EP-4742366-A1 - BATTERY DISCONNECT DEVICE

EP4742366A1EP 4742366 A1EP4742366 A1EP 4742366A1EP-4742366-A1

Abstract

Provided is a battery disconnect device. According to an aspect of the present invention, the battery disconnect device comprises: a housing including a housing body portion having a box shape and a pipe coupling portion provided on one surface of the housing body portion; a plurality of contactors disposed inside the housing body portion and electrically connected to an external power source and an external load; a busbar comprising a pipe contact portion for covering at least a portion of the pipe coupling portion, and a contactor connecting portion connected to the pipe contact portion and electrically connected to at least one of the plurality of contactors; a cooling pipe arranged so as to extend between the pipe coupling portion and the pipe contact portion and configured such that a cooling fluid can flow therein so as to receive heat generated in the busbar and discharge the heat to the outside; and a heat dissipator made of a material having a predetermined degree of elasticity or having a predetermined degree of fluidity such that, at least during installation, same can be deformed according to the shape of the space in which same is contained, and configured to surround the outer circumferential portion of the cooling pipe.

Inventors

KIM, Jaeseop

Assignees

LS E-MOBILITY SOLUTIONS CO., LTD.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260513
Application Date: 20240702

Claims (20)

A battery disconnect device comprising: a housing comprising a housing body part in a box shape and a pipe coupling part provided on one surface of the housing body part; a plurality of contactors arranged inside the housing body part and electrically connected to an external power source and external loads, respectively; a busbar comprising a pipe contact part covering at least a portion of the pipe coupling part and a contact connection part connected to the pipe contact part and electrically connected to at least one of the plurality of contactors; a cooling pipe arranged to pass between the pipe coupling part and the pipe contact part, and through which a cooling fluid for receiving heat generated from the busbar and dissipating it to the outside can flow therein; and a heat dissipation body made of a material having a predetermined elasticity or a material having a predetermined fluidity that can be deformed to fit a shape of a space accommodated at least during installation so as to surround an outer periphery of the cooling pipe.
The battery disconnect device of claim 1, wherein the heat dissipation body is interposed between the pipe contact part and the pipe coupling part and configured to seal at least one region therebetween.
The battery disconnect device of claim 1, wherein the pipe coupling part comprises a coupling groove provided on the one surface of the housing body part to accommodate one side part of the cooling pipe.
The battery disconnect device of claim 3, wherein the coupling groove has a shape corresponding to an outer periphery of the cooling pipe.
The battery disconnect device of claim 3, wherein the pipe contact part comprises a contact groove that accommodates the other side part of the cooling pipe.
The battery disconnect device of claim 5, wherein the contact groove has a shape corresponding to an outer periphery of the cooling pipe.
The battery disconnect device of claim 1, wherein the pipe contact part comprises a pipe contact surface surrounding one side part of the cooling pipe.
The battery disconnect device of claim 7, wherein the pipe contact surface is bent in an outer direction of the housing body to correspond to a shape of an outer periphery of one side part of the cooling pipe.
The battery disconnect device of claim 7, wherein the pipe coupling part comprises a pipe coupling surface surrounding the other side part of the cooling pipe.
The battery disconnect device of claim 9, wherein the pipe coupling surface is bent toward the housing body to correspond to a shape of an outer periphery of the other side part of the cooling pipe.
The battery disconnect device of claim 1, wherein the pipe contact part has a plate shape that is convexly curved in an outer direction of the housing body part.
The battery disconnect device of claim 1, wherein the pipe contact part is arranged to extend parallel to the cooling pipe, and wherein the contactor connection part is connected to a side part of the pipe contact part in an extension direction.
The battery disconnect device of claim 12, wherein the contactor connection part has a flat shape parallel to the one surface of the housing body part.
The battery disconnect device of claim 1, wherein the busbar comprises: an inner busbar comprising an inner pipe contact part coupled to the pipe coupling part and an inner contactor connection part connected to the inner pipe contact part; and an outer busbar comprising an outer pipe contact part covering at least a portion of the inner pipe contact part and an outer contactor connection part connected to the outer pipe contact part to be electrically connected to the inner contactor connection part, and wherein the cooling pipe is arranged to pass between the inner pipe contact part and the outer pipe contact part.
The battery disconnect device of claim 14, wherein the inner contactor connection part and the outer contactor connection part are in contact with each other.
The battery disconnect device of claim 14, wherein the inner busbar and the outer busbar have a symmetrical shape with respect to the cooling pipe.
The battery disconnect device of claim 1, wherein the cooling pipe has a rectangular shape in a cross-section perpendicular to an extension direction.
The battery disconnect device of claim 17, wherein the busbar has a flat shape parallel to the one surface of the housing body part.
The battery disconnect device of claim 17, wherein the rectangular shape has a first width parallel to the one surface of the housing body part that is larger than a second width perpendicular to the first width.
The battery disconnect device of claim 1, wherein the busbar is provided in plurality, and wherein the plurality of busbars are arranged in a row along an extension direction of the cooling pipe.

Description

Technical Field The present disclosure relates to a battery disconnect device, and more particularly, to a battery disconnect device cooled using a cooling fluid. Background Art The trend of restricting the use of fossil fuels to prevent climate change continues. This trend is affecting daily life as well as the field of power generation to produce electricity. As a result, research is actively being conducted to drive a vehicle using electricity or hydrogen, such as an electric vehicle (EV), a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV), and a hydrogen vehicle (HV), away from conventional vehicles that generate power using fossil fuels such as gasoline or diesel. The above-described EV, HEV, HV, and the like, essentially include a battery for supplying power to drive the vehicle. As an operation of a vehicle and a battery driving the vehicle continues, high heat is generated from the battery and a battery disconnect unit (BDU), which is densely packed with devices for switching the battery and loads, such as switches. In this case, when the generated high heat is left as it is, there is a possibility that the battery, the BDU, or various elements provided in the vehicle can be damaged. Therefore, compared to vehicles with traditional structures, that is, vehicles driven by fossil fuels, the need for effective heat dissipation of batteries in the EV, HEV, HV, and the like increases. A method widely used for cooling a battery can be divided into air cooling and water cooling. For conventional vehicles that use fossil fuels, sufficient cooling efficiency can be expected even with air cooling, as the amount of heat generated from the battery is not excessive. On the contrary, the EV, HEV, HV, and the like, including a battery that dissipates high heat generally are provided with water cooling as it is difficult to cool them with air cooling alone. However, when cooling a battery with water cooling, a passage in which a heat transfer medium, that is, water, flows to receive heat of the battery must be physically completely separated from the battery. That is, the passage must allow water to flow thereinside, but communication with the outside must be blocked. Therefore, in order to cool the battery using water cooling, additional members such as a rubber ring are required to prevent any leakage of water. This causes an increase in unit price of the product and a decrease in assemblability. Furthermore, an airtight empty space can occur between each component, resulting in a problem that cooling efficiency decreases as the heat transfer rate decreases. Accordingly, there has been an urgent need for the development of a battery disconnect device that can efficiently cool heat generated from a busbar by improving a heat transfer rate between a heat-generating component and a heat-absorbing component. Disclosure of Invention Technical Problem The present disclosure is contrived in consideration of the above-described circumstances, and an aspect of the present disclosure is to provide a battery disconnect device that can efficiently cool heat generated from a busbar. Another aspect of the present disclosure is to provide a battery disconnect device having a structure that can prevent loss of a cooling fluid and be insulated from a battery voltage. Yet still another aspect of the present disclosure is to provide a battery disconnect device having a structure applicable to various sizes of electrical devices. The problems of the present disclosure are not limited to the above-mentioned problems, and other problems that are not mentioned herein will be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the description below. Solution to Problem According to one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a battery disconnect device including a housing including a housing body part in a box shape and a pipe coupling part provided on one surface of the housing body part; a plurality of contactors arranged inside the housing body part and electrically connected to an external power source and external loads, respectively; a busbar including a pipe contact part covering at least a portion of the pipe coupling part and a contact connection part connected to the pipe contact part and electrically connected to at least one of the plurality of contactors; a cooling pipe arranged to pass between the pipe coupling part and the pipe contact part, and through which a cooling fluid for receiving heat generated from the busbar and dissipating it to the outside can flow therein; and a heat dissipation body made of a material having a predetermined elasticity or a material having a predetermined fluidity that can be deformed to fit a shape of a space accommodated at least during installation so as to surround an outer periphery of the cooling pipe. In this case, the heat dissipation body can be interposed between the pipe contact part and the pipe coupling part and configured to seal at least one region therebetween. In this case, the pip