the thermal shunt. The terminal shunt is in contact with a thermal sensor. The thermal sensor monitors the temperature of the power terminal via a thermal path defined by the sealing pad and the thermal shunt. The thermal shunt is a solid body, separate and discrete from the sealing pad. It is manufactured separately from a highly thermally conductive material such as an aluminum oxide material, aluminum nitride, mullite, a thermally conductive plastic, a metal material (e.g., copper or aluminum), or a ceramic material. The electrical connector disclosed in WO 2020/039344 A1 has several drawbacks. A first drawback is that the temperature sensor assembly is rather complicated to manufacture because the thermal shunt is a body separate and discrete from the sealing pad, that must be manufactured separately and then coupled to the sealing pad and arranged against the thermal sensor. A second drawback is that the thermal path between the power terminal and the thermal sensor includes a solid body to solid body connection between the temperature sensor and the thermal shunt. The thermal shunt only touches a top surface of the thermal sensor. As a result, the thermal contact between the thermal sensor and the shunt is limited. A third drawback is that there may be a risk to damage the thermal sensor by vibration, because the thermal shunt has its own mass that can vibrate during car driving. In particular, this may cause micro cracks of the sensor's solder joints to the printed circuit board in the long run. Therefore, there is a need for another kind of thermal path between the power terminal and the thermal sensor that is a good trade-off for overcoming the different drawbacks of the prior art. SUMMARY According to the invention, there is provided a terminal assembly as defined in claim 1. This allows to provide a good thermal path to the temperature sensor while being compatible with high vibrations levels and easy to manufacture. This allows to monitor in an efficient manner the temperature at the terminal. Also this allows to keep the good distance between the terminals (e.g. abo